Overview | Fifty years ago this week, the United States and Soviet Union narrowly averted catastrophe over the presence of nuclear missiles in Soviet-backed Cuba. But just how close did we come to an unintended nuclear war, and could a similar incident happen again?
In the activities below, students examine newly uncovered research on what took place during those 13 days in the fall of 1962. They?ll decide whether the crisis stands as an example of cool leadership under pressure or a cascade 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 similar risk.
Note: To accompany this lesson plan, we created a slide show from photographs archived in the New York Times picture library. We chose images that we thought might illuminate those tense days in interesting and accessible ways for students, and that might be fertile ground for further analysis and inquiry, especially when paired with the ideas we suggest below. You can also view it in a larger size here.
Materials | Computer with Internet connection and projector to display articles and video, computers with Internet connection for individual students or groups to use online resources, copies of stories or primary documents as needed.
Warm-Up | Tell students:
- In this lesson, we?ll be looking at one of the most studied and perhaps least understood episodes in recent history: the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Most people agree that it?s the closest we have ever come to an all-out nuclear war. And if that happened, it?s possible we might not be here today to talk about it.
- Does anyone know which countries were involved in this incident and what the dispute was about? 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 thought about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Read this overview of the Cuban Missile Crisis from the John F. Kennedy Library and Presidential Museum and watch our slide show above or, in a larger size, here.
- Based on what we?ve just read, what adjectives would you use to describe President John F. Kennedy and his handling of the Cuban missile crisis? Write students? ideas on the board.
- Now, we?re going to watch a short video about the Cuban missile crisis featuring Professor James G. Blight from Canada?s Balsillie School of International Affairs and the producer of the Armageddon Letters Web site. As we watch, I?d like you to listen carefully to the tone and language that?s being used.
- Based on this video, would you offer any different adjectives to describe Kennedy or his administration?s handling of this crisis? Does this video change our feelings about the Cuban missile crisis or suggest there?s more than one way to look at it? Write students? ideas on the board.
A short film about the Cuban missile crisis produced by The Armageddon Letters, a project 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.
Activity | 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 later, and a full week after the crisis had actually begun with the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba, Kennedy addressed the nation.
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In this activity, students make a double-sided timeline of the 13 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 newspaper reader learned on each day of the crisis. On the other side, students will add details about what actually happened according to later research or revelations. (For example, on Oct. 20 they initially thought President Kennedy had a cold, and it was later revealed that he had actually rushed back to the White House in response to the unfolding crisis.)
Divide students into groups and have them scan the original coverage from The New York Times during the Cuban missile crisis, including this overview. They may also use this day-by-day chronology of events from the John F. Kennedy Library and Presidential Museum. As students find information, they should record crucial facts in their timelines.
For the next part of the activity, students should scan the following articles from The Times to find revelations ? new facts or research that add to our understanding of what happened back in 1962 ? and fill in the other side of their timelines. (Students may wish to divide responsibility, with each member of the group reading one or two articles. Please tell students it is O.K. to approximate on dates for this part of the assignment, if they have trouble attaching a revelation to a specific day during the crisis.)
1989 ? Gaps in the Missile Crisis Story
1992 ? U.S. Underestimated Soviet Force in Cuba During ?62 Missile Crisis
2002 ? At Cuba Conference, Old Foes Exchange Notes on 1962 Missile Crisis
2002 ? The Cuban Missile Crisis: When the World Stood on Edge and Nobody Died Beautifully
2008 ? What You Think You Know About the Cuban Missile Crisis is Wrong
2012 ? General?s 1962 Memo Addresses Nuclear Combat on Cuba
During the last part of the activity, move quickly through the crisis with the class, asking each group to report on central discoveries or surprises from their research. For homework or an extension activity, students could design a poster dramatizing how one discovery by historians has shed new light on our understanding of the Cuban missile crisis. Each poster should make clear what people initially believed about an aspect of the crisis; how research or subsequent revelations changed that understanding; and a lesson or moral of the story for future leaders. As a culminating activity, students could create a poster gallery displaying their ideas.
This Oct. 25, 1962, Universal Studios newsreel, with its foreboding music and dramatic voice-over, captured the tension of the times and greeted moviegoers in theaters across the country. You might choose to use this video as part of an introduction to the missile crisis. Courtesy of The Internet Archive.
Going Further: Ways to Teach About the Cuban Missile Crisis
Handbook: How to Avoid World War III. Write a manual for leaders of the modern world ? a how-to manual for avoiding unintended armed conflicts ? based on the lessons of the Cuban missile crisis. It can be addressed to all world 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 conditions 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 also 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 Institute of Peace
2012 ? At 50, the Cuban Missile Crisis as Guide, an Op-Ed article from The New York Times
2012 ? Learning from History?s Most Dangerous Crisis, from the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University?s Kennedy School of Government
2012 ? Cuban Missile Crisis Beliefs Endure After 50 Years, an analysis of conventional wisdom about the crisis by the current Associated Press correspondent in Havana
Flash Points: The Next Crisis? Use your handbooks on the lessons of the Cuban missile crisis to make the case for which current global flash points present the greatest risk of stumbling into a nuclear conflict. Students should be sure to consider both the conditions that make conflict more likely (such as the lack of good communications between the two sides, proximity of military forces, or other factors that make an incident or misunderstanding more likely, etc?) and actions taken by one or both sides that increase tensions. Students may explore recent coverage from The Times?s recent coverage on places such as the Middle East, Iran, East Asia and the India-Pakistan border, as well as stories and web resources on nuclear weapons. (Note: students should bear in mind that regional conflicts sometimes start with nations that do not possess nuclear weapons but hold alliances with nuclear-armed nations.)
Did Hollywood Get It Right? View the Hollywood film ?13 Days,? about the Cuban missile crisis, and then write a review in which you rate the film 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 film?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 meaning of the Cuban missile crisis. Students should explore the site ? which includes video, graphic novels, blogs and other innovative ways of exploring this history. Ask 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 it 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 crisis.
Time Change? Read this overview of the Doomsday Clock, which The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has used since 1947 to dramatize global security threats and the likelihood of nuclear war. Use your research on global flash points to decide whether the clock, currently set to five minutes before midnight, should be reset in light of recent events.
Make Oral History. Read ?In a Time of Hidden Crisis, President Visits Main Street,? one man?s childhood remembrance of President Kennedy?s visit to his hometown during the Cuban missile crisis. Or, read ?Leaving Guant?namo With the World on the Nuclear Brink,? a family oral history of the evacuation of the Guant?namo Bay Naval Base.
Then ask students to interview someone in their own family that might remember the crisis. Alternatively, find 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 can take notes during the interviews and write an article about how one or more of these stories reveal a different side of the crisis.
Document Study: Submariners Under Pressure. Read the following declassified primary source, ?Recollections of Vadim Orlov (USSR Submarine B-59): We will Sink Them All, But We will 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 part of of its ?Secrets of the Dead? series, PBS produced an episode ?The Man Who Saved the World? about the same Soviet submarine off the Florida coast, and the commanders? debate whether to fire a nuclear missile at the United States at the height of the crisis. 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 part of the primary source collection at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Divide students into teams to assess the importance of these two documents, based on their understanding of the Cuban missile crisis. They can make detailed class presentations on how the crisis might have turned out differently if the Central Intelligence Agency had intercepted the orders ? and sent them to the White House ? on the day they were transmitted.
USSR, draft directive, Directive to the Commander of Soviet Forces in Cuba on transfer of Il-28s and Luna Missiles, and Authority on Use of Tactical Nuclear Weapons, September 8, 1962 (PDF)
USSR, Directive, TOP SECRET, 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 make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
Writing
1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis 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. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others? ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
3. Evaluate a speaker?s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence 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.
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