---
product_id: 2111929
title: "Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis"
brand: "robert f. kennedyarthur meier schlesinger"
price: "203 Lei"
currency: RON
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.ro/products/2111929-thirteen-days-a-memoir-of-the-cuban-missile-crisis
store_origin: RO
region: Romania
---

# Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis

**Brand:** robert f. kennedyarthur meier schlesinger
**Price:** 203 Lei
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis by robert f. kennedyarthur meier schlesinger
- **How much does it cost?** 203 Lei with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ro](https://www.desertcart.ro/products/2111929-thirteen-days-a-memoir-of-the-cuban-missile-crisis)

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Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Excellent. A must read for all incoming presidents.
  

*by C***R on Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2017*

RFK's cronological account of events and the decision making process is gripping, sobering, and terrifying. It should be required reading for all incoming presidents.  The forward by Arthur Schlesinger is likewise full of insight but also interesting facts that came out years later (for example, the Russian troops in Cuba had tactical nukes ready to deploy against any invasion, yikes), don't be tempted to skip over it.  The afterword, which is as long or nearly as long as the main book, meh. It trys to apply the lessons and issues of the crisis to the Vietnam conflict, which was current at its writing.  Seemed mostly dry to me, though the arguements regarding degrees of congressional involvement in approving armed conflict were interesting and are still relevant. I confess that I began skimming through the afterword after the first 10 minutes or so of reading it.It would be interesting to read firsthand accounts from others in the "Ex Comm". I am sure that RFK was at least slightly biased with regard to his assesment of JFK's (and his own) performance, despite his genuine attempts otherwise.Overall: Execellent, and an easy, quick read,... highly recommended.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Bobby Kennedy on the Cuban Missile Crisis
  

*by F***I on Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2014*

At the beginning of Thirteen Days, Robert Kennedy relates something of what it felt like when he and his brother, President John F. Kennedy, and several other high officials of the U.S. government first heard the facts. On Tuesday, October 16, 1962, experts from the U.S. Intelligence Community revealed to the group that the Soviet Union was building a missile base on the island of Cuba, and that atomic weapons and large missiles were already there. During the weeks leading up to that meeting, Soviet representatives, including Chairman Nikita Khrushchev himself, had consistently assured American leaders that they had no intention of sending surface-to-surface missiles or offensive weapons to Cuba. Remembering the moment when the truth became clear, Kennedy writes: "Now, as the representatives of the CIA explained the U-2 photographs that morning, . . . we realized that it had all been lies, one gigantic fabric of lies." There at page 27, I was hooked and kept reading to the end. What a riveting story, told so well.From there, Kennedy describes some of the initial deliberations of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (the "Ex Comm"). He tells about the competing recommendations they offered, which invariably led to the excruciating decisions that finally only the President could make. The first major decision took up the question of an appropriate initial response. After President Kennedy rejected the plan of a military strike and adopted the idea of naval blockade of Cuba, there were other questions to answer. Many of these were related to the task of striking a balance. On the one hand, it was imperative that the U.S. forcefully confront Khrushshev over the treachery and provocation of the Soviet Union. On the other hand, it was also necessary to leave room so that the Chairman could retain honor and respectability while backing down. As Kennedy describes it, this balancing act was performed by the President as he stood between the implicit threats from the Soviets on one side, and calls from U.S. military leaders and hawkish members of Congress for at least a strike, or even a full invasion of Cuba, on the other side.Kennedy relates a number of nail-biting episodes as the crisis unfolded. He tells, for example, about the President meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko two days after U.S. officials became aware of the build up, and how Gromyko denied any such activity. He also reports how, at his brother's request, he made a visit to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin who, like Gromyko, held to the same official line: no long-range missiles had been delivered to Cuba, and the Soviet government had no intention of doing any such thing. Kennedy gives the reader a good sense of what it was like for the President to hear from the Ex-Comm about every possible contingency before making day-to-day and sometimes minute-to-minute decisions that brought with them huge consequences. Finally, Kennedy relates the official agreement according to which the Soviet Union would remove their weapons systems from Cuba and the United States would end the quarantine and pledge not to invade the island nation.In addition to a sense of relief, I had several reactions as I finished this book. First, I was impressed at how well it is written. Throughout, Kennedy exhibits a crisp, easy-to-read style, the eloquence of precise and clear language.Second, I was struck by the consistent humanity of this unique story. For example, if they go on long enough, even the most grave circumstances get interrupted by humor and the ridiculous. The Cuban Missile Crisis was no exception. Kennedy relates some of this. For example, upon realizing that something would have to be done in response to the aggression and deceit of the Soviets, Robert passed a note to his brother saying, "I now know how Tojo felt when he was planning Pearl Harbor" (31). And I had to smile when reading the story of how, instead of traveling in a long line of limousines which would have tipped off the press, ten men crammed into Kennedy's car for a ride to the White House (43).Third, I felt suspicious whenever I sensed that Kennedy's own presidential aspirations and his natural desire to preserve his brothers' dignity overwhelmed the narrative. For example, he chalks up the Bay of Pigs debacle to a failure to solicit a variety of competing opinions. That action was precipitated by a unanimity of thought, says Kennedy, which closed off the possibility of a better decision (112). It also seemed more than a coincidence that Kennedy never mentions his official title, U.S. Attorney General. From beginning to end, he casts himself primarily as the President's brother, close advisor and assistant. An uniformed reader might be forgiven for concluding that Robert was the Vice President, instead of Lyndon Johnson to whom the author grants nothing more than a cameo appearance.Most of all, I was glad I had read this book. In it, Robert Kennedy accomplished exactly what he set out to do: to tell the incredible story of the Cuban Missile Crisis from his own singular perspective.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    First look at the Cuban Missile Crisis
  

*by M***L on Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2012*

Robert F Kennedy's Thirteen Days is the first complete story of the Cuban Missile Crisis from a primary source.  Spoken from his point of view, this primary source provides an excellent starting place for the study of the historiography of the crisis.  RFK's book is a short, concise, somewhat biased view of the crisis from inside the White House.  The book also contains an afterword, which provides an important analysis of the work.Robert Kennedy explains the missile crisis in its entirety in rather brief terms.  Since his work is really just a personal recollection of the events of October, he is not compelled to, nor would he be required to, back up his information.  As a primary source journal, this book is brief on facts but long on the human side of the conflict. RFK places emphasis on the feelings exhibited by the President and others.  The best example, for instance, when, it is clear that Soviet ships will enter the blockade zone: "His hand went up to his face and covered his mouth. He opened a closed his fist. His faced seemed drawn, his eyes pained, almost grey. We stared at each other across the table.  For a few fleeting seconds, it was almost as though no one else was there and he was no longer the President."  RFK is also able to explain the mood of the close advisors to the President, in a way that a historian looking in on the event from some future date could not.  Writing about the escalation of events and the weight of the possibility of nuclear annihilation, he writes "And there was the feeling that the noose was tightening on all of us, on Americans, on mankind, and that the bridges to escape were crumbling"Robert Kennedy, writing from the distance of 1968, is quick to defend the role of Adlai Stevenson, the US ambassador to the United Nations, for his suggestion, then very unpopular, but eventually adopted in secret, of trading the removal of Soviet missiles in Cuba for the NATO missiles.  RFK then criticizes General Curtis LeMay for his insistence on a airstrike and invasion, ideas that were very popular during the unfolding of the crisis, and even after it was resolved.  The invaluable recollections of RFK are the only source of information on what actually was said in these moments, at least until the release of the Kennedy Library Tapes in 1983.  Robert Kennedy's primary source information in this regard gives an excellent, and exciting example of the real conflict that existed inside the White House, and the very real possibility that the view that armed conflict, followed by nuclear annihilation, was a viewpoint that could have swayed the President.In his 1999 introduction to the memoir, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr confirms the portrait of JFK at the time of the crises. Schlesinger writes that RFK portrays the President as `a remarkably cool, non-hysterical, self-possessed leader, aware of the weight of the decision...steering his advisers perseveringly in the direction he wanted to go."RFK's memoir of the crisis in October 1962 is an excellent primary source document where one can begin the study of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  A quick, concise, if not particularly objective review of the events that transpired, (it was obviously written with RFK's Presidential aspirations in mind), Thirteen Days is an example of how a primary source can provide the first step of analysis of an event, as viewed by future generations.

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*Last updated: 2026-03-15*