hi, hon.
kids are supposed to get detention.
secretary of defense.
wrong, and you get to wax my car.
nope. attorney general?
all right, wise guys, assistant secretary of state for latin america.
morning, floyd.
top o' the morning, mr. president.
bayh's going to lose, but it's good groundwork for us for '64.
no you weren't.
today, for your information, is pulaski day. we're going to buffalo.
who else you got?
got the touch?
everyone likes a good kid.
busy. but you've got his heart.
i said his heart, not his attention.
well. there is a new civil rights initiative he wants to talk about.
we're giving the brits polaris instead. but a story'll just aggravate things.
not today. he's got tight schedule.
forget it, scotty.
all right, you're in. half hour.
hey, mac. you're up bright and early.
morning, floyd.
what's it about?
just cuba? okay, i got work to do, see you guys downstairs.
listen to me, you worthless piece of disloyal shit. you will pull daly's man on the circuit. you owe your goddamn job to this administration. there is a word you need to learn. it is the only word in politics. loyalty. loyalty you motherfucking piece of shit!
what're you looking at? this isn't the blessed order of st. mary the meek.
excuse us.
not as far as the election goes.
we hit a nazi buzz bomb field in '45. it looks like a rocket base.
jesus christ in heaven.
the principals are assembling in an hour. see you then.
should be here any minute.
who gives a shit about the midterms now? the soviets are putting nuclear weapons ninety miles away from us.
jesus. i feel like we've caught the jap carriers steaming for pearl harbor.
lyndon. adlai.
ted.
if we hit 'em, kill a lot of russians, they'll move against berlin. they attack berlin, that's nato.  and we're at war.
there've got to be alternatives to just going out and bombing them.
the other thing is.
they're going to be pressing for a military solution soon. we can't afford to let them ram their agenda down our throats. we need to come with options other than air strikes so we have some sort of choice here.
it's too politicized with you in there, anyway. they need to be able to stick their necks out.
excom. has a ring to it. like f-troop.
then we need to do a few things right away. no pierre. he knows, the press knows. you're going to have to keep up your schedule - your movements are followed too closely. and we need to get these guys out of the white house. george ball's got a conference room at state. reconvene over there this afternoon, come back here tonight.
way it's going, the democratic party. dnc strategy session. if you can call it that.
tell you what. we're in connecticut tomorrow for ribicoff. i'll get you up front with him during the flight.
what is it?
i ask for a lot of 'em. whose is it?
gotta go, scotty. see you tomorrow.
jesus christ almighty.
call me irish, but i don't believe in cooler heads prevailing.
there is no expert on this subject, no wise old man.
then let's bomb the shit out of them. everyone wants to, even you, even me. it sure would feel good.
he's right. and things are happening too fast. it smells like the bay of pigs all over again.
he was.
why don't you ask him yourself? you can have him on the way home.
cheer up, you've neutralized the entire white house press corps for a day.
i was hoping lemay pushed you. i wouldn't mind going a few rounds with him.
they're planning to shave you bald next time you fall asleep on the bus. sorry, pierre, gromyko just arrived.
come on, scotty. this meeting's been on the books for months. it's just a friendly talk on u.s.-soviet relations.
we go into this split, the russians will know it. and they'll use it against us.
you don't show for chicago, everyone'll know there's something going on.
no way.
i'm not calling and cancelling on daly. you call and cancel on daly.
damn right i'm scared.
what are you telling them?
tell 'em you've looked into it, and all it is is an exercise. and pierre -- the president may have a cold tomorrow.
well, you know how bobby has it in for the state of mississippi.
cuba? you're fucking crazy. we are not invading cuba. nobody gives a rat's ass about cuba. not now, not ever. if you print something like that, all you're going to do is inflame the situation. nobody talks to assholes who inflame situations. assholes like that can find themselves cut out of the loop.
tell pierre i need to talk to him. bobby?
we have to try the blockades. it probably won't work. it may just be delaying the inevitable. but we can't just go to war without trying not to.
as the town's most popular playboy, the president felt my presence would be sorely missed. so in the interests of national security.
we're not going to make it to monday. i'll try to lean on reston, but you're going to have to call orville dryfoos. this is the sort of decision the publisher makes himself.
acheson called, degaulle's with us; haven't heard from anyone else yet.
you'd worry that something was wrong if congress offered you unconditional support.
this is all rhetoric. they don't know how to respond yet.
-- run the blockade. they'll run the blockade.
i don't like what's happening.
all right. 'cause you get armed boarders climbing into soviet ships, shots being fired across bows.
what about these low-level flights? they're starting in what? an hour? do you realize what you're letting yourself in for?
fair enough. but castro's on alert and we're flying attack planes over their sites, on the deck. there's no way for them to know they're carrying cameras, not bombs. they're going to be shot at, plain and simple.
i'm your political advisor, and i'm giving you political analysis here. this is a setup. the chiefs want to go in. it's the only way they can redeem themselves for the bay of pigs. they have to go in, and they have to do it right. it's that simple.
they're boxing us in with these rules of engagement. if you agree to 'em, and one of our planes gets knocked down or one of the ships won't stop for inspection, the chiefs will have us by the balls and will force us to start shooting. they want a war, and they're arranging things to get one. if you don't want one, we have to do something about it.
maybe it's harder for them to say it than they let on. at the very least, they believe it's in our best interest. and at the end of the day, they may end up being right.
that's going to be tough. you know how these guys are about their chains of command.
ma'am, would you mind helping me out with a few special calls?
commander, my name is ken o'donnell. special assistant to the president.
the president has instructed me to pass along an order to you. you are not to get shot down.
i don't think you understand me correctly. you are not to get shot down under any circumstances. whatever happens up there, you were not shot at. mechanical failures are fine; crashing into mountains, fine. but you and your men are not to be shot at, fired at, launched upon.
commander, if you are fired upon, the president will be forced to attack the sites that fire on you. he doesn't want to have to do that. it's very important that he doesn't, or things could go very badly out of control.
if the president protects you, commander, he may have to do it with the bomb.
i've known the man for fifteen years. the problem is, he will protect you. so i'm asking: don't make him protect you. don't get shot at.
yeah?
hello?
the chiefs must want to talk to you. listen to me, commander, they'll want to know if you were fired on. were you?
commander. do not, under any circumstances, tell the chiefs.
i don't know, helen. i want you to keep the kids close tomorrow. leave the t.v. on, sleep with it on in the bedroom until i tell you you can turn it off.
nothing. nothing you don't know about. tomorrow's the big day. just have the car ready to go if i call or if the civil defense warning comes on.
i'll be evacuated with the president.
i'll find you. but we're not going to let it come to that. i promise.
helen just asked me what sort of arrangements we have for the families.
how long will it take to get someone up?
no. no, i'll let her sleep. let 'em sleep.
they're right. this is intentional.
khruschev's stopped the 20 ships which are carrying contraband, and he's letting the ones which aren't go through, hoping for an incident. i think we should let them go.
then we deal with it tomorrow. but today he's stopped most of them. he's done something smart here. we gave him an ultimatum, and he's agreed to most of it, preserving just enough room to save face. we need to do something just as smart now.
give it a rest. you were thinking the same thing, just didn't have the guts to take the heat.
have to hope it's a signal that he'll back down on the real issue too.
then let's move the quarantine line.
moving the line. stroke of genius.
the chiefs are looking for a provocation out there. the president's going to come under enormous pressure. you have to keep 'em on a short leash, bob.
listen to me, goddamn it. we're talking about a possible nuclear war. you dropped the ball on bay of pigs --
you were in the room. it was your purview. it was your job to make sure bissel wasn't fucking us over and you didn't do it. you've got the most important job in the world right now. you're the smartest guy the president has. besides me.
you need to be the best you've ever been.
find out how close our exercises are coming to their cruise missiles. i'm calling you back in five, and you will have an answer for me or i will come down there and beat the shit out of you. then you can press charges, and i'll get a presidential pardon.
jesus.
we can't do that, bobby.
and we can't purge the chiefs. our invasion talk will look like a bluff. or even that there's been an attempted coup.
we've got khruschev's attention with the blockade. if we want a political solution. i think it's time to turn up the diplomatic heat. cause if we let this go on too long, we're going to find ourselves in a war.
i think it's a bad idea.
then they should speak up.
yes it is.
-- you listen to me. nobody, nobody, talks about my friends that way. you're fucking here right now because of the kennedys. they may be wrong. they make mistakes. but they're not weak. the weak ones are these 'people' who can't speak their own minds.
no, they just lack 'moral toughness.' and you think i'll play your judas. you wasps and blue-bloods never understood us, thinking we want into your club. well we got our own club now. and you guys don't realize fighting with each other is our way. nobody plays us off each other. and nobody ever gets between us.
oh, just a bunch of crap about withdrawing our jupiter missiles in turkey if the soviets'll do the same in cuba.
if we made a trade, we'd be giving in to extortion, and nato would never trust us again. we'll get clobbered in world opinion.
then somebody'd better deny it publicly.
yeah, a good political solution.
you can't take him out this late in the game.
then talk to your brother, goddamn it. the two of you don't need any advice to get into trouble.
something your father would've come up with.
-- i'm just trying to make a point. this idea is that fucking bad.
adlai can handle zorin. he knows the inning and the score.
adlai, it's kenny. how're you doing?
the president told me to pass the word to you: stick it to them.
adlai. the world has to know we're right. if we're going to have a chance at a political solution, we need international pressure. you got to be tough, adlai. you need to find it, old friend.
yeah. yeah.
zorin must not have gotten instructions. somebody in their foreign ministry's blown it big-time.
dangle a settlement, tie us down in negotiations, we come up short.
that may be why khruschev's introducing this guy. we've been burned by his usual players in the formal channels, so he brings in an honest broker.
who's he talking for? is it khruschev, or is this more bullshit?
how do you become the kgb top spy in the united states?
politics is politics. walter. khruschev is the moscow party boss under stalin. give me their career chronologies!
every time khruschev moves up, fomin does within a year.  khruschev was the administrator in charge of preparing moscow's defenses during the war. and fomin.  was here in the u.s.
they know each other. they're war buddies.
hello?
they know each other! khruschev and feklisov aka fomin were war buddies!
don't take it to court, but we've got good circumstantial evidence.  walter agrees. my gut's telling me khruschev's turning to a trusted old friend to carry his message.
it's ten pages of sentimental fluff, but he's saying right here. he'll remove the missiles in return for a no-invasion pledge. it looks like fomin's overture was genuine.
hi.
-- we got a back channel communication from khruschev this evening feeling us out about a deal. he confirmed it just a little while ago in a letter to the president. i think we've won.
helen and i went out for breakfast. excom's not supposed to convene til eight.
what does the letter say?
jesus christ.
we can't sell out one of our friends for our own safety. nato wouldn't trust us anymore, and they'd be right not to.
major, my name is kenneth o'donnell. special assistant to the president.
major, a few days ago the president ordered me to help him keep control of what's going on out there. i've been browbeating pilots, navy guys left and right to make sure you don't get us here in washington into trouble. but you know what? we're pretty damn good at getting ourselves into trouble. so instead of riding your ass, i'm just going to tell you what's going on, and let you figure out how best to help us out up here.
last night, we looked like we were going to cut a deal to get us all out of this mess. today, the soviets are reneging. we're going to try to salvage the situation, but a lot of things are going wrong today. it's making everyone nervous, and it will be very hard to avoid going to war. don't get shot down, major. beyond that, whatever else you can do to help us, i'd really appreciate it.
thank you, major.
it could be a mistake.
we need to be positive before we react.
hey, sport. you winning?
yeah, kev. everything's gonna be fine.
i, uh.
get back out there, kid. remember to hit 'em hard.
back to work.
if we're going to make a deal, we're going to have to do it fast. this is only getting out of control. the only reason we're not at war this very minute is he's been able to stretch, bend and break his own rules. he won't be able to keep it up forever.
and jack wants to trade the missiles in turkey.
-- jesus, mary and joseph. i told you how stupid it was to float the lippman article! but you wouldn't listen to me. what if there hasn't been a coup at all? what if it's you two who invited that second letter by raising the possibility of a trade?
and if the two of you are thinking this trade is your ace in the hole, you're so wrong. it's a deuce.
and it's not just me who thinks that. everyone on this so-called excom is telling you exactly the same thing: make the trade, and they're going to force us into trade after trade until finally they demand something we won't trade like berlin, and we do end up in a war. not to mention, that long before that happens, this government will be politically dead.
so now you've got to talk him out of it. and then we've got to figure out an acceptable political solution.
i agree. if there has been a coup, and there's a hard-line government in power now, then it doesn't matter what we say. the end of the day we'll either agree to their terms, they'll agree to ours, or we'll go to war. but what if there hasn't been a coup? what if.  what if what is happening is a series of accidents?
no. the letter is an intentional, but it's having an effect far greater than its authors intended. what if our jupiter missiles are just a last minute haggle to salvage something? maybe a bone khruschev is throwing to the hard line, not really caring if we reject it or not? and then these accidents have happened.
exactly. if they're sane and human like we are, then maybe we just refuse, and they'll let it slide, like we've been letting things slide.
no. we don't reject it.
and we do it under the table so we can disavow any knowledge of it.
six months from now, i'm not going to care. are you? we'll deal with it.
and if this is a move to appease the hard line, then it may just be the bone he needs to regain control of his own house.
hey, joe. listen, i'll take care of him. go ahead in, grab some coffee. we'll be back pretty quick.
what's the matter with you? forget how to open a car door?
jesus, you rich people.
there's nobody else i'd rather have going in there.
nobody else i'd trust helen and the kids' lives to.
because we knew we could do a better job than everyone else.
you're right about the smart part, but ruthless, well.
smoke.
i'll whistle up some luck for you.
the friend.
all he had was his character.
-- he kept the peace.
no. i'm glad i'm home.
if the sun rises in the morning, it is only because of men of goodwill. and that's all there is between us and the devil.
yeah?
don't you understand?
the sun came up today.
it shouldn't have. but it did.
every day the sun comes up.  says something about us.
something.  amazing.
you know.
this was what we're here for.