...“You’ll never believe how close we came.” Director Roger Donaldson puts this phrase front and center in Thirteen Days, a dramatized, yet fairly accurate view of a period where the U.S. was on the brink of disaster. Thirteen Days is a political thriller that revolves around the Cuban Missile Crisis and how President Kennedy and his administration narrowly prevented World War III. The entire ordeal wasn’t as smooth as history textbooks make it seem, however, with many twists, turns, blunders, and narrow victories. The film doesn’t focus on any one particular person, but chooses to focus on the tension experienced by the entire Kennedy administration behind closed doors. However, the film presents Kenny O’Donnell, one of JFK’s close advisors,...
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...In early 1835, the Mexican government began to shift away from a federalist model under the guidance of President Antonio López de Santa Anna. This, along with other dictatorial policies, incited many federalists to revolt (Todish, 1998). Texas’ border with Mexico was largely populated by immigrants from the United States. These immigrants had gotten used to a federalist government and a plethora of individual rights, and they did not hide their displeasure at Mexico's shift towards centralism (Henson, 1982). Mexican officials blamed the disturbance on these American immigrants, most of whom did not make an effort to adapt to the Mexican culture (Barr, 1990). In October, Texians engaged Mexican troops in what would become the first official battle of the Texas Revolution (Barr, 1990). Set on extinguishing this rebellion, Santa Anna began building a large force to restore order, the Army of Operations in Texas (Hardin, 1994). His military at the time was comprised of mostly raw recruits, and many of these recruits had been recruited against their will (Hardin, 1994). The Texians systematically vanquished the Mexican troops that were already stationed in Texas. General Martín Perfecto de Cos, commander of the last group of Mexican soldiers in the region, surrendered on December 9 as a result of the siege of Béxar (Barr, 1990). At this point, the Texian Army was comprised mostly of recent arrivals to the area, primarily from the United States (Barr, 1990). Santa Anna was angered...
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...Peace only makes the aggressor more aggressive and the Soviets will be emboldened to push us even farther. – Bald guy in tie 1) International pressure 2) Airstrike Secretary of Defense: If we decide to strike, we must do so before missiles become operational, because once they are we can’t guarantee getting them all before all are launched. Kennedy: if there are alternatves, we need them fast. Other guy – I still think there are diplomatic approaches we haven’t considered yet. General: we should follow airstrikes with a full scale invasion to be sure to get all the missiles. Advisor: agrees with general, soviets only know one word “action.” 1.) Surgical airstrike 2.) Airstrike 3.) Invasion Let’s hope appeasement doesn’t run in families, I fear weakness does – guy in suspenders. Good that he didn’t make the decision right on the spot – Kevin Costner, there are no experts. In the room: Bobby: there is more than one option here, and if we can’t think of it’s because we haven’t tried hard enough. General: you can order the strikes now, pressuring kennedy to order. The more time goes by, the less choices we have. Blockade of offensive weapons in cuba is the best option. Airstrike would lead to inevitable response of war, though some believe they should proceed with the strikes. So options: quarantine, airstrike or third option by adlai Stevenson: strike a deal. With either course we undertake the risk of nucler war, We trade Guantanamo...
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...The Film: The film Thirteen days is about the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, a 13 day occasion in which there were conflicts between the Soviet Union and the U.S.A. on the issue of nuclear warfare. The film is shown in the perspective of Kenneth O’Donnell, a political consultant for President Kennedy. The film starts off with John F. Kennedy Receiving information that the Soviet Union was depositing nuclear weapons in Cuba to which John F. Kennedy tries to set up a plan to prevent this. John F. Kennedy was reluctant to invade Cuba in fears that the Soviet Union would invade Berlin to counter U.S. acts of aggression. This could potentially lead to another world war which the John F. Kennedy does not want. The U.S. instead announces that they...
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...The movie Thirteen Days directed by Roger Donaldson is about the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. It is often referred to as a docudrama as it is very entertainment oriented but still remains close to the roots of what actually happened. Since it was produced at a later date than many other films portraying the events, Thirteen Days was able to access recently declassified information which helped in attaining a more historically accurate film. Although there were some discrepancies with what happened in real life compared to the film. The year is 1962 and American surveillance planes discover that the USSR is in the process of placing nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba. The missiles have a said capability to reach 80 million Americans striking every major city but Seattle. As well they are capable of reaching the majority of the United States Air Force bomber bases effectively crippling their ability to retaliate. It is a race to find a means of removing the missiles before they become operational. Thus the problem for the President is to decide whether to use force or diplomatic means to keep the missiles un-operational. Initial diplomatic attempts to come to a peaceful conclusion fail and the Secretary of Defence proposes a naval blockade which they call a “quarantine” and if the Soviets ignore the blockade, the Navy will forcibly remove the ships from going to Cuba. This would quickly escalate the situation which is clearly what the Secretary of Defence wanted but the President...
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...“Give me liberty or give me death”. This was a quote by Patrick Henry. Patrick Henry said this because when he was talking to the Virginia House of Burgesses. He told them that because he wanted liberty and if he couldn’t have liberty then he wanted him and his family to have death. He was part of the Sons of liberty. The Sons of Liberty set an example for the rest of the world by defeating the strongest and wealthiest country in the world, they would rather die than be part of England, they wanted liberty for their thirteen colonies.The Sons of Liberty were also our founding fathers. At the time England was the strongest and the most wealthiest country in the world. No one would ever really want to go to war with them because they were the strongest nation and the biggest population...
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...The Thirteen Colonies, starting 1775, were British states following the British empire on the east coast of North America which had been established between 1607 (Virginia) and 1732 (Georgia), extending from New England toward the northern border of the Florida’s (British East and West Florida). They had fundamentally the same politics, and were commanded by Protestant English-speakers. The thirteen colonies were: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. You can see them in the map below. The Kingdom of Great Britain in London rehearsed a strategy of mercantilism. It regulated the colonies...
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...The United States was not always as what is seen today. Before 1776, the United States was merely thirteen colonies that were controlled under British rule. These colonies believed they were not being treated fairly so they began to rebel. These rebellions eventually led to war; the Revolutionary War. The colonists’ victor over Great Britain in the Revolutionary War resulted in independence for the colonies. This essay will explain why the thirteen colonies rebelled against Britain and how they were able to win their independence. Before the United States of America was its own country with fifty states, America was ruled by Great Britain. Under this British rule were the thirteen colonies. As of 1775, the thirteen colonies were British colonies...
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...league of friendship” among the States, but allowed few important powers to the central government. Bicameral: an adjective describing a legislative body composed of two chambers. Charter: a city’s basic law, its constitution; a written grant of authority from the king. Committee of Five: drafted and presented to the Congress what became known as America's Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776. This Declaration committee operated from June 11, 1776 until July 5, 1776, the day on which the Declaration was published. Confederation: a joining of several groups for a common purpose. Due Process: the government must act fairly and in accord with established rules in all that it does. English Bill of Rights: document written by Parliament and agreed on by William and Mary of England in 1689, designed to prevent abuse of power by English monarchs; forms the basis for much in American government and politics today. First Continental Congress: was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies that met on September 5 to October 26, 1774 at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to "The passage of the...
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...The American Revolution (1775-1783) Have you ever sat and actually wondered how the United States came about? The American Revolution which is also known as the American War of Independence played an important role in the formation, of what we see today as the United States. The American Revolution was a conflict between the thirteen British colonies in North America and their mother country Great Britain. The American Revolution began on April 19, 1775 and ended on September 3, 1783. There are several causes to how the American Revolution came about. Among these causes are The Stamp Act, The Townshend Acts, The Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party. The Stamp Act, which was passed in 1765, was Parliament’s first serious attempt to assert governmental authority over the thirteen colonies. It was an act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, in the British occupied colonies. The main purpose of these taxes was to help Britain pay for the troops stationed in North America. Not only the British colonies in America, but even the British merchants and manufacturers opposed the act, and the exports to the colonies were threatened by colonial economic problems caused by the taxes The Townshend Acts were a series of acts passed in January 1767, by the Britain Parliament. These acts primarily included the Revenue Act of 1767, the Commissioners of Customs Act, the Vice Admiralty Court Act, the Indemnity Act and the New York Restraining Act. The sole purpose of...
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...On December 16, 1773, a group of radical thinking colonists stormed British ships carrying tea, and unloaded the cargo in to Boston Harbor in protest of the unfair Taxation of the Colonies. This act was one of the sparks that lit a powder keg of American Revolution, and turned thirteen British Colonies in to these United States of America. Three centuries later, an unfair taxation of the American people is being perpetrated by its very own government, and the lessons learned by the Crown and Parliament have been so easily forgotten. It is time to remind our leaders of that lesson, and just like the tea floating in Boston Harbor changed the face of the Thirteen Colonies, the Tea Party Movement will change the face of the United States of America. The Tea Party Movement did not begin with the dumping of heavily taxed tea in to Boston harbor, but on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on February 19, 2009. There was no plan for the Tea Party, it was born out of the resonance of an impromptu rant by CNBC commentator Rick Santilli; a rant against the government bail-out of banks, a rant against irresponsible borrowing policies and the fall of the subprime mortgage market. These government bail-outs were going to cost the tax payers. Just like that, the fuse had been lit, and in an explosion only possible in the information age via Twitter, Facebook and radio , this “New American Tea Party” began to invigorate an entirely new core of Conservative Republicans. Shortly...
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...Course Date The American Revolution When armed conflict between the British soldiers and the thirteen American colonies started in April 1775, the English men were fighting only for their rights while remaining subjects of the British crown. It was after the war had developed in full swing that the American colonists started demanding for independence from the British government, forcing the delegates from the Continental Congress to cast a vote on the matter. In June 1776, a committee of five men including John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were given the task of drafting an official statement of the intentions of the colonies. It was after this that the Congress adopted the independence declaration that was written by Jefferson on 4 July. Currently, the date is celebrated as the day when America attained her independence. The American Revolution occurred due to a series of intellectual, political and social transformations that occurred in the way of thinking of the American society and government. For instance, in 1764, the Government of Britain imposed a series of taxes that were designed to raise the amount of tax that was imposed on the colonies. The American Revenue Act became the Sugar act, whose major component involved increasing the amount of tax that was imposed on sugar. These events impacted both on the social and political life of the thirteen colonies. The success of the American Revolution gave the people of America an independent position...
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...Traditionally, colonial America refers to the English colonies that were formed along on Atlantic Coast or the Eastern seaboard of North America. The names of the thirteen colonies were: Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Connecticut, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Hampshire, Maryland, and Delaware, and New York colonies. Even though before the English missionaries came to America, the French, Dutch, and Spanish had already settled in America, it was the British that formed the colonies as we know them today beginning with Virginia in 1607 and Georgia as the last to be founded in 1733. By the year 1775, the entire population of the thirteen colonies was an approximately 2.4 million individuals and they were dissolved on 4th of July in the year 1776. Their dissolution led to the formation of the United States of America. Declaration of independence The Declaration of Independence is a document that signified United States’ independence from the British colonial rule....
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...George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 1738 – 29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies who met from September 5 to October 26, 1774 at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the Intolerable Acts passed by the British Parliament, which the British referred to as the Coercive Acts, with which the British intended to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. The Congress met briefly to consider options, including an economic boycott of British trade and drawing up a list of rights and grievances; in the end, they petitioned King George III for redress of those grievances. On this day in 1774, the First Continental Congress sends a respectful petition to King George III to inform his majesty that if it had not been for the acts of oppression forced upon the colonies by the British Parliament, the American people would be standing behind British rule....
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...final trick on the security and prerecord the vault robbery and play it so they can escape safely. Finally, Danny gets Tess back to fulfill the Hollywood version of the movie. I chose this movie because is magnifies many of the economic terms that we have been talking about like opportunity cost and unemployment. It is also one of my favorite because it is the original heist movie, while Ocean’s twelve and thirteen aren’t up to par as the first it is still an amazing trilogy. This movie also has one of my favorite actors, Brad Pitt. I mainly liked him Troy but he still did a great. This is also one of the first movies Matt Damon was in, Matt didn’t have one of the major roles of the film but he was one of the eleven. One economic concept in the movie was unemployment and employment. In the beginning of the movie Danny is just getting out of prison, meaning he is reentering the Labor Force because he is also in working the working age population. But while he was in prison he is not considered part of the Labor force. Rusty is part time employed because he works 1 hour a day...
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