Thirteen Days (film)

This movie, Thirteen Days, is about the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. It is about how the Kennedy administration struggled internally to come to a solution on how to handle the Soviet's deployment of medium range ballistic missiles (MRBM) and intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBM) in Cuba, capable of delivering nuclear warheads to the United States.

The movie shows the importance of close civilian control when managing a crisis, to prevent it from escalating further. Left to its own, militaries are trained to fight, to win wars, and are more than ready to go to war. It shows that while rules of engagement are meant to protect the soldiers on the ground executing the orders, they can also lead to escalation if not handled properly and run contrary to the higher political agenda. Thus, while orders are given and rules of engagement are set, and chains of command exist, there are times when direct control by the top over the ground units (bypassing the chain of command in between) is necessary to ensure that things do not get out of hand.

Of course, while close civilian control is needed when managing a crisis, when war breaks out, let the military do what they are trained to do. After all, that's why we spend so much money on them during peacetime training them up.