Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center has created this site as a resource for the Cuban Missile Crisis. Designed to help policymakers, students, and interested citizens draw lessons from these critical events half a century ago, this site not only provides background on the crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster in October 1962 but also offers tools to understand how it can inform contemporary policy.
O’Donnell was President Kennedy’s special assistant and appointments secretary, charged with managing the President’s timetable, from 1961 to 1963, before serving as presidential aide to Lyndon Johnson. His character is portrayed by Kevin Costner in the movie Thirteen Days.
Abbie Rowe. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. Digital Identifier: JFKWHP-AR6295-I.