Cuban Missile Crisis: Teaching Activities

Standards Correlations

This lesson correlates to the National History Standards.

Era 9 - Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)
Standard 2A - Demonstrate understanding of the international origins and domestic consequences of the Cold War. Explain the origins of the Cold War and the advent of nuclear politics. [Hold interpretations of history as tentative]

This lesson correlates to the National Standards for Civics and Government

Standard III, B. - How is the national government organized and what does it do?
Standard IV, A. - How is the world organized politically?
Standard IV, B. - How do the domestic politics and constitutional principles of the United States affect its relations with the world?
Standard IV, C. - How has the United States influenced other nations, and how have other nations influenced American politics and society?

Constitutional Connection

This lesson relates to providing for the common defense as stated in the Preamble and to Article II, Section 2, Paragraph 1, of the U.S. Constitution, in which the president is charged to serve as commander in chief of the nation's armed forces.

Cross-curricular Connections

Share this exercise with your colleagues in history, government, American literature, and language arts.

Teaching Activities

Introductory Exercises

1. Ask students to use their textbooks and other classroom resources to identify the important events of John F. Kennedy's presidency and when they occurred. Compile this information into a timeline on the board.
2. Ask students to read the introductory essay and to use the list of suggested resources, their textbooks, or other classroom materials to construct a timeline of the major events of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Compile the timeline on the board.

Evaluate the Historical Record

1. Ask students to write a paper in which they assume the identity of an Executive Committee member and advise President Kennedy on which course of action to take in response to the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. This "policy paper" should be based upon students' reading of, or listening to, the selected transcripts of ExComm meetings and should take the form of an official memorandum to the president.
2. Compare the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis as told by actual historical documents with the version relayed by the Hollywood movie "Thirteen Days." Ask students to complete a "Motion Picture Analysis Worksheet" from the National Archives (available below), evaluating the film, how it communicates, and its major themes. What are the movie's major thematic and economic objectives? Which is more reliable--historical documents, historians' accounts, or the movie--and why? Does the movie contain any inaccuracies? How do movies and written texts communicate and present evidence differently? Which communicates more effectively and why?

"Motion Picture Analysis Worksheet" from the National Archives and Records Administration: http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/analysis_worksheets/movie.html

Reenact the Past

1. Divide class into small groups--three or four students. Ask each group to take the perspective of a certain member of the ExComm--President Kennedy, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Director of Central Intelligence John McCone, national security adviser McGeorge Bundy, Under Secretary of State George Ball, etc. Each group should research the biography of its assigned historical actor and the views expressed by that actor during the meetings. Assign one student from each group to record the group's findings.
2. Then organize a class debate, in the format of an ExComm meeting, to discuss how the United States should respond to the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba in October 1962. Assign one student from each group to express that group's findings. What option did the assigned committee member favor? What were the benefits and drawbacks of that option? What was the committee member's role during the meetings? Which ExComm member was most convincing and why?

Document Analysis

Divide the class into small groups--three or four students--and assign each group a document to analyze. Ask each group to complete an analysis worksheet (available below) appropriate to each kind of document--photograph, sound recording, or written text--included in the learning package. Direct students to pay particular attention to the following questions: What type of document is it? What is the date of the document, and why is that information important? Who created the document, and why is such information important? Do the documents indicate that the historical actors behaved rationally or emotionally? Which documents were classified and why? What information does each document convey? What was its intended audience? Once the groups' analyses are complete, hold a class discussion comparing their findings. Which document is more reliable and why? What distinguishes photographs, sound recordings, and written texts?

Document analysis worksheets from the National Archives and Records Administration:

http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/analysis_worksheets/document.html
http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/analysis_worksheets/photo.html
http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/analysis_worksheets/sound.html

Creative Writing

Ask students to imagine themselves as Americans living in October 1962. Who would they be, and why? Given their knowledge of American history, would they be concerned by the events that took place in Cuba that month? What would those concerns have been? Do the issues involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis have any bearing upon students' own present-day experiences?

Oral History

Assign students to interview family, staff, or community members who have memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Students should compose a list of questions and record the interviewee's responses: Where did they live? What was their occupation? How did they react to President Kennedy's speech of October 22, 1962? When the interviews are complete, divide students into small groups and ask them to compare their findings. Designate one member of each group to share the conclusions reached by the group. As they do so, make a list of key findings on the board, thereby compiling a popular, bottom-up history of the crisis.