Jason Robards plays United States Marine Corps General R. Pendleton Lloyd who was the Chairman of The Joint Chief of Staff. At the time the movie was released, there is still no United States Marine Corps General who become Chairman of The Joint Chief of Staff. The first United States Marine Corps General who become Chairman of The Joint Chief of Staff was General Peter Pace in 2005, the movie was released in 1994.
In the novel and the earlier version of the film, Seven Days in May (1964), the character played here by Forest Whitaker was named Martin "Jiggs" Casey. The nickname, which in the context of an African-American actor was a racial epithet, was clearly inappropriate and was not used.