| The historiography of the Cuban Missile Crisis has been transformed dramatically since 1985. New source materials have internationalized the study of the crisis and reveal an unstable crisis marred by misconceptions, misinformation, mis-communication, shortsightedness, belligerence, and self-destructive fear. The traditional American perspective emphasizing the American victory over Soviet aggression has been replaced with an interpretation acknowledging mutual responsibility. The new view emphasizes crisis avoidance and has shifted the focus of study from the importance of the crisis to the significance of the events that actually produced the crisis. That emphasis requires an in-depth analysis of the causes and the "lessons" of the Cuban Missile Crisis. |
