The Missiles of October

The Missiles of October
DVD cover for the film
Genre	Docudrama
Written by	Stanley R. Greenberg
Directed by	Anthony Page
Starring	William Devane Martin Sheen Howard Da Silva Ralph Bellamy
Theme music composer	Laurence Rosenthal
Country of origin	U.S.
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	Irv Wilson
Producer(s)	Robert Berger Herbert Brodkin
Editor(s)	Jerry Greene
Running time	150 mins
Production company(s)	Maljack Productions Viacom Productions
Distributor	ABC
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	18 December 1974

The Missiles of October is a 1974 docudrama made-for-television play about the Cuban Missile Crisis. The title evokes the book The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman about the missteps amongst the great powers and the failed chances to give an opponent a graceful way out, which led to the First World War. The teleplay introduced William Devane as John F. Kennedy and cast Martin Sheen as United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The script is based on Robert Kennedy's book Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The title of the play was influenced by the 1962 book The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman, which describes various events leading to World War I; and, which had been read by President Kennedy shortly before the crisis. In the play, Kennedy compares events in the book to the crisis with the Soviet Union.

Staged as a two and a half hour television play, the production eschews physical action and detailed sets and wardrobes, in favor of emphasis on dialogue, emotion, and decision making. It depicts how the world came close to the brink of, and eventually stepped away from global thermonuclear war, highlighting the roles of President John F Kennedy, Attorney General Robert F Kennedy, Premier Nikita Khrushchev, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson, and former Secretary of State Dean Acheson in the crisis.