Cold War Lesson Plan
Cold War Lesson Plan
Date:
Plan of Instruction:
1. Review:
Differences between communism and capitalism.
US and Soviet Union were allies in WWII.
After WWII, Europe was in ruins, and former colonial empires were crumbling.
This set the scene for increased competition between the two superpowers, the
U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
The Soviet Red Army remained in Eastern Europe after the war, which led to the
Soviet Bloc. At the same time, the United States developed policies of
containment in particular, the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.
2. Timeline and PowerPoint Lecture: Read the Cold War Timeline and the
PowerPoint slides to draw attention to key events:
Slide 1: The Iron Curtain Speech
Slide 2: The Truman Doctrine
Slide 3: The Marshall Plan
Slide 4: NATO and Warsaw Pact
Slide 5: Introduce todays Central Historical Question:
Who was started the Cold War, the United States or the Soviet Union?
Over the past decades historians have disagreed over this question. Today, we
are going to look closely at some Cold War documents in order to address the
question for ourselves.
3. Read Documents A and B. Answer the Guiding Questions. Record your initial
hypothesis regarding the Central Historical Question.
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Citations:
Document A
Iron Curtain Speech Winston Churchill, March 1946, Fulton, Missouri.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/churchill-iron.html
Document B
Truman Doctrine Speech, President Truman to Congress, March 12, 1947.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/harrystrumantrumandoctrine.html
Document C
Nikolai Novikov, telegram to Soviet Leadership, September 1946.
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=904
Document D
Secretary of Commerce and former Vice President Henry A. Wallace letter to President Harry S.
Truman, July 23, 1946, in Papers of Harry S. Truman, Presidents Secretarys Files, Harry S.
Truman Library, Independence, Missouri.
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One of the primary objectives of the foreign policy of the United States is
the creation of conditions in which we and other nations will be able to work
out a way of life free from coercion.
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How do American actions appear to other nations? I mean actions [like] the
Bikini tests of the atomic bomb and continued production of bombs, the
plan to arm Latin America with our weapons, and the effort to secure air
bases spread over half the globe from which the other half of the globe can
be bombed. I cannot but feel that these actions must make it look to the
rest of the world as if we were only paying lip service to peace at the
conference table.
These facts rather make it appear either (1) that we are preparing ourselves
to win the war which we regard as inevitable or (2) that we are trying to
build up a predominance [largest amount] of force to intimidate the rest of
mankind.
Our interest in establishing democracy in Eastern Europe, where
democracy by and large has never existed, seems to [the Soviets] an
attempt to reestablish the encirclement of unfriendly neighbors which might
serve as a springboard of still another effort to destroy [them].
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Guiding Questions
Iron Curtain Speech
1. Sourcing: Who was Winston Churchill? Why would Americans trust what he has to say about
the Soviet Union?
2. Close reading: What does Churchill claim that the Soviet Union wanted?
Truman Doctrine
1. Close reading: Why did Truman believe Greece needed American aid in 1947?
2. Context: What does Truman mean when he claims, Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey
in this fateful hour, the effect will be far reaching to the West as well as to the East?
3. Close reading: Does Truman present American policy as offensive or defensive? What
words or phrases does Truman use to present policy this way?
Record your first hypothesis: Who was primarily responsible for the Cold War - the
United States or the Soviet Union?
STANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUP
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1. Sourcing: Who was Nicholas Novikov? When did he write this telegram?
2. Close reading: How does Novikov describe the United States? What evidence does he use to
support his description?
3. Context: What does Novikov claim the United States planned during the Second World War?
Record your second hypothesis: Who was primarily responsible for the Cold War - the United
States or the Soviet Union?
STANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUP
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