13 Days October 19, 2006

The volatility of today’s world harkens back to the Cold War at its boiling point. For two weeks in October 1962, the world held its breath while President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev navigated one of the most staggering showdowns of the Cold War. The film Thirteen Days captures the drama surrounding a President faced with the Soviet attempt to secretly place ballistic missiles in Cuba. It explores how raw intelligence, speedy analysis, and back channel exchanges enabled Kennedy to avert a nuclear war. S. Eugene Poteat was there. After the film screening in the National Portrait Gallery’s new Nan Tucker McEvoy auditorium, Poteat, a former senior officer with the CIA’s Science and Technology Directorate, will share his personal experience of the Cuban missile crisis and comment on the background and authenticity of the film.
Co-sponsored by the National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.si.edu) in conjunction with their exhibition The Presidency and The Cold War and the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Cold War International History Project (www.cwihp.org).

TICKETS: $15; Members of The Spy Ring, CWIHP Subscribers and Members of the National Portrait Gallery: $12; Advance Registration required.

Official Website: http://www.spymuseum.org