:30:15
Imagine LeMay arguing that we should
go ahead and strike
:30:17
without considering the Russian response?
:30:22
Brass hats have one advantage, though;
:30:25
if we do what they want us to do
and they're wrong,
:30:27
there'll be nobody around later
to tell them they made a mistake.
:30:32
A blockade is far from a certain answer,
:30:35
it may not be strong enough
to do the job,
:30:38
it may force the Russians to retaliate,
:30:40
but is the only choice we have
short of a war.
:30:43
I want a consensus,
a firm consensus advocating a blockade
:30:47
from that committee in the next day
or two.
:30:49
Well, is a bitch,
there isn't a man of us
:30:51
who hasn't changed his mind
at least once, including me.
:30:54
If by next Thursday the missile bases
are still under construction,
:30:57
we should notify our chief allies
and hit the bases the next day,
:31:01
while simultaneously warning Khrushchev
:31:03
that a Soviet counteraction means war.
:31:07
Maybe is better to go down
with a bang then a whimper.
:31:11
Beating a blockade is far from perfect,
:31:13
but is surely preferable to that.
:31:14
A blockade is every bit as much an act
of war as an air strike.
:31:17
I don't agree, sir.
:31:19
There's a precedent to a blockade,
:31:20
which at least will give us
the semblance of a legal framework.
:31:23
Legal niceties now are
so much pompous foolishness.
:31:26
I am referring to Roosevels quarantine
:31:27
on Nazi Germany before we entered
World War II.
:31:29
Shortly before.
:31:30
The defensive quarantine.
:31:32
The United Nations charter
recognizes a right
:31:34
of hemispheric self-defense.
:31:36
If we can get the
Organization of American States
:31:37
to endorse a blockade,
:31:39
at least we'd have a strong legal case
to take to the United Nations.
:31:42
The Russians respect legality, sir.
:31:45
They may twist and turn them
to their own advantage,
:31:47
but they're always impressed
by a good, solid dialectic.
:31:50
It is our inherent right
to protect ourselves.
:31:53
Nobody contests that, sir.
:31:54
And therefore,
a legal pretext is superfluous.
:31:57
Gentlemen, an attack on Cuba
will not necessarily
:31:59
bring the Soviet Union into war with us.