Reflections on ’13 Days’

I recently re-watched the movie ’13 Days’ with my brother. It’s a historical drama about the Cuban Missile Crisis, and a movie which I personally found fascinating (viewers beware: it’s rated PG-13 for brief strong language). Admittedly, not everyone would enjoy my taste in movies – I enjoy movies that find men in challenging situations where their true qualities stand out. In this case it’s all theoretical tension – very little guns and shooting, but the very real risk of nuclear war means that all the suit-and-tie men in Washington have some very important decisions to make.

The Cuban Missile Crisis, back in 1962, occurred at the height of the Cold War. Russia sent nuclear missiles to its ally, Cuba. This meant that a nuclear missile, launched from Cuba, could easily impact the United States, and it could happen in a matter of minutes. Understandably, this made Americans very nervous. In fact, the world got closer to nuclear war than we’ve ever been before. America’s military raised its alert level to DEFCON-2, the highest it’s ever been. This meant that most of our nuclear weapons were ready for use within one hour, and we had about 65 planes in the air at all times primed with nuclear weapons, ready to attack Russia. Within minutes, tens of millions of people in both American and Russia could have evaporated in nuclear fireballs.

Admittedly, the movie does take liberties with the story to increase the tension and drama. (My brother was so interested in the Crisis that he went on to read a 600 page book on it and notify me of the ways in which the movie was inaccurate). Nonetheless, the key aspects of the story are represented – the imminent risk of nuclear annihilation, the intense pressure on president John F. Kennedy, hotheads in government who want to start World War III, etc.

After watching the movie, I started to think more about how the incident fit into broader history. As the movie points out, John F Kennedy was president at that time, and he was uniquely responsible for keeping the Crisis limited. Hotheads could have easily started World War III, along with nuclear armageddon. Yet JFK is very likely the reason why you and I are alive today.

Only thirteen months later, JFK was assassinated in Dallas. He was the youngest president in US history, and he didn’t even have three years in the White House.

All this makes me wonder – why did God place JFK in that position, at that time? Could it be that he was placed there specifically because he was the person that God raised up to rescue the world from nuclear war, at that time? Of course, God may have had many reasons for what he did, but I think that is a quite likely conclusion. We know this: God wanted Kennedy in the White House at that time, intending to use him in exactly the way that He did.

Kennedy wasn’t a Christian in the biblical sense of the word, but his life certainly shows the sovereignty of God. Whatever other purposes God had with JFK, we know that one reason for his life was to provide the leadership that he did in that crisis, with the results for the future. Just as Esther was raised up by God for a specific purpose, so JFK was raised up for a purpose. This isn’t to say that God will always prevent nuclear war, or always intends to keep the world peaceful. But at that specific time and place in history, it wasn’t God’s will for the world to self-destruct – and to prevent that, God prepared a man.

This reminds me of the way that Scripture speaks of Cyrus, the Zoroastrian king of Persia who freed the Jews to return to Jerusalem – “he shall fulfill all my purpose” (Isaiah 44:28). Even a pagan king will fulfill the purpose of God.

On the broad scale, then, every king, president, or prime minister is raised up by God to accomplish his purposes on the world. But we must look at a more granular level. It is not only kings and presidents who fulfill God’s will, but also ordinary people like you and me. “The LORD has made everything for its purpose…” (Proverbs 16:4). This is the constant teaching of Scripture (Romans 11:36, Exodus 9:16, Isaiah 54:16, etc.). God will accomplish his purpose with you. He is sovereign and “he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35).

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