Download Cuban Missile Crisis Presentation

Just a Blink?
An Investigation into the Cuban Missile Crisis
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U.S. History (grade 11), 1-2 90-minute class periods
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Essential questions
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Common Core Standards
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Why did the Soviets remove their missiles from Cuba?
How did the Cold War superpowers resolve conflicts?
6. Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the
authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence.
9. Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent
understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
Sources
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Sam Wineburg et al., Reading Like a Historian: Teaching Literacy in Middle & High School
Classrooms (New York: Teachers College Press, 2013)
http://sheg.stanford.edu/cuban-missile-crisis
Thomas Blanton, “The Annals of Blinkmanship,” The Wilson Quarterly, Summer 1997
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/annals.htm
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/index.htm
http://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/
http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/days/timeline.html
Just a Blink?
An Investigation into the Cuban Missile Crisis
What does this cartoon
tell you about the Cuban
Missile Crisis? What else
do you know about it?
Oct. 14: A U-2 flying over western Cuba photographs Soviet missile sites on the island.
Oct. 16: President Kennedy is
briefed on the U-2 findings.
He calls a meeting of a group,
later known as ExComm, to
discuss diplomatic and military
options.
Oct. 22: Kennedy addresses the nation in a televised speech,
announcing the presence of offensive missile sites in Cuba,
calling for a quarantine of the island, and threatening further U.S.
military action.
Oct. 26: Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev sends a letter to Kennedy,
proposing to remove his missiles if
Kennedy would publicly announce
never to invade Cuba.
Oct. 27: Khrushchev sends another
letter to Kennedy, proposing to
remove Soviet missiles from Cuba in
exchange for the U.S. removing its
missiles from Turkey.
Oct. 27: U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy and Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin meet
to discuss a possible resolution to the crisis.
Oct. 28: Radio Moscow announces that the Soviet Union has accepted a resolution and releases the
text of a Khrushchev letter affirming that the missiles will be removed in exchange for a non-invasion
pledge from the United States. Kennedy’s public statement effectively ends the crisis.
“We were eyeball to
eyeball, and I think the
other fellow just blinked.”
Dean Rusk, October 1962
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Rusk’s assessment became the
traditional narrative of the Cuban
Missile Crisis in the U.S. According
this narrative, how and why did the
crisis end?
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Objectives: By the end of this lesson,
you will be able to examine the
traditional narrative against the
historical record. You will also be
able to articulate the difficulties of
dealing with the historical record.
What do the documents say?
Document A: Robert Kennedy, excerpt
from Thirteen Days
Document C: Kennedy’s memo and
Dobrynin’s memoir
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Does Kennedy seem to support the
traditional narrative (Rusk)?
What details from the document lead
you to reach that conclusion?
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What additional light do these
documents shed on the crisis?
Do they simplify or complicate the
historians’ challenge? Explain.
Document B: Anatoly Dobrynin, cable
to Moscow
Document D: Theodore Sorensen,
conference remarks
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In what areas do Dobrynin’s and
Kennedy’s accounts agree? Disagree?
Does Dobrynin seem to support the
traditional narrative? Why or why not?
Which of the two do you believe is the
more credible account? Why?
How do Documents A and B illustrate the
challenge facing historians in piecing
together the events of the past?
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What additional light does this document
shed on the crisis?
How, if at all, does it cause you to change
your earlier considerations?
How does history change over time?
Is history clearer immediately after the
fact or after a period of time has passed?
Explain.
What do the textbooks say?
“On October 26, Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles if the United States vowed never to
attack Cuba. The next day he demanded the removal of United States missiles from Turkey. After
frantic meetings, Kennedy agreed to the first demand but ignored the second. He also ordered
Khrushchev to get the missiles out of Cuba – or the United States would take them out. Finally, on
October 28, Khrushchev backed down and the crisis ended.”
American Odyssey
“In this tense eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation, Khrushchev finally flinched. On October 28 he
agreed to a partially face-saving compromise, by which he would pull missiles out of Cuba. The
United States in return agreed to end the quarantine and not invade the island. The American
government also quietly signaled that it would remove from Turkey some of its own missiles
targeted on the Soviet Union.”
The American Pageant
“Khrushchev offered to remove all missiles in return for a pledge from the United States not to
invade Cuba. Khrushchev later added a demand for removal of American weapons from Turkey. . . .
Kennedy secretly assured Khrushchev that the United States would dismantle the obsolete
Jupiter missiles in Turkey. On November 20, after weeks of delicate negotiations, Kennedy
publicly announced the withdrawal of Soviet missiles and bombers from Cuba, pledged to respect
Cuban sovereignty, and promised that U.S. forces would not invade the island.”
Out Of Many
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EQ1: Why did the Soviets remove their missiles from Cuba? (Did they “blink?” How certain are
you?)
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What do you think explains the differing accounts offered by Robert Kennedy and Anatoly
Dobrynin? Can they be reconciled?
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EQ2: If the Cuban Missile Crisis is indicative, how did the Cold War superpowers resolve
conflicts?
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How does this exercise illustrate the factors historians must consider in evaluating their sources?
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What might have been the implications of Rusk’s “eyeball to eyeball” assessment for future U.S.
policymakers? How does this speak to the importance of understanding history?