Cuban Missile Crisis

Grade Range: 9-12
Resource Type(s): Lessons & Activities
Duration: 90 minutes
Date Posted: 9/21/2010

In this lesson plan students will examine primary sources to determine the level of threat caused by the buildup of Soviet nuclear missiles and weapons sites in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis and will analyze President Kennedy’s response.  This resource was produced to accompany the exhibition The Price of Freedom: Americans at War by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.


National Standards

United States History Standards (Grades 5-12)

World History Standards (Grades 5-12)

Historical Thinking Standards (Grades 5-12)

Instructional Strategies