Like no other region on the globe, the Caribbean Basin has served as a testing ground for U.S. foreign policy. Of all the countries in the region, Cuba has been the scene of many of the United States' most riveting foreign policy dramas. The teacher resource book and student text probe the complex, often troubled, relationship between the United States and Cuba, and examine the crisis that brought the world to the brink of war. The unit analyzes the Cold War dynamics that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis and examines the decision-making process within the Kennedy administration at the height of the confrontation with the Soviet Union. The student text surveys the evolution of U.S. involvement in the region and Cuba from the early nineteenth century to the present and prepares students to consider thoughtfully the causes and ramifications of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The teacher resource book contains a day-by-day lesson plan and student activities. Lesson plans include "U.S. Influence in the Caribbean and Central America,""Retracing the Path to October 1962,""Inside the Cuban Missile Crisis,""Roleplaying the Options,""Examining the Documents of the Cuban Missile Crisis,""Examining the Cuban Point of View," and "Forty Years of U.S. Cuban Relations." (Author/BB)