I am the commander in chief of the United States, and I say when we go to war!

Bobby, you go and make them understand. Tell them that we have to have an answer tomorrow... because on Monday, we go to war.

I'll tell you one thing, Kenny. Those brass hats have one big advantage. That is, if we do what they want us to do, there's none of us gonna be alive to tell them they were wrong.

If one of those ships resists inspection, and we shoot out its rudder, and board it... they shoot down one of our planes, in response. So we bomb their anti-aircraft sites, in response to that... they attack Berlin. So we invade Cuba. And they fire their rockets. And we fire ours.

God damn it! How the god damn hell could this happen? I'm gonna have Powell's head on a platter. Next to LeMay's. Kenny, you hear me give the order to go to defcon 2? 'cos I remember giving the order to go to defcon 3 but er, y'know I must be suffering from amnesia!

You know, there's something immoral about abandoning your own judgement.

Jack, I'm as conniving as they come, but a sneak attack is just wrong.

We've got a bunch of smart guys. We lock 'em in a room and kick 'em in the ass until they come up with some solutions!

I don't care how crazy, inadequate or stupid it sounds. Give it to me.

This is not a blockade. This is language. A new vocabulary, the likes of which the world has never seen! This is President Kennedy communicating with Secretary Khrushchev!