The Cuban missile crisis: An analysis of a quarter century of historiography

The perception of the Cuban missile crisis created in the 1960s has undergone drastic changes in the quarter century following that event. The emerging picture in the 1990s is a very different one from the original limited view of respectful acclaim and admiration for President John F. Kennedy and his advisors. Historians of the crisis have rushed to develop new perspectives without full use of all material available. Existing American declassifications help explain Soviet motives but do not justify them. Soviet and Cuban archival sources remain virtually untapped. Existing oral histories require documentary confirmation. The bulk of all multi-national archival material remains unavailable. The study of the crisis has not passed beyond its preliminary stages with the full story still to be written.