Eyeball to eyeball; the fellow blinked!

Thirteen Days (2000)

Director: Roger Donaldson

Recently Barbados, the Island Country in the Caribbean, cut her ties from British Commonwealth and declared herself a republic. She unceremoniously replaced QEII with her President as the Head of State to cut off England's previous legacy in slavery. 

It also declared China as a friendly nation to rub salt on an open wound. To strengthen bilateral ties, flights between countries were commenced, and Barbados went so far as to let the Middle Kingdom finance many of its development projects. The Western world decries that this is a prelude to a takeover of Barbados by China via debt traps. Barbados denies, saying that China's loans constitute only 2.5% of the nation's total debt.

America is, of course, hot under the collar because of its proximity to the United States. This kind of reminds us of the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the autumn of 1962, which almost triggered the Third World War. 

Soviet SS4 ballistic missiles.

After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Cuba requested Big Brother protection. The Soviet Union offered to park some medium-range missiles in Cuba, just in case. This was discovered by the prying USAF U2 spy planes.

The movie tries to capture the events that unfolded over the next thirteen days in October 1962 as President Kennedy and his team tried to get these nuclear missiles far away from their soil. It is told from the point of view of JFK's political secretary, Kenneth O'Donnell. 

It showcases the Army bigwigs so gungho in pushing the Big Red Button to start a war with the Soviet Union as JFK attempts desperately to avert a clash. Kenneth O'Donnell is seen as a kingmaker in cutting many back deals behind the scene with the Russians. JFK imposed a 'quarantine' to prevent Soviet missiles from reaching Cuba by sea. It was purposely not labelled 'blockade' as it would infer aggression and justify war. The US did lose a pilot and had another plane shot at as it went on its clandestine reconnaissance work. Still, it was hushed from the media apparently by O'Donnell's backhand manoeuvres. Of course, O'Donnell's keen involvement in the whole hoopla is denied by many who were directly involved in the crisis. They say that his job was just to attend to JFK's political needs, not actively influencing the President's and the AG's (Robert Kennedy) decisions! 

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"Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin!"

Seven Days in May (1963)

Humans are social animals, they say. We need each other to survive. We should look at one another as our brothers and sisters to sail through the journey of life. They say we should look at another not by colour or creed, but as a fellow being seeking temporary sojournment on Planet Earth. That, borders and nation states are artificial boundaries created by multinational conglomerates with business and acquisition of wealth on their mind!

But snap out of it! This is what we have. Various nations wanting to do better than the other and do not to be taken for a fool by others. An entity called nationalism evolved over differences and the trust was put on a piece of cloth and the writings which define the nation, the Constitution. Leaders are elected democratically to guard this common belief that the Constitution is supreme, infallible and can stand the test of time as the founding fathers were visionaries extraordinaire!

We all may not be happy with how things are done but we have it stick to the majority decision. That is how it works, we state our displeasure at the ballot box, the democratic way. Any other way should surely spell mayhem and that would be healthy for our State, if we loved it so much! But then, most people are not visionaries and cannot even see beyond their next meal. They need to be coerced and shown the way. For that, we have the political platform, not the hostile military takeover.

At the heights of the Cold War just after the Cuban nuclear crisis, came a book which predicted a time in the future, in the 1970s, of a situation where a nuclear disarmament treaty is to be signed. The President's rating is at an all-time low for putting the mighty USA in a cowardly stance, believing that Communist Russians would stay true to paper. The general scream for 4-star General James Scott (Burt Lancaster) to take over the helm.

The whole premise of the story is about the observant Colonel Casey (Kirk Douglas), the personal assistant to General Scott, who notices many peculiarities and deduce that his boss was planning a coup d'etat! As a loyal citizen, he brings his case to the President himself. After much deliberation, the President and his band of trusted men unfold a takeover of the Government by rogue Army personnel.

Over the years, either by own volition or by certain undetermined events in history, we are all divided into nation states. We are given sovereignty and the free rein to lead our country to whatever direction we want to. It is our birthright to protect and preserve the visions that our forefathers had. We are not expected to just at the sideline when someone from somewhere who have failed miserably their own backyard, comes to our country upon our kind humane gesture, tells us that we are doing it all wrong. They, instead, want to inculcate their failed ideology into ours! No way, Jose!