Some great sites to check out on this anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis:
1. The George Washington University The National Security Archive
Tweeting the Cuban Missile Crisis
In partnership with ForeignPolicy.com,
the Cuban Missile crisis will be tweeted in real time recreating the
hours and days leading up to the final events of October. You can also
revisit our One Minute to Midnight series of posts on the crisis written by Michael Dobbs.http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/index.html
2. The Armageddon Letters
Washington, DC, October 1, 2012 -- The Armageddon Letters - a transmedia project (multiplatform storytelling) launched on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis - takes visitors behind the scenes during the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the most dangerous crisis in recorded history. The project is based at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and is led by the scholars and filmmakers -- long-time partners of the National Security Archive -- that were involved in the Academy Award-winning documentary, THE FOG OF WAR, and the Golden Palm Award-winning, VIRTUAL JFK.
The Armageddon Letters refers to the unprecedented exchange of letters and other communications between Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro, before, during and after the crisis.
Watch the latest short films from the project, Be Khrushchev (http://youtu.be/N8hLWDdvBm8) and Be Castro (http://youtu.be/NHVpuhApSC0):
The Armageddon Letters project provides the empirical core of an argument often made by former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara: The indefinite combination of nuclear weapons and human fallibility will result in the destruction of nations, possibly all nations. This leads to the following takeaways for us now, in the 21st century:
* Nuclear Armageddon is possible. As a matter of historical record - not merely hypothetical scenarios or other projections - it is now known that a catastrophic nuclear war nearly happened in October 1962.
* Nuclear Armageddon is possible even if no one wants it. In a crisis of this urgency, a series of conscious decisions that would seem unthinkable under normal conditions becomes likely as the pressure to attack first becomes almost too much for leaders to bear.
* Armageddon must be made impossible. The combination of nuclear weapons and human fallibility will eventually result in nuclear destruction if these weapons are not abolished.
Painstakingly researched and historically significant, The Armageddon Letters is the first major academic project that adopts a transmedia model. The project's research unfolds on multiple platforms: a book, graphic novels, short films , podcasts (by James Blight and janet Lang), and blogs (by Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro). The Armageddon Letters is counting down to the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis @armageddontweet
http://www.armageddonletters.com/
3. Foreign Policy Magazine:
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, the nerve-wracking peak of the Cold War. To commemorate this event, Foreign Policy is tweeting the Cuban missile crisis in real time, chronicling the days, hours, and minutes when the world stood on the brink of nuclear destruction. Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once noted that history is "lived forward" but "understood backward." Join us as we retell the story of the Cuban missile crisis as it was actually experienced by John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, and Fidel Castro -- forward rather than backward, in all its cliff-hanging excitement and unpredictability. Michael Dobbs, a Foreign Policy blogger and author of One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War, will draw topical lessons from the gravest national security crisis of the Cold War. How much does a president know when he makes decisions that could affect the lives of millions? Does he control events, or do events control him? Could we be faced with an Iranian missile crisis in October 2012? Is there a way back from the brink?
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/cubanmissilecrisis
4. Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_missile_crisis
5. CIA Video of Symposium o (1992)
http://archive.org/details/gov.ntis.PB94780186
6. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Cuban-Missile-Crisis.aspx
7. The National Security Archive The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 40th Anniversary site. This has some great links, declassified documents, and images even though it is from 10 years ago:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/
8. Cubanmissilecrisis.org Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has created this website to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. :
http://www.cubanmissilecrisis.org/
9. Yale University's The Avalon Project
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/msc_cubamenu.asp
10. CIA Central Intelligence Agency
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article06.html
11. No Time to Talk: The Cuban Missile Crisis
http://www.october1962.com/index.html
12. Khan Academy video: The Cuban Missile Crisis
http://youtu.be/VO40SpSBjbc
13. US Navy History Video:
http://youtu.be/CkuwS9E-FLo
14. The Discovery Channel Defcon 2 video
http://youtu.be/Jwz7YAQj-r0
15. The Wilson Center: The Cold War International History Project
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/program/cold-war-international-history-project
