Take Two : The Cuban Missile Crisis
After school on a Friday in February , 27 Sixth Formers gathered in Cottage Block . Each had been assigned a role , and were split between three rooms . They would be simulating the Cuban Missile Crisis in a student initiative to develop their understanding of history . An hour and a half later , things had become more complicated than any of them had expected .
Alex Dobak , as President of the United States , sat in silence in room C8 . His hands rested on the table in front of him . He kept glancing at the door , and then at the empty chair a little way down . Why was the Ambassador taking so long ? They had been informed minutes before that the Soviet Union had ignored the US blockade and had continued sending nuclear submarines towards Cuba . Now the room had to make a critical decision . Should they fire on Soviet submarines and potentially go to war ? The Ambassador , Michael Presland , had gone to negotiate with his Soviet counterpart , Shona Oliver , but time was running out . ‘ Mr President , they ’ ve almost reached the Cuban shores .’ The President looked at the Cabinet around him and said , ‘ I think we should fire .’ The room went to a vote , the vote passed , and the US fired the shot .
The day had begun with hopes of peace . They had assembled after school in C8 and talked through the options . The Vice-President , Jonah Sweidan , spearheaded the faction pushing for a blockade , and the room came to agree that perhaps that was the best option .
It had worked for a while . The Soviet Union had stopped their nuclear ships , but then the negotiations fell apart and the Premier , Theodore Godfrey , gave the order for the submarines to proceed . The US fired . That ’ s where it all started going wrong . The Cuban room was now split . The US-backed President , Maximillian Nicoll , tried to stage a covert coup against the Prime Minister . The Soviets had not fired back , but they had not stopped either . Nuclear missiles had reached Cuba . They were in the end game .
The next hour was a blur of meetings . The Cuban PM , Ilyas Shahril Ridza , secured his position , strong-arming
the USSR into providing him unconditional support . The Soviet General embedded with Cuba , Lucy Zuo , desperately sent letters to her commanders in the Soviet room , Serena Murdoch and Kateryna Pinchuk . The Soviet Finance Minister , David Dekel , entered the negotiation room , only to find the US President walking in with a nuclear button , threatening complete war . Rounds of negotiation later , a peace agreement sat in front of them . The Americans hesitated , were they giving away too much ? Then the President quietly picked up his pen and signed . It was over .
Cheering , the participants entered C5 for their debrief . We , as chief designer and chief historian , welcomed them in alongside the moderators , Zoe Tockman , Jerry Xiao , Daniel Naylor and Eric Feng . We had spent months planning the event and started the debrief with a vote of thanks to Mrs Mack , for her help . We talked about how similar our success was to that of the real world . Maybe , just maybe , we ’ d learnt something this day about difficult decisions , moments of crisis and working together .
Alexandar Krastev and Aryan Goenka , Lower Sixth
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