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Cuban Missile Crisis

A Guide to Finding Government Information

Web version of this guide includes links to web resources.

Search Tips:

Mix and match these terms in searching the library catalog, WestCat , or use them to search journal articles and law reviews via the library's Databases page. You can also use them to search government information sites listed on our Starting Points page - click the tab and pay particular attention to the Top Six.

  • Cuban missile crisis
  • JFK
  • Fidel Castro
  • USSR or Soviet Union
  • foreign policy
  • nuclear war
  • nuclear weapons
  • John F. Kennedy
  • Nikita Khrushchev
  • foreign relations
  • Cuba
  • blockade
  • National Security Council
  • reconnaissance

Related Topics:
  • Cold War
  • Communism

An important source for many research topics is Congress. Congressional committees and subcommittees hold hearings on a wide variety of controversial and timely subjects. Simply add the word "hearing?" to a search string in WestCat .

Search Engines

Google and StartPage
Use these search engines to search for government information by typing "site:gov" in the search box preceding your search terms:

  • site:gov "Cuban missile crisis"
  • site:mil Castro nuclear weapons
Federal Government Information
The Cuban Missile Crisis at 50: In Search of Historical Perspective

"It was just the most devastating event in world history . . . that somehow didn't happen." This article uncovers many of the things that could have been mistaken during the crisis for acts of war and, thence, ushered in a nuclear holocaust.
Prologue, Fall 2012, AE 1.111:44/3
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2012/fall/cuban-missiles.html

Soviet Deception in the Cuban Missile Crisis: Learning from the Past

This is a short overview of the repeated lies by the Soviets concerning cargo being shipped to Cuba in the Spring and Summer of 1962.
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article06.html

Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States - John F. Kennedy, 1962

Messages and statements from the president and/or his office in chronological order. 1963
GS 4.113:962

Cordon of Steel

This short book details the roll played by the U.S. Navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 1993
https://archive.org/details/CordonOfSteel
D 221.16:1

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962: a Case in National Security Crisis Management

Description Available electronically from the Hathi Trust - WIU Only. 1978
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112039605115;seq=3;view=1up
D 5.410:C 89

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Volume XI, Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath

Read reports, memoranda, minutes, and transcripts of meetings as the crisis unfolded and resolved.
http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v11
S 1.1:961-63/v.11

NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis

This site offers scanned documents, some handwritten, concerning NSA's role in intelligence gathering activities on Soviet shipments to Cuba.
http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/declass/cuban_missile_crisis/index.shtml

Why We Should Still Study the Cuban Missile Crisis

This report is a summary of a book written by the same author after extensive research and analysis, which included travel to Russia and Cuba to interview soldiers, bureaucrats, and politicians involved in the conflict and also examines U.S. foreign policy decisions based on erroneous conclusions concerning its resolution. 2008
http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS95544

The Political-Military Rivalry for Operational Control in U.S. Military Actions: a Soldier’s Perspective

This paper examines the micromanagement of military operations by politicians and its consequences, both good and bad, and offers solutions for better fulfillment of the political objectives behind military actions. The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War are central to the discussion. 1998
http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS12200

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962: Presenting the Photographic Evidence Abroad

This declassified document from the CIA describes the reconnaissance flight and the handling of the aerial photographic evidence therefrom.
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/10cuban.html

On the Brink: the Cuban Missile Crisis

This forum marking the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis is introduced by Caroline Kennedy and includes members from the Kennedy Administration and Sergei Khrushchev, the son of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/Biographies-and-Profiles/~/media/assets/Education and Public Programs/Forum Transcripts/On the Brink The Cuban Missile Crisis.pdf

CIA Documents on the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962

This 354-page book is a compilation of declassified CIA documents and communications from the Cuban Missile Crisis. 1992
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/Cuban%20Missile%20Crisis1962.pdf
PREX 3.17:C 89

http://www.wiu.edu/libraries/govpubs/guides/cubanMissileCrisis.php

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