The Cuban Missile Crisis

Syllabus

Required Reading:

One Minute To Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, And Castro On the Brink Of Nuclear War, Michael Dobbs (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008)

Recommended Reading:

1. Nuclear Folly: A History Of The Cuban Missile Crisis, Serhii Plokhy (W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2021)
2. The Kennedy Tapes: Inside The White House During The Cuban Missile Crisis, Ernest R. May & Philip D. Zelikow (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997)
3. Eyeball To Eyeball: The Cuban Missile Crisis, Dino A. Brugioni (Random House, New York, 1991)
4. The Cuban Missile Crisis And The Cold War: A Short History With Documents, Michelle Getchell (Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis/Cambridge, 2018).

• Cuban Missile Crisis – List of Abbreviations
• Cuban Missile Crisis – List of Persons
• Links to Course-related Websites

Week One – September 14, 2022

• Cuban Missile Crisis Chronology – Sept & early Oct 1962
• Cuban Missile Crisis Chronology Oct 16-23 1962
• Marching To The Brink, 1959-Aug. 31, 1962
• George Kennan on Soviet Containment 1947
• US Relations With Russia – Cold War

• Telegram From The Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State Oct 23
• Map of Missile Ranges
• Cuban Missile Crisis Chronology Oct 24 1962 – Conclusion
• JFK to Khrushchev Oct 23

• Stanislav Petrov Day
• Jake Sullivan Warning Putin
• Tactical Nukes – Why the World Is so Worried about Russia’s Tactical Nuclear Weapons

• Oct 16
• Oct 17
• Oct 18
• Oct 19
• Oct 20
• Oct 21
• Oct 22
• Oct 23
• Oct 24

• Joint Evaluation
• Supplement 1
• Supplement 2
• Supplement 3
• Supplement 4
• Supplement 5

• Bertrand Russell and the Cuban Missile Crisis
• Biden Warns of Nuclear Armageddon
• Biden Seeks ‘Off-Ramp’

Week 6 – October 19, 2022

1. Atomic Gambit – JFK Library Podcast on the Cuban Missile Crisis
2. Panel Discussions on the Cuban Missile Crisis with Administration members
3. Relentless: JFK on Cuba, Putin on Ukraine

1. JFK Remarks on Dismantling Missile Bases in Cuba November 2
2. JFK Press Conference November 20
3. Khrushchev to JFK December 11
4. JFK to Khrushchev December 14

1. Ambassador of Russia
2. Putin’s Nuclear Threats
3. Joint Statement
4. I’ve Studied the Cuban Missile Crisis
5. Russia and US still have time to learn
6. Russia’s small nuclear arms
7. Schlesinger to JFK Oct 29