Image Source - Cuban Missile Crisis - A Visual Guide to the Cold War
Instructions
- First, read the overview of the Cuban Missile Crisis
- Option 1 - Long Form Article - Learning from the Missile Crisis
- Notes - For each section, pick out one detail that you believe you should remember.
- Calamitous Miscalculations
- The Making of a Crisis
- The President’s Men Convene
- Story of a Lifetime
- A Collective Sigh of Relief
- Condemned to Repeat?
- Notes - For each section, pick out one detail that you believe you should remember.
- Option 2 - Video - The Cuban Missile Crisis Explained In 20 Minutes (20min)
- Notes - Write down details that you learned while watching the video
- Details can include names of important people, events, places, dates
- Notes - Write down details that you learned while watching the video
- Option 3 - Podcast - History Unplugged
- Notes - Write down details that you learned while watching the video
- Details can include names of important people, events, places, dates
- Notes - Write down details that you learned while watching the video
Option 2 - Video - The Cuban Missile Crisis Explained In 20 Minutes (20min)
Option 3 - Podcast - History Unplugged
The Cuban Missile Crisis Was Horrifyling Close to Becoming a Nuclear Holocaust
The Cuban Missile Crisis of the early 1960s nearly led to a full-scale nuclear war between America and the Soviet Union. It thankfully didn't happen, but we came much closer than many realize. Today's guest Martin Sherwin is author of the book Gambling with Armageddon. He gives us a riveting sometimes hour-by-hour explanation of the crisis itself, but also explores the origins, scope, and consequences of the evolving place of nuclear weapons in the post-World War II world. Mining new sources and materials, and going far beyond the scope of earlier works on this critical face-off between the United States and the Soviet Union–triggered when Khrushchev began installing missiles in Cuba at Castro’s behest–Sherwin shows how this volatile event was an integral part of the wider Cold War and was a consequence of nuclear arms. We look in particular at the original debate in the Truman Administration about using the Atomic Bomb; the way in which President Eisenhower relied on the threat of massive retaliation to project U.S. power in the early Cold War era; and how President Kennedy, though unprepared to deal with the Bay of Pigs debacle, came of age during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Here too is a clarifying picture of what was going on in Khrushchev’s Soviet Union.
The Cuban Missile Crisis of the early 1960s nearly led to a full-scale nuclear war between America and the Soviet Union. It thankfully didn't happen, but we came much closer than many realize. Today's guest Martin Sherwin is author of the book Gambling with Armageddon. He gives us a riveting sometimes hour-by-hour explanation of the crisis itself, but also explores the origins, scope, and consequences of the evolving place of nuclear weapons in the post-World War II world. Mining new sources and materials, and going far beyond the scope of earlier works on this critical face-off between the United States and the Soviet Union–triggered when Khrushchev began installing missiles in Cuba at Castro’s behest–Sherwin shows how this volatile event was an integral part of the wider Cold War and was a consequence of nuclear arms. We look in particular at the original debate in the Truman Administration about using the Atomic Bomb; the way in which President Eisenhower relied on the threat of massive retaliation to project U.S. power in the early Cold War era; and how President Kennedy, though unprepared to deal with the Bay of Pigs debacle, came of age during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Here too is a clarifying picture of what was going on in Khrushchev’s Soviet Union.