On Oct 26 1962, one of the MRBM sites in Cuba was spotted with - possibly - Frog 7 rockets. The Frog series could either have a conventional or nuclear payload - and they weren't quite sure whether it was a Frog launcher or a SAM launcher or whatever...
But my main information on this comes from an interview with Robert McNamara, where he stated quite forcefully that they didn't know the Russians had deployed Tactical nukes. This
wasinterview shown a couple of weeks ago on the History Channel when they did a marathon on
the crisis.
Another source for you is at:
http://www.hfni.gsehd.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/CWIHP/BU LL ETINS/b3a4.htm
Which points out that our knowledge of what
the Soviets had, and had authority to use was
at best sketchy...
Historical Errors in Thirteen Days
on
'Thirteen Days'
·
· Score: 3
Saw this movie the other night, and as a
sometime history geek, I wanted to point
out a few of the historiacal innacuracies
in the film.
1. Use of the "Peace Symbol" in a sign. Although created in England in 1958, the
"Peace Symbol" was not popularized in the
United States until the Vietnam & Civil Rights
Era, a few year later than 1962.
2. This is a big problem... in the
movie, the Americans recieve confirmation
that the Soviets had tactical nukes in
Cuba (the Joint Chiefs then offer to take
'em all out). The truth of the matter
is that the United States _did not know_ that
the Soviets had tactical nukes until after
the missle crisis was over. When Kennedy decided to not invade cuba, he didn't know that if he
did, the marines on the beaches would have been
vaporized by the thousands. He quite simply inadvertently saved the world that day.
And if the russians had nuked the marines, it's
a simple matter to escalate to city-busting nukes.
This one fact alone disqualifies this film from
being history class material.
The problem with historical films is that
invariably, most people will take the film
at literal truth, without seeing that it's
been dramatized in order to ENTERTAIN.
Generally, films that attempt to tell it
really like it is are called documentaries:)
Slashdot Mirror
John -
U LL ETINS/b3a4.htm
On Oct 26 1962, one of the MRBM sites in Cuba was spotted with - possibly - Frog 7 rockets. The Frog series could either have a conventional or nuclear payload - and they weren't quite sure whether it was a Frog launcher or a SAM launcher or whatever...
But my main information on this comes from an interview with Robert McNamara, where he stated quite forcefully that they didn't know the Russians had deployed Tactical nukes. This
wasinterview shown a couple of weeks ago on the History Channel when they did a marathon on
the crisis.
Another source for you is at:
http://www.hfni.gsehd.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/CWIHP/B
Which points out that our knowledge of what
the Soviets had, and had authority to use was
at best sketchy...
Saw this movie the other night, and as a sometime history geek, I wanted to point out a few of the historiacal innacuracies in the film. 1. Use of the "Peace Symbol" in a sign. Although created in England in 1958, the "Peace Symbol" was not popularized in the United States until the Vietnam & Civil Rights Era, a few year later than 1962. 2. This is a big problem... in the movie, the Americans recieve confirmation that the Soviets had tactical nukes in Cuba (the Joint Chiefs then offer to take 'em all out). The truth of the matter is that the United States _did not know_ that the Soviets had tactical nukes until after the missle crisis was over. When Kennedy decided to not invade cuba, he didn't know that if he did, the marines on the beaches would have been vaporized by the thousands. He quite simply inadvertently saved the world that day. And if the russians had nuked the marines, it's a simple matter to escalate to city-busting nukes. This one fact alone disqualifies this film from being history class material. The problem with historical films is that invariably, most people will take the film at literal truth, without seeing that it's been dramatized in order to ENTERTAIN. Generally, films that attempt to tell it really like it is are called documentaries :)