Thirteen Days
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1:47:00
This morning's letter is not Kruschev
Last night's letter was

1:47:02
The evidence supports
only one conclusion

1:47:04
There's been a coup
and Kruschev was replaced overnight

1:47:10
Dean?
1:47:11
It does suggest he's been co-opted
by hard-line elements

1:47:15
Which at the end of the day
amounts to the same thing

1:47:18
A puppet Kruschev
1:47:19
and a hard-line Soviet government
pulling the strings

1:47:22
No deal. And the missiles
are almost operational

1:47:25
What if the Soviets have no intention
of honoring this second deal?

1:47:28
The tomorrow
they make another condition

1:47:30
Meanwhile
the quarantine isn't working

1:47:33
and they're completing work
on the missiles sites

1:47:36
Sir, I think we have to issue
pre- invasion orders for our forces

1:47:40
Mr. President
1:47:42
This morning's photography is in
1:47:44
It appears the Soviet have commenced a
crash program to ready their missiles

1:47:49
The first missiles
become operational last night

1:47:52
We expect they'll all be operational
in 36 hours

1:47:55
Then we're out of time
1:47:57
We have to go in
1:47:57
That may not be
as easy as we thought, either

1:48:00
We have confirmation
the Soviets have also deployed

1:48:03
battlefield nuclear weapons to Cuba
1:48:05
FROGS, we call them
1:48:06
Short- range tactical nukes
1:48:08
We don't know whether
they've delegated release authority

1:48:11
to their local commanders
for use on our invasion troops

1:48:14
But the good news is
as of this moment

1:48:17
we know where the FROGS are
and we can target them, too

1:48:21
But the longer we wait
the harder it's going to get

1:48:41
We have no choice
1:48:47
General, issue orders to our forces
1:48:49
to be prepared to execute
the air strikes Monday morning

1:48:53
and the follow-on invasion
according to the schedule thereafter

1:48:58
I'll need the official release orders
on my desk Sunday night


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