Cuban Missile Crisis Activity - World History
In this assignment we had to analyze “secret documents” about the Cuban Missile Crisis to find out what was occuring during this period. (The Cuban Missile Crisis was an event in 1962 during the Cold War where Cuban leader Fidel Castro allied with the USSR. President Kennedy then tried to invade Cuba unsuccessfully.) We were given a packet with pictures, letters, and maps and from these papers we were tasked to find out what the threat to the US was. This discovery portion of this project was difficult as we had to use only our given information to come up with this real scenario in history. From our information, we then had to read a list of scenarios of how the US should retaliate and list their pros and cons. From these pros and cons, we picked the ideal scenario of how the US should retaliate and wrote a letter to President Kennedy with this information.
This assignment addressed Global Awareness skills as we had to analyze and write a scenario in which this event could have been handled differently. Not only did we learn about the Cuban Missile Crisis, we also got the chance to discover how the United States handled this situation and how this event played a role in the Cold War as a whole. I was stretched in this skill as I’ve never been very good with politics. The analysis in the first portion of this assignment was difficult for me as I had to make sense of all these documents while having no knowledge of what was going on in Cuba and the US. However, working with my teammates I was able to look at the different files and piece together the missing information. In the end of this assignment, I came out more educated on the tension between Cuba, the USSR, and America. I never knew much about the Cold War previous to this assignment and now that I have researched this event, I understand how much tension was throughout the US during this time.
While I put hard work into this assignment, I am not entirely proud of it. I struggled a lot trying to analyze the case files we were given and even after an explanation, I still was a bit lost with how this event actually played out. In the future, I am going to ask for more help with assignments that have to do with politics as I know it is not my strong suit. Learning this skill is important for my future as once I am 18, I will be eligible to vote and will have to become well versed in what our government is doing for our country and other countries around the world. While I obviously won’t be coming up with ways to avoid a missile crisis, I will at least be able to understand why these threats are occuring.
This assignment addressed Global Awareness skills as we had to analyze and write a scenario in which this event could have been handled differently. Not only did we learn about the Cuban Missile Crisis, we also got the chance to discover how the United States handled this situation and how this event played a role in the Cold War as a whole. I was stretched in this skill as I’ve never been very good with politics. The analysis in the first portion of this assignment was difficult for me as I had to make sense of all these documents while having no knowledge of what was going on in Cuba and the US. However, working with my teammates I was able to look at the different files and piece together the missing information. In the end of this assignment, I came out more educated on the tension between Cuba, the USSR, and America. I never knew much about the Cold War previous to this assignment and now that I have researched this event, I understand how much tension was throughout the US during this time.
While I put hard work into this assignment, I am not entirely proud of it. I struggled a lot trying to analyze the case files we were given and even after an explanation, I still was a bit lost with how this event actually played out. In the future, I am going to ask for more help with assignments that have to do with politics as I know it is not my strong suit. Learning this skill is important for my future as once I am 18, I will be eligible to vote and will have to become well versed in what our government is doing for our country and other countries around the world. While I obviously won’t be coming up with ways to avoid a missile crisis, I will at least be able to understand why these threats are occuring.
Photo used under Creative Commons from www.mgaylard.co.uk