Wes Cowan of PBS's History Detectives learns about the role of aerial reconnaissance and aerial photography in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The John F. Kennedy National Historic Site provides public access to the birthplace of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th President of the United States. The home has been restored to its 1917 appearance by Kennedy's mother, Rose Kennedy. Kennedy is the nation's only Catholic President, and the only President to have been awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his administration, cut short by his 1963 assassination, include the Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs Invasion, Space Race, Civil Rights Movement, and the building of the Berlin Wall.
The site offers period rooms, 30-minute guided tours, self-guided audio tours, self-guided neighborhood tours, guided neighborhood walking tours, Junior Ranger activities, and teacher workshops. The audio tour consists of the words and memories of Kennedy's mother; and is available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. Reservations are required for guided neighborhood walking tours. The site is currently inaccessible by wheelchair.
Former JFK advisor and historian Arthur Schlesinger, journalist Tom Wicker, and veteran political analyst and former Nixon staffer Kevin Phillips explore the varying legacies of the United State's wartime presidents.
Historian Sheldon M. Stern, author of Averting the Final Failure, discusses the secret Executive Committee meetings among President Kennedy and his most trusted advisors during the Cuban Missile Crisis. His presentation includes video footage of Kennedy.
A panel reviews the life, times, and memory of Robert F. Kennedy. Robert F. Kennedy's wife attends the panel as an audience member.
A series of professors and historians look at the presidential tape recordings of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon B. Johnson, focusing on what these tapes reveal about the presidents' decisions and roles during the Vietnam War. The panel also discusses the significance of such recordings in general—to memory, to the press, to historians—and what they reveal about the character of individual presidents.
Audio and video options are available.
Several panelists involved in the original reportage of the Cuban Missile Crisis discuss and debate their coverage of the Crisis and how the media might cover such a situation today. The presentation includes audio clips from original coverage of the Crisis.
Vincent Ferrara, Professor of International Politics at Mount Holyoke College, compiled this list of 117 primary source documents relating to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Some of these are links to documents on other sites. Documents include memoranda, telegrams, meeting notes, and audio clips. The site also contains five links to other sites about the crisis and 12 articles written in the last 15 years that discuss the crisis.
The site provides no introduction, no index, and no background on the documents. It is not organized thematically, alphabetically, or chronologically. It will be helpful to those looking for the most important documents of the missile crisis and less so for those who are not already involved in researching the topic.
Professor and author Noam Chomsky discusses the current "War on Terrorism" in the context of earlier perceptions of terrorism and national threat, including the Cold War and World War II.
The link provides direct access to the video, as no visual webpage exists as a gateway.
NBC Nightly News looks back at the Cuban Missile Crisis, showing how close America came to nuclear war with Russia in 1962.
The documentary clip may not appear on the first page.