After watching Thirteen Days and reading Janis’ “Groupthink”, I can now see how connected the two are. I watched the movie first and read the excerpt a few days later. As I was reading Janis’ excerpt, I was able to connect at least one scene to many of Janis’ claims, especially the 8 main symptoms of groupthink.
It is easy to look back and say JFK and his cabinet made the right decicions but watching the thirteen days unfold scene by scene, meeting by meeting. But no matter how many correct decisions they made, the Cuban Missile Crisis is a prime example for groupthink of high-level governmental decision making. In groups and out groups between civilians and military personnel, cabinet members and other government officials are always a part of politics but when looking for them, these in groups and out groups become more and more apparent in times of crisis and heightened stakes.
One scene that stuck out to me as a prime example of groupthink was when JFK and his cabinet were going over the different plan options. Members of the cabinet put fourth their opinions: blockade or air strikes. One member of the cabinet suggested to do nothing, claiming that ‘some one had to put their head on the chopping block here’. To this JFK told his press secretary to write speeches on both blockade and air strike options, completely disregarding the option of non-action.
This is directly related to Janis’ claim that unanimity is a symptom of groupthink. Janis describes that through unanimity, “to avoid such an unpleasant state, the members often become inclined, without realizing it, to prevent latent disagreements from surfacing when they are about to initiate a risky course of action” (368). I agree that unanimity made JFK disregard the in-action plans, but I also think JFK and his cabinet did realize that they were actively avoiding and preventing disagreements. As a result of the very unsuccessful Bay of Pigs, inaction was not really an option. The fact that the cabinet member who proposed the inaction plan felt like he was sticking his head out on the chopping block reiterates the presence and weight of groupthink in high stakes political decisions, especially during the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I also watched the movie first and then read the excerpt a few days later and it really clarified more of JFK and his group’s actions for me as well. Despite your example, I did feel like there was an enormous effort by JFK to avoid group think and truly look at a majority of the possibilities before succumbing to the group’s opinion. I think the movie aimed to show he grew in his ways of acting between the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis.