1. Competing Ideologies: Communism vs. liberal democracy and capitalism

Victoria Smart

Is this tomorrow?  by Catechetical Guild, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Activity

In this activity you will work in groups of three and each of you will be given one of these ideologies to research. Your task is to create a poster, either digitally or by hand, which you will present to your group members to teach them about your ideology and how it contributed to causing the Cold War.

a) Research your ideology

Negotiate with your group the ideology you will research and present to one another: communism, capitalism, or liberal democracy. Undertake independent research to find out about your ideology and as you do so ask yourself if the information you are accessing is from a reliable source. As you research your ideology ensure you consider the following:

• Economic characteristics
• Political characteristics
• Social characteristics
• The world leaders who endorsed the ideology

Here are a few suggested websites to get you started:

• Ideological Conflict in the Cold War
• Communism: Karl Marx to Joseph Stalin
• Theory of Capitalism
• Liberal Democracy

b) Create a poster outlining the significant details of this ideology

You have creative freedom when creating your poster and may do so digitally or by hand.

c) Present your poster to your peers

Each person will present their poster to the group and in doing so teach their group members about the ideology they have researched.

d) In your group discuss the three ideologies considering following questions:

• Do they have any similarities?
• What are their main differences?
• How and why do these ideologies conflict with one another?
• What benefits and disadvantages are there to each ideology?
• Do you agree with each ideology? Why/why not?

3. Analysing Churchill’s Sinews of Peace (Iron Curtain) Speech

Alistair McCann

 Winston Churchill – Parkeston Quay by Harwich & Dovercourt, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Activity

Part 1: Source analysis

Read and watch some of Winston Churchill’s Sinews of Peace (Iron Curtain) speech and answer the following questions:

1. What does Churchill mean when he says that an ‘Iron Curtain has descended across the continent (Europe)’?
2. Identify reasons why Churchill may have made the speech. What was he attempting to achieve by this?
3. Why did the United States and Western Europe oppose communism?

Using this source answer the following questions:

1. Whose perspective is represented by the cartoon and how do you know?
2. Why is important to understand which party created the cartoon?
3. Identify which countries were at the most risk of adopting communism and why?
4. How does this political cartoon relate to Winston Churchills ‘Iron Curtain’ speech? What is being represented by the boundary marked with the symbol of communism (hammer and sickle)?
5. Evaluate the potential for the Cold War to develop into a ‘hot war’ if communism was not restricted.

Part 2: Debate

You will be separated into two groups either for or against the topic statement: ‘The United States and Western Europe were accurate in their suspicions of the spread of communism and therefore their actions to prevent the spread of communism was justified’. Prepare your group’s arguments and evidence.

4. Comparing the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences

Victoria Smart

The Yalta Conference, February 1945 by Imperial War Museum, Picryl Public Domain

Activity

In this activity you will learn about and consider the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences, the changing of perspectives of the parties and States involved over time (or how they did not change), and how these events contributed to causing the Cold War.  Analyse the sources provided and then compare key features of both conferences using the table provided. You will determine what information you believe is important to record on your table. Once completed you will compare your table with a peer and justify why you thought key features you included were important and, noting any differences with your peer, justify why you omitted certain features from your table.

a) Read/view the following sources taking notes of any information you deem important:

The Yalta Conference

The Potsdam Conference

The Big Three Conferences | Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam | WW2 Ends, Cold War Begins– (View from 3:05

b) Organise your notes into a table as the one below.

You have been provided with a few suggestions of key features to take note of, however, you must determine what other information is important. You are not limited to the five of rows provided, again, it is up to you to determine how much or little information to include to create a thorough yet succinct overview of each conference. As you decide which features to include consider the following questions:

• What was important about these conferences?
• Why or why not did certain individuals and states attend?
• Who were the conferences to benefit and disadvantage?
• Who agreed/disagreed on certain issues?
• Was there consistency or discrepancy between what was discussed at the conference and what actually occurred following the conference?

*Note that these questions should not be used as key feature headings but are to help guide you as you create your table.

c) Compare your table with a peer

There are a few purposes of sharing your table with a peer. You will:

• Practice justifying why you believe certain information is or is not important
• Observe that in the study of history people can disagree about what information is important
• Add to your own table any information you now believe is key after discussion with your peer.

5. The Big Three’s perspectives

Tahlia Webb

The Big Three 1943 by US Army, Public Domain

Activity

Part 1

We are beginning our investigation into the many causes of the Cold War focusing on the Yalta and Potsdam conferences that occurred in 1945. In groups of three you will pick one of the concerns listed below that were discussed by Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill at these conferences. You will then research the stances of the Big Three on one of these issues and fill out the table on this work sheet. Next you will script and present a re-enactment of the world leaders discussing this matter. Each group must focus on a different issue.

ISSUES:

• Reparations
• Democracy
• Atomic Bomb
• Poland
• The United Nations

Part 2

During classmates’ presentations, you are required to fill out the table below.

6. Where to from WWII? The Yalta and Potsdam Conferences

Brett Fletcher

Winston Churchill, President Truman and Stalin at the Potsdam conference, 23 July 1945, by Lockyear (Capt), No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Activity

At the conclusion of the following activities, you will be asked to assume the role of an advisor to the leader of the USA or the USSR, who is tasked with conveying your suspicions and concerns regarding your new ideological adversary. You will first complete the  table below to assist in recalling key knowledge and circumstances faced by key stakeholders at the conclusion of WWII. The activity then requires you to analyse the below sources to help answer questions about the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences.

Part 1

Table: Global political situation at the conclusion of WWII

• Attendees/absences
• Stage of war (Europe & Pacific)
• Matters at hand
• Agreements reached
• Tensions between parties
• Outlook

Part 2

1. Using an online source/s of your own choosing, research and provide a succinct response to the below questions:

a) Why was the change in American presidents between the two conferences significant? How did this make the Potsdam Conference more polarising than the Yalta Conference?

b) Analyse the significance of the USA’s successful detonation of the A-Bomb during the Potsdam Conference. How did this impact the proceedings?

c) If there was doubt about Stalin’s intent to hold free elections in the USSR’s occupied territories, why were the allies willing to accept this promise as part of negotiations?

2. Your final task is to assume the role of a senior advisor to the leader of either the USA or the USSR. Using your knowledge and understanding of the post WW2 global political climate, you will compose a memo to your leader, outlining your suspicions towards your adversary. Ensure you avoid ‘time-travel’, you may not use events of the future as evidence to strengthen your argument. You may, however, use the benefit of hindsight to advise your leader of what you think may happen in this future ‘cold war’ so long as these suspicions are grounded in evidence available at the time of writing. You may consider in your research:

• Free elections in Poland and other Soviet satellite states
• Territory gained during WW2
• The USA’s detonation of the A-Bomb

7. Cuban Missile Crisis: Film and source analysis

Kevin Liew

Cuban Crisis Map Missile Range by CIA Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Activity

In this activity, you will investigate the Cuban Missile Crisis by examining a series of primary and secondary sources. By critically analysing these sources to formulate and answer questions on the causes and consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis, you will also evaluate its significance in influencing the Cold War and the relationship between the two superpowers: the United States of America and the Soviet Union.

Sources

Source 1: Historical interpretation of the Bay of Pigs invasion

Source 2: Kennedy’s address to the nation (0:36 – 3:11)

Source 3: A map of the missile range in Cuba

Source 4: Scene from the film Thirteen Days on the discovery of missiles (13:14-16:29)

Source 5: Cold War Arm Wrestling: A Cartoon of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Leslie Gilbert Illingworth

Source 6: Scenes from Thirteen Days : (1:03:33-1:04:01), (1:16:53-1:18:13), (1:32:45-1:33:06), (1:43:19-1:44:53), (1:47:26- 1:51:36)

Source 7: A historical interpretation of the U-2 incident over Cuba

Source 8: A historical interpretation from historian, Thomas Blanton, describing the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis

Source 9: An excerpt from Khrushchev’s first letter to President Kennedy 26th October 1962

Source 10: Kennedy’s response to Khrushchev’s letter

Questions

1. To what extent did the failed Bay of Pigs invasion contribute to the armament of Cuba? Use your knowledge of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the U.S. policy on containment to formulate your response.
2. Using Sources 2 and 3, does the presence of nuclear missiles in Cuba signify a threat to the Western Hemisphere? Why or why not?
3. How does the presence of missiles in Cuba shift the balance of power in the Cold War? Use Sources 3 and 4 and your knowledge of the arms race and MAD to answer the question.
4. Source 8 mentions the word, “brinkmanship.” In your own words, define brinkmanship and explain how the word relates to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War as a whole.
5. Analyse Sources 5, 6 and 7. How do these sources depict the tension between the USA and the Soviet Union?
6. Summarise the main messages of Source 9 and 10. How are the attitudes of both President Kennedy and Khrushchev in the letters different to the tense moments of the Cuban Missile Crisis? Use the relevant sources above to make your comparisons.
7. Evaluate the consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis in influencing the Cold War and relations between the USA and the Soviet Union. Use the relevant sources and your own knowledge to answer the question.

8. John F. Kennedy goes to the moon

 Brandon Tilley

Wernher von Braun and President John F. Kennedy JFK Library, CC01.0

Activity

In this activity you will study John F. Kennedy’s Address before the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations.  You will develop an understanding of how ideology, technology, competition and even cooperation helped shape the dynamics of the Cold War by analysing his ideas and of the historical context of this speech and the space programme it helped launch.

Historical context

1. Begin by watching Matthew Jordan’s TED-Ed presentation on The History of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the series of events that transpired in October, 1962, after a U-2 spy plane discovered that USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev had positioned Soviet missiles in Cuba, just 100 miles from US shores. What is President Kennedy’s overall message to the American people?  Take some notes on key statements he makes in this speech.

Content

2. Print this transcript of the UN Address, and have it on your desk as you watch John F. Kennedy’s Address before the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations.
   1. As you listen to the speech, mark the major “pivot points” in Kennedy’s speech. What is the main topic in each section of the speech.  Using different colour highlighters, mark where each new topic begins, and make a brief note in the margin of the transcript to indicate each new topic.
   2. What role does Kennedy think the United Nations should play in global politics?
   3. What opportunities for cooperation between the US and the USSR does Kennedy propose in this speech?

Reflection

3. In small group, discuss any similarities you see between the ideas in President Kennedy’s speech and the present.

9. Causes of the Vietnam War

Nicholas Bridges

The Geneva Conference Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Activity

Provide short answer responses to these questions. Everyone should begin by answering the three ‘mild’ questions to get an overarching view of the causes of the Vietnam War. Following this, choose either the ‘medium’ questions or the ‘hot’ questions if you would like more of a challenge. Some sources of information have been provided for each question.

10. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident: Understanding the causality of events in the Cold War context

Nick Frawley

USS Hornet (CVS-12) underway in the Gulf of Tonkin on 5 September 1967 by United States Navy, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Activity

In this activity you will collect information about the Tonkin Incident while viewing a video and then analyse it using this cause and consequence chart template.

a) Watch this video, The Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964) detailing the events at the Gulf of Tonkin that preceded America’s active involvement in the Vietnam War

Whilst watching the video, answer these questions:

1. What countries were involved in the Gulf of Tonkin incident?
2. Why was the United States concerned with aggression in the area of the incident?
3. What miscommunication added to the expansion of the conflict?
4. What was the reason given for the US Navy potentially misreading the events?
5. Based off of the events depicted in the video, do you think this is enough motive to enter into a war?

b) Using this cause and consequence chart template, show how Americans firing on the North Vietnamese led to sequential events leading into the Vietnam War.

11. The Berlin Wall: Jigsaw activity and concept map

Annaliese Magee

East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November 1961 by National Archives Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Activity

Part 1: Jigsaw activity

In this jigsaw activity you will start in a home group, then become an expert on a certain topic relating to the Berlin Wall and then return to teach your home group about what you found out.

a) Watch The rise and fall of the Berlin Wall to get an overview and view this pictorial timeline In pictures: 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall

b) You are to choose a home group of five then number yourselves 1-5. From there you will be assigned one of the five groups below. Go to a table with the other students with the same number. Then you and the group become an expert group on that topic number:

1. The long-term causes of the division of Germany and Berlin
2. Reasons/causes for the construction of the Berlin Wall
3. Consequences for those who lived in West Germany (FRG) in 1945-1989
4. Consequences for those who lived in East Germany (GDR) in 1945-1989
5. The cause and consequence of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989

c) Research together, gathering information and references for the sources you use. Create a short set of slides you can each use to teach your home group.

d) Go back to their original home group and each present your slides.

Part 2: Concept map

This activity builds on from the previous activity by categorising the types of consequences of the construction and destruction of the Berlin Wall using a concept map. Create a concept map based on the example below and identify at least three examples of short and long term social, political and economic consequences for both sides of the Wall. You could draw your concept map more creatively by drawing a wall.

12. Vietnam War song analysis and record cover activity

Hannah McArdle

Record player by by Jace & Afsoon on Unsplash

Activity

In this activity you will analyse two sources– an image relating to anti-war protest and a song relating to the Vietnam War. You will present your analysis in the form of an album cover and song review.

1. Choose a song from the list below; this will be the record you make the album cover art for. Listen to the song, find out when it was recorded and read the lyrics. What messages and images are evident in the lyrics? Use the questions below to guide your analysis.

• What’s going on – Marvin Gaye
• We gotta get out of this place – The Animals
• Khe sanh – Cold Chisel
• I was only 19 – Redgum and The Herd
• Saigon Bride – John Baez
• Eve of Destruction – Barry McGuire
• Born in the USA – Bruce Springsteen
• Singing in the Vietnam blues – Johnny Cash
• Backlash Blues – Nina Simone

2. Choose an anti-war movement image from the sources listed below; this will be a part of the cover art for your album cover. Be as creative as you like when creating your front cover art but make sure the image you choose is copyright compliant–it must be in the public domain or have a Creative Commons licence. Chose an Australian image for an Australian song and an image related to the US for an American song.

Sources of copyright compliant images:

Picryl

Openverse

Wikimedia Commons

Australian War Memorial Vietnam photos (check copyright status of each image before using)

Search Google images using the Creative Commons search tool

3. Analyse the photo and song by completing a review on the back of the album cover. Use the questions below to guide your analysis.

13. Key moments in the Cold War: Peer teaching activity

Kostantinos Georgiou

South Vietnam. 1967. An American medical evacuation ‘dustoff’ helicopter takes aboard a casualty Australian War Memorial, Public Domain

Activity

For this group activity, you will break up into five different groups and each group will be assigned one historical context/key event of the Cold War:

1) The Berlin Blockade

2) The Korean War

3) The Cuban Missile Crisis

4) The Vietnam War

5) The Chernobyl Disaster

Your task is to become experts on your event and create a presentation that you will use to teach your peers about it. The presentation will answer several general questions about the event. All sources of information and images must be referenced using the Harvard system.

Questions

1) Discuss what took place in the lead up to your group’s event. What triggered it?

2) Outline the events that took place in your group’s key event.

3) Consider perspectives:

a) How did the West (United States/NATO) handle the situation, and if they were not directly involved how did they respond to it?

b) How did the East (Soviet Union) handle the situation, and if they were not directly involved how did they respond to it?

4) How was the event resolved, and if it was not, then what was done to try resolve it and why did it fail?

5) How did the key event contribute to the Cold War immediately and over the course of the Cold War?

Source to get started:

• Encyclopedia Britannica: Berlin Blockade
• Alphahistory: The Berlin Blockade
• Encyclopedia Britannica: Korean War
• Alphahistory: The Korean War
• Encyclopedia Britannica: Cuban Missile Crisis
• Alphahistory: The Cuban Missile Crisis
• Encyclopedia Britannica: Vietnam War
• Alphahistory: The Vietnam War
• Encyclopedia Britannica: Chernobyl Disaster
• Alphahistory: Stagnation in the Soviet Union – see Chernobyl