Process Paper

When we first began to brainstorm, we made the conscious decision to reach out farther
than a literal definition of an explorer and instead wanted to focus on an encounter or an
exchange. While thinking about significant encounters in history, the Cuban Missile Crisis
popped into our minds.
By the end of the eighth history fair check, we had gathered a large amount of primary
and secondary sources and had accumulated a very high level and in-depth knowledge of the
Cuban Missile Crisis. We found transcripts of the the ExComm meetings, informational websites
written by experts in the subject, and a plethora of quotes from letters, speeches, and meetings.
However, we felt like we were missing a source that by itself had a huge impact on the project.
This led to our interview with Sergei Khrushchev, son of Nikita Khrushchev and Brown
professor. We met up with him at his house in Providence, RI, and conducted a 40 minute long
conversation about what caused the Crisis, what its long term effects were, and his unique
perspective on what occurred.
Right from the start, we knew that we wanted to create a website, because we are both
strong writers and visually creative thinkers. Also, in a more practical sense, we wanted to be
able to work on our project in any location or on any device without being hindered by the
barriers of a physical presentation or a documentary.
During the Cold War in 1962, increasingly hostile interactions between Cuba and the
United States of America caused Fidel Castro, Cuban President, to fear an invasion by the U.S.
government. As a result, Castro allied with the communist Soviet Union, who then began placing
Soviet missiles and other nuclear weapons in Cuba. In reaction to the potentially dangerous
encounter between the two countries, President John F. Kennedy of the United States
government assembled an elite group of men with a plethora of political views and experiences
to form the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, or the ExComm. Throughout
the Crisis, this group played a key role in making important decisions for the United States and
for John F. Kennedy. The members of the ExComm exchanged conflicting opinions about how to
handle the situation, and as a result the United States Government made the decision to enact a
blockade on Cuba, which in turn resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis in a manner that avoided a
nuclear war and saved a generation from war and strife.