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 anal