Cuban Missile Crisis Reading Like a Historian
Overview | Fifty years ago this calendar week, the The states and Soviet Marriage narrowly averted catastrophe over the presence of nuclear missiles in Soviet-backed Republic of cuba. Merely but how close did nosotros come to an unintended nuclear war, and could a similar incident happen once again?
In the activities below, students examine newly uncovered research on what took place during those xiii days in the fall of 1962. They'll decide whether the crisis stands as an instance of absurd leadership nether pressure or a pour of error and miscalculation. Extension activities allow them to dig deeper into factors that made the Cuban missile crisis such a turning point, and explore continuing or potential conflicts that might put today's world at like risk.
Annotation: To accompany this lesson plan, we created a slide show from photographs archived in the New York Times film library. We chose images that we thought might illuminate those tense days in interesting and accessible ways for students, and that might exist fertile ground for further assay and inquiry, especially when paired with the ideas nosotros suggest below. You can also view it in a larger size here.
Materials | Figurer with Internet connection and projector to display articles and video, computers with Cyberspace connection for individual students or groups to use online resource, copies of stories or primary documents as needed.
Warm-Up | Tell students:
- In this lesson, we'll be looking at one of the almost studied and perchance least understood episodes in contempo history: the Cuban Missile Crunch of 1962. Most people agree that it'due south the closest we have always come to an all-out nuclear war. And if that happened, it'due south possible we might not be hither today to talk about it.
- Does anyone know which countries were involved in this incident and what the dispute was virtually? Write brainstorming ideas on the board.
- Today we're going to figure out what happened, first by gathering some basic facts and then looking at recent research – some of which seems to contradict what people have long idea about the Cuban Missile Crunch. Read this overview of the Cuban Missile Crunch from the John F. Kennedy Library and Presidential Museum and watch our slide show above or, in a larger size, hither.
- Based on what we've just read, what adjectives would you utilize to describe President John F. Kennedy and his handling of the Cuban missile crisis? Write students' ideas on the board.
- At present, we're going to watch a brusque video virtually the Cuban missile crisis featuring Professor James G. Blight from Canada's Balsillie School of International Affairs and the producer of the Armageddon Messages Web site. Every bit we watch, I'd like y'all to listen carefully to the tone and linguistic communication that'south being used.
- Based on this video, would you offer any dissimilar adjectives to depict Kennedy or his administration's handling of this crunch? Does this video change our feelings about the Cuban missile crisis or suggest there's more than than i fashion to wait at it? Write students' ideas on the board.
A short film about the Cuban missile crisis produced by The Armageddon Letters, a projection based at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. For more related short films, a graphic novel and other media about the missile crisis, visit the Armageddon Letters Web site.
Action | What really happened?
In the opening days of the Cuban missile crisis, the American people knew very little about what was actually happening. On Oct. 20, 1962, President Kennedy abandoned a trip to the Midwest and returned to Washington — supposedly due to a bad head cold. Three days subsequently, and a full week later on the crisis had really begun with the discovery of Soviet missiles in Republic of cuba, Kennedy addressed the nation.
In this activity, students make a double-sided timeline of the thirteen days of the initial crisis, which began on Oct. 16 and ended on Oct. 28. On one side, they should write down what a typical paper reader learned on each twenty-four hours of the crunch. On the other side, students will add details well-nigh what actually happened according to later enquiry or revelations. (For instance, on October. 20 they initially thought President Kennedy had a common cold, and information technology was afterwards revealed that he had actually rushed back to the White House in response to the unfolding crisis.)
Separate students into groups and have them browse the original coverage from The New York Times during the Cuban missile crisis, including this overview. They may also utilize this day-by-twenty-four hours chronology of events from the John F. Kennedy Library and Presidential Museum. As students find data, they should record crucial facts in their timelines.
For the adjacent part of the activity, students should scan the following articles from The Times to detect revelations — new facts or research that add to our understanding of what happened dorsum in 1962 — and fill in the other side of their timelines. (Students may wish to dissever responsibility, with each fellow member of the grouping reading one or ii articles. Please tell students it is O.K. to approximate on dates for this function of the assignment, if they take trouble attaching a revelation to a specific day during the crisis.)
1989 — Gaps in the Missile Crisis Story
1992 — U.S. Underestimated Soviet Strength in Cuba During '62 Missile Crunch
2002 — At Cuba Conference, Old Foes Exchange Notes on 1962 Missile Crisis
2002 — The Cuban Missile Crunch: When the World Stood on Border and Nobody Died Beautifully
2008 — What You Think You Know About the Cuban Missile Crunch is Wrong
2012 — General's 1962 Memo Addresses Nuclear Gainsay on Cuba
During the final part of the activity, move rapidly through the crunch with the class, asking each group to report on fundamental discoveries or surprises from their research. For homework or an extension action, students could design a affiche dramatizing how one discovery by historians has shed new low-cal on our understanding of the Cuban missile crisis. Each poster should make clear what people initially believed about an aspect of the crunch; how research or subsequent revelations changed that understanding; and a lesson or moral of the story for futurity leaders. Every bit a culminating activeness, students could create a poster gallery displaying their ideas.
This Oct. 25, 1962, Universal Studios newsreel, with its foreboding music and dramatic vocalisation-over, captured the tension of the times and greeted moviegoers in theaters beyond the country. Yous might cull to use this video every bit part of an introduction to the missile crunch. Courtesy of The Internet Annal.
Going Further: Ways to Teach Nearly the Cuban Missile Crisis
Handbook: How to Avoid Globe War 3. Write a manual for leaders of the modern world — a how-to manual for fugitive unintended armed conflicts — based on the lessons of the Cuban missile crisis. It tin be addressed to all earth leaders or to one leader in particular. The handbooks should tell leaders what they can do to lessen the chances of armed conflict, referring to incidents or research from the 1962 crisis to explain what sorts of weather condition or actions make conflict more likely.
Students should be encouraged to include their own ideas and conclusions based upon their reflections about the Cuban missile crisis; write their handbooks with originality and flair; and give the handbook a unique title and chapter headings. They may consult the following coverage from The Times and Web sites devoted to studying the crisis and its lessons, citing sources when necessary. (Note: teachers may as well wish to let students draw from the poster gallery assignment above for inspiration, with students crediting classmates for their ideas.)
2008 — Why We Should Still Study the Cuban Missile Crisis (PDF), from the United States Constitute of Peace
2012 — At 50, the Cuban Missile Crunch as Guide, an Op-Ed article from The New York Times
2012 — Learning from History's Almost Dangerous Crunch, from the Belfer Center for Scientific discipline and International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Authorities
2012 — Cuban Missile Crisis Behavior Suffer Subsequently 50 Years, an analysis of conventional wisdom nigh the crisis by the electric current Associated Press contributor in Havana
Wink Points: The Next Crisis? Utilize your handbooks on the lessons of the Cuban missile crunch to brand the case for which current global wink points present the greatest take chances of stumbling into a nuclear disharmonize. Students should exist sure to consider both the weather condition that make conflict more than likely (such as the lack of good communications between the two sides, proximity of war machine forces, or other factors that make an incident or misunderstanding more probable, etc…) and actions taken past one or both sides that increment tensions. Students may explore contempo coverage from The Times'south recent coverage on places such as the Middle Due east, Iran, East Asia and the India-Pakistan border, equally well as stories and web resources on nuclear weapons. (Notation: students should bear in mind that regional conflicts sometimes start with nations that do not possess nuclear weapons simply hold alliances with nuclear-armed nations.)
Did Hollywood Go It Right? View the Hollywood picture show "13 Days," about the Cuban missile crisis, and then write a review in which you rate the flick from one to four stars, based upon its adherence to historical evidence and research. Students should cite specific facts and sources to support their conclusions. They may also wish to read the picture's original review
in The Times or this article by a scholar of the Cuban missile crisis and make the case for whether those interpretations of the film are justified or unwarranted.
Creating New Versions of the Story. Visit The Armageddon Letters, a Web site created at Canada's Balsillie School of International Affairs, to reconsider the significant of the Cuban missile crisis. Students should explore the site — which includes video, graphic novels, blogs and other innovative ways of exploring this history. Inquire them to write a review of the site or one of its elements, explaining whether it aids our understanding of the Cuban missile crisis and makes information technology relevant for future generations. Alternatively, invite students to emulate the Armageddon Letters project by creating something of their own, such as a blog or graphic retelling of an incident from the crunch.
Time Modify? Read this overview of the Doomsday Clock, which The Message of the Atomic Scientists has used since 1947 to dramatize global security threats and the likelihood of nuclear war. Apply your research on global wink points to determine whether the clock, currently set to five minutes before midnight, should exist reset in light of recent events.
Make Oral History. Read "In a Time of Hidden Crisis, President Visits Main Street," i man's childhood remembrance of President Kennedy's visit to his hometown during the Cuban missile crisis. Or, read "Leaving Guantánamo With the World on the Nuclear Brink," a family unit oral history of the evacuation of the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base of operations.
Then ask students to interview someone in their ain family that might remember the crisis. Alternatively, observe teachers, grandparents, school staff members or other volunteers, and invite them to class to talk about their memories. Students might interview the guests on a panel, or the visitors could rotate among groups. Students tin can take notes during the interviews and write an article about how one or more of these stories reveal a unlike side of the crunch.
Document Written report: Submariners Nether Pressure. Read the following declassified principal source, "Recollections of Vadim Orlov (USSR Submarine B-59): We volition Sink Them All, But We volition Not Disgrace Our Navy" (PDF), from the National Security Archive at George Washington University. It describes life aboard Soviet submarines during the Cuban missile crisis.
As role of of its "Secrets of the Expressionless" serial, PBS produced an episode "The Man Who Saved the Globe" nigh the same Soviet submarine off the Florida coast, and the commanders' contend whether to fire a nuclear missile at the United States at the height of the crunch. Ask students to use the sources as a starting point to compose a fictional letter from a member of a submarine's crew to a family member back in the Soviet Union. Their letter should provide colorful descriptions on life aboard the submarine; detailed recollections and beliefs about the crisis; and the submariner's personal reflections on the experience.
Document Study: Nuclear Orders. Read the following orders sent by the Soviet leadership in Moscow to Cuba in 1962, which are role of the main source collection at the National Security Annal at George Washington Academy. Separate students into teams to assess the importance of these two documents, based on their understanding of the Cuban missile crisis. They tin can make detailed grade presentations on how the crisis might have turned out differently if the Cardinal Intelligence Bureau had intercepted the orders — and sent them to the White Business firm — on the mean solar day they were transmitted.
USSR, draft directive, Directive to the Commander of Soviet Forces in Republic of cuba on transfer of Il-28s and Luna Missiles, and Authority on Use of Tactical Nuclear Weapons, September 8, 1962 (PDF)
USSR, Directive, Pinnacle Cloak-and-dagger, Prohibition on Use of Nuclear Weapons without Orders from Moscow, October 27, 1962, 16:30 (PDF)
Common Core ELA Anchor Standards, 6-12:
Reading
1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to brand logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
iii. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in various formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, likewise every bit in words.
8. Delineate and evaluate the statement and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning equally well as the relevance and sufficiency of the prove.
ix. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build noesis or to compare the approaches the authors take.
Writing
ane. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient prove.
ii. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the constructive selection, organization, and assay of content.
3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
Speaking and Listening
1. Ready for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own conspicuously and persuasively.
2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
three. Evaluate a speaker's betoken of view, reasoning, and apply of prove and rhetoric.
McREL Standards
World History
44. Understands the search for community, stability, and peace in an interdependent world.
46. Understands long-term changes and recurring patterns in world history.
Source: https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/23/flash-points-searching-for-modern-lessons-in-the-cuban-missile-crisis/
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