Description: It's 1962, the height of the Cold War. The U.S. has caught the Russians secretly installing nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba. President John F. Kennedy convenes a team of advisors to help him decide how to respond. The challenge: how to force the Russians to withdraw the missiles without provoking nuclear war.

Thirteen Days shows President Kennedy's wise leadership in meeting this challenge as he resisted the demands for air strikes and for invasion. If he had not we'd all be living in a post-nuclear war world, except there would be hundreds of millions fewer of us, especially in the U.S., Cuba, Russia, and Europe.

Benefits: Thirteen Days is the story of mankind's closest brush with nuclear Armageddon. Many events are portrayed exactly as they occurred. The movie captures the tension that the crisis provoked and provides an example of how foreign policy was made in the last half of the 20th century. Supplemented with the information provided in this Learning Guide, the film shows how wise leadership during the crisis saved the world from nuclear war, while mistakes and errors in judgment led to the crisis. The film is an excellent platform for debates about the Cuban Missile Crisis, nuclear weapons policy during the Cold War, and current foreign policy issues. With the corrections outlined in this Learning Guide, the movie can serve as a motivator and supplement for a unit on the Cold War.