In October 1962, a photograph from a plane showed nuclear missiles in Cuba. For thirteen days, the world waited. This really happened.
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These are the new words. Match each word (1–8) to its meaning (A–H). Say your answers out loud — "I think 1 is D" — then check.
1 = D (a missile) · 2 = G (a photograph) · 3 = A (a president) · 4 = H (a war)
5 = C (a pilot) · 6 = B (dangerous) · 7 = F (to agree) · 8 = E (a secret)
Roger Donaldson's Thirteen Days (2000). Read each part. Then try the questions from memory, and talk about the last one. (There are spoilers — that is fine, we want to talk about it.)
It is October 1962. A special American plane flies high over Cuba, a big island near the United States. The plane takes photographs. When people look at the photographs, they see something very bad: the Soviet Union is building nuclear missiles on the island. The missiles are only 90 miles from the USA.
President Kennedy sees the photographs in the morning. He calls his most important people to the White House. They sit in one room and they must find an answer, and they must find it fast.
The generals of the army say: "We must attack. We must send planes to bomb the missiles, and then our soldiers must go to the island." But the President is not sure. He thinks: if we attack, Soviet soldiers will die. And if Soviet soldiers die, the Soviet Union will attack us. Then there will be a nuclear war. Nobody will win.
1. What do the photographs from the plane show?
2. What do the generals want to do? Why does the President say no?
1. The Soviet Union is building nuclear missiles in Cuba, an island very near the United States.
2. They want to bomb the missiles and then send soldiers. The President is afraid this will start a nuclear war.
The President speaks on television. He tells the American people about the missiles. Then he does something different: he sends warships around Cuba to make a line in the sea. No Soviet ship can bring weapons past this line. It is not an attack, but it is not nothing.
Soviet ships are already coming. Nobody knows what will happen. If the ships do not stop, American sailors must stop them — and then, perhaps, people will start shooting. Everybody in the room waits. Finally, some ships stop and turn around. But this is not the end. On the island, the Soviets are still building the missiles, and they are working faster.
Small American planes fly very low over Cuba to take more photographs. Soldiers on the ground shoot at them. In the film, Kennedy's friend Kenny O'Donnell telephones a pilot and says: if you tell your bosses that people shot at you, we will have to attack. So please do not tell them.
1. What do the American warships do around Cuba?
2. Why does O'Donnell ask the pilot not to say that people shot at him?
1. They make a line in the sea. Soviet ships cannot bring weapons past this line. Some ships stop and turn around.
2. Because if the pilot reports it, the rules say America must attack — and that could start the war.
Two letters come from Moscow. The first letter is friendly: we will take the missiles away, if you promise never to attack Cuba. The second letter comes the next day and it is not friendly. It asks for more: America must also take away its missiles in Turkey. Which letter is the real one? Nobody knows.
Then, on the same day, the Soviets shoot down an American plane over Cuba. The pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson, dies. The rules say that America must now attack. Everybody in the room waits for the President to give the order. He does not give it. One dead man, he says, must not start a war that kills millions.
So the Kennedy brothers try something. They answer the first, friendly letter, and they say nothing about the second one. Robert Kennedy meets the Soviet ambassador in private. In public, the deal is simple: the missiles leave Cuba, and America promises not to attack. In secret, Robert Kennedy also agrees to take the American missiles out of Turkey — but nobody can ever talk about this part. On Sunday morning, Moscow radio says the missiles will go. After thirteen days, it is over.
1. What is the problem with the two letters from Moscow?
2. What happens to the pilot, and what does the President decide to do?
1. The first letter is friendly and easy; the second letter asks for more (the American missiles in Turkey). Nobody knows which one to believe. The Kennedys answer the first one only.
2. The pilot is shot down and dies. The rules say America must attack, but the President says no, because he does not want to start a nuclear war.
This film is full of "if". If we attack, they will attack. If the ships stop, nobody dies. English has one special pattern for this: the first conditional.
Write the correct form of the verb in brackets. Say the sentence out loud first.
1. If the plane (fly) low, the soldiers will see it.
2. If we wait one more day, the missiles (be) ready.
3. The President will speak on television if he (need) to.
1. flies (present simple after "if")
2. will be (will + verb in the result part)
3. needs (present simple after "if", even when "if" comes second)
Each sentence has one mistake. Write the part that is wrong, in the correct form.
1. If the ships will stop, nobody will die. →
2. If he agrees, we take away our missiles from Turkey. →
3. If the pilot will tell his boss, America must attack. →
1. If the ships stop (no "will" after "if")
2. we will take away (the result part needs "will")
3. If the pilot tells (no "will" after "if")
Write one word in each gap. Read the finished text aloud.
The President looks at the map. "If we (send) our planes today, Soviet soldiers will die. And if Soviet soldiers die, Moscow (answer) in Berlin. If that (happen), we will have a war. But if we (do) nothing, the missiles will be ready in a week."
send · will answer · happens · do
Remember: if + present simple, then will + verb. Never "will" after "if".
Most of it is true. But the film does not show two things that were even more dangerous — and one big part of the film is not true at all.
President Kennedy had a secret machine in his room that recorded the meetings. So we can hear the real men talking. The film uses a book of these recordings, The Kennedy Tapes (1997). The dates are right too: the photographs were taken on 14 October 1962, Kennedy spoke on television on 22 October, and the Soviet Union agreed to take the missiles away on 28 October.
On 27 October, American ships found a Soviet submarine under the sea near Cuba. They dropped small bombs in the water — not to kill the men, but to say "come up". But the men in the submarine did not know that. They had no radio contact with Moscow. It was very hot inside, the air was bad, and they thought the war had started. And the submarine had a nuclear torpedo — a bomb they could fire under the water.
The captain wanted to use it. But three officers had to agree, and one man said no. His name was Vasili Arkhipov. He said: these are signals, not an attack. He was right, and the torpedo was never fired. In 2017, 55 years later, he got a special prize — but he was dead, so his daughter and grandson took it for him. President Kennedy never knew that this submarine was there. We should be careful: we know this story from the memories of the sailors, and their stories are not all the same.
Kenny O'Donnell — the Kevin Costner character — was a real person and a real friend of the Kennedys. But his job was to organise the President's day. He was not the important man that the film shows. Robert McNamara, who really was in the room, said that O'Donnell had no part in the crisis at all. Other people from that room said the same. The film gives him big, exciting scenes that never happened.
Two more true things the film does not have time for. The American pilot who died, Major Rudolf Anderson, was shot down by two Soviet officers in Cuba who could not telephone Moscow — so they decided alone. And the secret deal about the American missiles in Turkey stayed a secret for a very long time: people only really learned about it in 1989, twenty-seven years later.
Do all three tasks out loud. Use the timer to keep talking.
Tell the story of Thirteen Days in your own words. Use these steps to help you: a plane takes photographs of missiles in Cuba → the generals want to attack, the President says wait → warships make a line in the sea → two letters come from Moscow → a pilot is killed → a secret meeting, and then it is over.
Try to use five key words (missile, photograph, president, war, pilot, dangerous, agree, secret, island, ship) and the first conditional: "If they attack, there will be a war."
You are in the room. The generals say: attack now. The President says: wait and talk. Choose one side and say why. Then try the other side. Use "If we attack…" and "If we wait…" in your answer.
Talk about decisions and what will happen after them. Use the first conditional.
Not sure what to say? Choose one: