The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War

6 min readMar 18, 2022

A TED-Ed video followed by several APUSH Topic 8.2 MCQs, SAQs, and LEQs

In September 2016, educator Mathew A. Jordan and the insanely talented folks at TED-Ed produced an outstanding 4:42 animated video entitled The History of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I’ve shown this video to my APUSH students every year since 2016 but this year, for the first time, will follow up by providing them with a chance to answer the APUSH style Multiple Choice, Short Answer, and Long Answer questions found below.

The MCQs

Questions 1–4 refer to the photo below

U.S. reconnaissance photograph of soviet missile sites on Cuba, taken from a Lockheed U-2 spy plane

Q1
The Soviet Union placed missiles in Cuba in order to ___ the island of Cuba.

A. Attack
B. Defend
C. Conquer
D. Colonize

Q2.
The United States called the blockade a quarantine because:

A. Quarantine sounds better than a blockade
B. Quarantine is the correct military term
C. A blockade is a term for war; a quarantine isn’t
D. A blockade suggests illness

Q3.
Which of the following is not part of the October 1962 agreement that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis?

A. The U.S will never invade Cuba
B. The Soviet Union will remove the missiles from Cuba
C. The United Nations will inspect the removal of missiles in Cuba
D. The Soviet Union will hold open elections

Q4.
Which of the following is taking place in America at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis?

A. The Civil Rights Movement
B. The First Great Migration
C. The Harlem Renaissance
D. The ascendance of a new conservative movement

Questions 5–8 refer to the excerpt below

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty. […] Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us. […] And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
* John F. Kennedy, inaugural address, 1961

Q5
In his address, Kennedy is suggesting that in the years leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, American must:

A. restrain communist military power and ideological influence
B. create alliances with recently decolonized nations
C. reestablish the principle of isolationism
D. avoid a military confrontation with the Soviet Union

Q6
The ideas expressed in the excerpt best reflect the ideas expressed in which of the following

A. George Kennan’s Long Telegram (1946)
B. Alfred Thayer Mahan’s The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890)
C. The Treaty of Versailles (1917)
D. George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)

Q7
The excerpt would be most useful to historians as a source of information about which of the following

A. The Spanish American War
B. The Cold War
C. World War II
D. The First Great Migration

Q8
Which of the following took place shortly after JFK’s inaugural address and the Cuban Missile Crisis

A. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident
B. The lowering of the Iron Curtain
C. The Berlin Airlift
D. The Truman Doctrine

Questions 9 and 10 refer to the excerpt below.

“I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way. I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes.”
President Harry Truman, address before a joint session of Congress articulating what would become known as the Truman Doctrine, 1947

Q9
In his statement, Truman had the goal of

A. restraining communist military power and ideological influence
B. creating alliances with recently decolonized nations
C. reestablishing the principle of isolationism
D. avoiding a military confrontation with the Soviet Union

Q10
Truman issued the doctrine primarily in order to

A. support decolonization in Asia and Africa
B. support United States allies in Latin America
C. protect United States interests in the Middle East
D. bolster non-communist nations, particularly in Europe

The SAQs

Briefly explain one specific historical impact of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Briefly describe a historical event, development, or process that occurred before the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Briefly describe one major similarity between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Berlin Airlift.
Briefly describe one major difference between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Berlin Airlift.
Briefly describe one major similarity between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Marshall Plan.
Briefly describe one major difference between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Marshall Plan.
Briefly describe one major similarity between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Peace Corps.
Briefly describe one major difference between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Peace Corps.
The Cuban Missile Crisis raised tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. Name and briefly describe a specific historical event that led to a general easing of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The LEQs

Evaluate the extent to which the United States sought to contain Communism in Latin America from 1947–1968.
Evaluate the extent to which US Cold War containment policy succeeded in Latin America from 1950 to 1970.
Evaluate the extent to which Americans feared Soviet expansion in Latin America from 1947 to 1965
Evaluate the relative importance of the different causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Sidenote #1

If you by chance have a few MCQs, SAQs, or LEQs that you’ve created and want to see added to this post, just email them to me at ppaccone@smusd.us. I’d gladly include.

Sidenote #2

Below is a 5:39 video entitled The Photo That Almost Started a Nuclear War

And now, below, how this photo was taken, as depicted in the movie 13 Days in October.

The Cold War by APUSH teacher Steve Heimler

The Cold War by APUSH teacher Adam Norris

Sidenote #3

Aside from the above, I also encourage my students to watch APUSH teacher Jose Gregory’s 8.2 and 8.3 AP Daily videos (The Cold War from 1945–1980). I’m a big fan of the AP Daily videos.

Yes, I have heard many AP teachers describe the AP Daily videos as “boring,” worse even, but that’s not how I view the videos.

I view the AP Daily videos as content-rich, well-structured, professionally-looking, and well-presented bite-sized bits of knowledge that allow for all students to learn the needed content and skills in as little time as possible.

Below is what I especially like about the AP Daily videos (Mr. Gregory’s videos, in particular):

That the information found on each slide is so well written and formatted that the students who want to take notes need only take screenshots of the slides, rather than have to listen over and over again to what the video-producing teacher has said to get the gist of the message. To put it another way, I find the AP Daily videos infinitely more “note-taking friendly” than any of the content-delivering videos produced by various AP teachers found on Youtube, though I think many of these teachers have also produced high-quality videos. I, in fact, show some of their videos in class on occasion, though only after having had my students watch the AP Daily videos.
That the AP Daily video-producing teachers don’t attempt to interject humor, movie clips, silly faces, and sound effects into their videos. I prefer the no-nonsense, I’m not-going-to-waste-your-time approach; generally finding the alternative, and their attempts to engage, an unwanted distraction.
That AP Classroom provides me with the ability to hold my students accountable to the watching of the videos by way of an online, though often administered in class, AP Classroom Topic Question Quiz.
That AP Classroom provides me with an indication of the extent to which the students in my classes have answered the AP Classroom Topic Question Quiz questions correctly.
That AP Classroom provides me with an indication of the extent to which my students have “watched” each of the assigned videos.
That AP Classroom does not allow students to skip through a video and still earn credit for having “watched” the video. Students must watch the entire video for AP Classroom to so register.