History IA: Cuban Missile Crisis

[Hackysack]

I have decided that I am doing my IA on the Cuban Missile Crisis, however I am slightly lost as to questions. I have done plenty on reading and I have been thinking about questions to do with justification (e.g. Was the USSR justified in placing missiles in Cuba?), however this particular question is to broad in my opinion and may a little bit too 'TOKish'.

Does anyone have any ideas as to the type of questions that I could do? Examples/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Edited January 20, 2009 by Hackysack

[Abu]

While I will not lock the thread, members should note that they should not give the OP exact questions, it is their own personal thesis.

Hackysack - Please look at this thread for examples: [url="http://www.ibsurvival.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=46"]http://www.ibsurvival.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=46[/url]

[Capa]

I wrote my EE on the Cuban Missile Crisis, and I think the question you have come up with is very common and therefore not the best.
You can for example focus on only one of the characters involved and evaluate that person, or maybe something about that many people says it is exaggerated.
Your choice

Capa...!

[Vvi]

Do you really want to do the Cuban missile crisis? If you are obsessed with it, great. But the problem is, it's one of the most common IA topics. Along with anything to do with WWII, Hitler, Mao, Stalin, the Berlin Blockade...basically any of the major topics covered in the History syllabus. This means that examiners have seen thousands of IA's on the Cuban missile crisis over the years, and that they know all the faults to look out for. It would be easier to get a better mark with a less overused topic.

Which country are you originally from, or living in? Are there any significant historical events/wars that you could analyze there? The IB loves it when people do EE's or IA's related to their own culture, since it's developing "global awareness". Plus it's likely to be an original topic that most other people haven't done.

Whatever you pick, don't do a question that attempts to predict other possible outcomes that never happened e.g. "If Communism had not been instituted by Lenin in the 1920's, would the Soviet Union have collapsed?" It's not history (since it never happened) and there's so many factors involved that it's like trying to read a crystal ball.

You should pick a topic that has several historical accounts of it, or is exaggerated by some people as Capa suggested. This will help in your analysis, when you have to evaluate different sources for reliability and bias.