The Cuban Missile Crisis

by Susan Clinton

Book Overview

Presents the details of the 1962 confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the placement of Russian offensive missiles in Cuba. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0516066676
• ISBN13: 9780516066677
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Children's Press(CT)
• Length: 30 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Should be required reading of all elementary school children

One can only hope that the closest humans will ever get to nuclear war took place in 1962. American spy planes took photographs of Soviet missiles with nuclear warheads being installed in Cuba. This was a dramatic escalation of the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union and any outbreak of war would most likely have resulted in a nuclear exchange. American President Kennedy was under great pressure to launch massive air strikes against the missile sites, but to his everlasting credit, he chose not to. Despite his tendency to bluster, Soviet Premier Khrushchev must also be credited with demonstrating sound judgment and leadership. Ironically, Khrushchev's actions in Cuba were one of the main reasons he was ousted from power a few years later. There were many crises and confrontations between the two superpowers during the cold war, the resolution of this one is a case study in how crises can be managed so that they do not spiral out of control. It is an event that should be studied and restudied, and that examination should begin early in the life of every citizen of the world. It was a very dangerous time, yet the danger was averted. This book describes that event using language and terminology that the late elementary school child can understand. It should be required reading as no one can ever know when one of the readers of the book may grow up to be a leader facing such a crisis.