United States History: 1877 to the Present

The United States Since World War II

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• Begin the unit with the following questions:
  • How and why did the Cold War begin?
  • What have been the major conflicts and confrontations involving America in the post-World War II era?
  • How did Cold War tensions cause divisiveness at home?
  • How did communism collapse in Europe? How were the challenges after the Cold War different from earlier challenges?
• Explain that the United States and the Soviet Union emerged from World War II as world powers, triggering a rivalry over ideology and national security.
• Discuss that since World War II, the United States has been directly involved in various conflicts that reflected the divisions created by Cold War tensions and hostilities.
• Explain that the tension between the free world and the communist world caused divisiveness at home and abroad.
• Describe how the Cold War was the central organizing principle in foreign affairs for 40 years.
• Explain that the Cold War was a state of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union without actual fighting, which divided the world into two "camps."
• Review the origins of the Cold War, including the following information:
  • Differences in goals and ideologies between the United States and the Soviet Union (the two superpowers). The United States was democratic and capitalist; the Soviet Union was dictatorial and communist.
  • The Soviet Union's domination over Eastern European countries
  • American policy of containment (to stop the spread of communism)
  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) versus Warsaw Pact
  • Major conflicts in the post-World War II era
• Introduce and review the major conflicts in the post-World War II era, including:
  • South Korea and the United States resisted Chinese and North Korean aggression. The conflict ended in a stalemate.
  • The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred when the Soviet Union placed missiles in Cuba. The Soviets removed the missiles in response to a U.S. blockade.
  • The United States intervened to stop the spread of communism into South Vietnam (Domino Theory). Americans were divided over whether the United States should be involved militarily in Vietnam. The conflict ended in a cease-fire agreement in which U.S. troops withdrew.
• Explain that the collapse of Communism in Europe brought about the following:
  • Breakup of the Soviet Union into independent countries
  • Destruction of Berlin Wall
• Explain the new challenges, including the following:
  • Role of U.S. military intervention
  • Environmental challenges
  • Global issues, including trade, jobs, diseases
• Remind students that during World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States were allies, united in their common goals of defeating Germany. After the war, tensions arose due to different perspectives on how to order the world. The goals and ideologies of the two countries differed greatly. Tensions between the two nations continued over the course of more than 40 years -- the Cold War.
• Have student investigate the differences in the goals and ideologies of the Soviet Union and those of the United States, using the textbook and additional teacher-provided resources. A good resource is "Life Under Communism in Eastern Europe," The Bill of Rights in Action, Constitutional Rights Foundation athttp://www.crf-usa.org/bria/bria19_1a.htm.
• After students have completed the reading, ask them to create a graphic organizer to help them review the information. An example of the graphic organizer is pictured below:
• Focus Question: How did the goals and ideologies of the United States differ from those of the Soviet Union?
• After students have completed the graphic organizer, have them discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages to the two systems.
• Explain that the Cold War was "cold" primarily because of the threat of nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union launched its first nuclear weapon in 1949, an event that started an "arms race" between the United States and the Soviet Union. At the height of the Cold War, the combined weapons of both countries were enough to destroy the world six times over. The two "superpowers" used their weapons as a deterrent against nuclear war.
• Read to students the Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss. (Older students really enjoy this book.) After you have finished the story, discuss with students how the story parallels some of the major features of the Cold War. Teachers might want to use a t-chart to help students draw comparisons. (See sample below.) The development of this chart provides an opportunity to review concepts important to the Cold War, as well as a time to discuss the analogy of the Iron Curtain and the building of the Berlin Wall.
• Distribute to students an outline map of the world during the Cold War or, alternatively, two separate maps -- one of Europe and one of Asia. Explain to students that they will develop their maps so that it will:
  • offer them additional information about what regions of the world were under communist control
  • provide information on how the countries of the West worked together to protect themselves from the communist threat by forming military alliances, such as NATO
  • show three of the major trouble spots of the Cold War
• Have students use their textbooks and other resources, such as an atlas of history, to do the following:
  • Color and label the communist bloc countries of the Soviet Union.
  • Color and label China (fell to communism in 1949 under Mao Tse-Tung).
  • Color and label the member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (formed in 1949).
  • Indicate the countries that were members of the Warsaw Pact.
  • Indicate the location of the Iron Curtain.
  • Color and label North Korea (communist) and South Korea.
  • Color and label North Vietnam (communist) and South Vietnam.
  • Color and label Cuba (fell to communism in 1959 under Fidel Castro).
  • Include a map legend.
• After students have completed their maps, have students answer the following questions, working in pairs or as a group:
  • What year was NATO organized?
  • From your map and considering past historical events, why did countries in the West feel that they needed to protect themselves?
  • What year was the Warsaw Pact organized?
  • What problems could have been foreseen for the countries of North and South Korea? For North and South Vietnam?
  • Why was the United States concerned about the fall of Cuba and China to communism?
  • What role do you see the United States playing in the effort to address the growing influence of the Soviet Union?
• To conclude this session, explain to students the principle that shaped American foreign policy during the Cold War. Explain the importance of the Truman Doctrine and the policy of "containment" that it promoted. Emphasize that the goal of American foreign policy was to contain communism, not to "liberate" countries from communist rule.
• Have the students locate Cuba on the map, and explain to students that the United States was concerned about having a communist country so close to its shores. Explain that for 14 days in October 1962, the United States was at the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The Soviets, with the cooperation of Cuba, were shipping nuclear missiles to the island and building launching sites. President Kennedy and his advisors had to decide how they would respond to this act of aggression.
• Explain to students that they will be examining documents and letters related to the crisis. By examining this information, they will attempt to identify the options open to President Kennedy and the possible consequences of carrying out each option. They will then decide which option they believe was the best. Have students work in groups of three or four. Provide each group with materials and resources, including the Cuban Missile Crisis: A Lesson in Decision Making worksheet and Consider Your Options Decision-Making Chart. Have students use their textbooks and other resources to learn more about the situation. The Web site Cold War, CNN Interactive at http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/offers transcripts and audio of a meeting Kennedy held with ExCom members, as well as Kennedy's speech to the American people.Cybersleuth-kids.com at http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/russian offers copies of letters exchanged between Khrushchev and Kennedy during the crisis. For the Cuban Missile Crisis: A Lesson in Decision Making worksheet,CLICK HERE. For the Consider Your Options Decision-Making Chart,CLICK HERE.
• After the students have completed the decision-making exercise on the attachments, discuss the outcome of the crisis: Khrushchev removed the missiles in return for the United States ending the blockade, removing U.S. missiles from Turkey, and promising not to invade Cuba again. Point out that publicly, however, the removal of the missiles from Turkey was not part of the deal, because Kennedy was concerned about negative reactions from U.S. allies in Europe. Why?
• Explain that when the Soviets tested their atomic bomb in 1949, Americans became gravely concerned about nuclear war and Soviet aggression. Many Americans began to fear communist infiltration of the U.S. government. Senator Joseph McCarthy started an effort to hunt down American communists within the government and the entertainment industry. Anti-communist hysteria, known as McCarthyism, was fueled by books and movies, and it swept across the United States. Many U.S. citizens were unjustly labeled communists and blacklisted, and their careers were destroyed.
• Have students work in small groups to examine a set of political cartoons. A cartoon analysis worksheet designed by the U.S. National Archives and Record Administration and found athttp://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons may be helpful to students as they evaluate the cartoons. A set of political cartoons that addresses these subjects can be found atHerblock's History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium at http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock. The cartoons in the group "Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock" deal with the threat of atomic warfare after WWII. The cartoons in the group "Fire!" address anti-communist hysteria in post-WWII America.
• Some students may have family who fought in the Vietnam War. Ask students the following: "What do you know already about the Vietnam War from movies and television?" "What do you know about Vietnam from listening to your family?" Write students' responses on the board.
• Using the responses on the board as a point of departure, provide students with some basic information about the conflict. Have students find Vietnam on the maps they developed. Explain to students the reasons the United States intervened in Vietnam and the United States' goals. Explain that U.S. political leaders were afraid that if South Vietnam fell to communism, so would the rest of Southeast Asia -- the Domino Theory. Finally, explain to students that the fighting in Vietnam was unique. The U.S. was not prepared to fight a guerilla war, in which tanks and traditional air strikes were not effective. Explain that U.S. soldiers often did not know how to identify the enemy: many South Vietnamese sympathetic to the communist cause (Viet Cong) appeared to be civilians, yet they launched attacks on U.S. troops.
• Have students read aloud in class and discuss a selection of letters written by U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. These letters will provide information about the soldiers' experience in Vietnam and the controversy that was (and still is) associated with that war. Selections of letters can be found in the book Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam, edited by Bernard Edelman and published by W.W. Norton & Company in May 2002. (See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail for information about this book.) Teachers will need to be selective and choose age appropriate letters. The book The Vietnam War: A Historical Reader in the Nextext series published by McDougal Littell offers a selection of letters in Part II: "United States Soldiers at War." (See http://www.nextext.com/index.cfm for information about this text.) This text also offers a selection of other primary documents (e.g., poetry, speeches, and journalistic accounts) related to the war. Teachers will need to clarify points in the letters and translate slang associated with the war.
• After the letter-reading activity, use the following sample questions to prompt a class discussion:
  • What do the letters have in common?
  • How are the letters different?
  • How might the individuals to whom the letters were written have reacted?
  • How is the tone of the letters similar/different from letters written during other wars? (Teachers will need to find some letters for comparison. A WWII letter home can be found at Dear Home: Letters from World War II at http://www.historychannel.com/dearhome.)
  • What might have influenced the soldiers who wrote these letters?
  • Did the soldiers' attitudes affect the way they performed their duties? If so, how?
• Following the discussion, assign each student a soldier whose name appears on the Vietnam War Memorial. Direct students to go to the Web site, The Virtual Wall: Vietnam Veterans Memorial, at http://virtualwall.org to research their soldier. Have students use information from the letters read in class and their research to write a letter home to a loved one from the point of view of their assigned soldier. For a worksheet entitled "A Letter Home:" An American Soldier in Vietnam, CLICK HERE.
• Write the following two slogans on the board:
  "My Country Right or Wrong"
  "What if they gave a war and nobody came?"
• Ask students what these slogans mean, and who would have used them during the Vietnam War. A follow-up question might be about current slogans with a protest message for today.
• Explain to students that as the Vietnam War continued, people in the U.S. began to question the reasons we were engaged there. The mounting tensions in the U.S. over the war in Vietnam caused a sizable and vocal minority to protest the war. Protests took the forms of marches, sit-ins, and burning of draft cards. Sometimes the protests turned violent, as in the case of Kent State in Ohio. Most protesters belonged to the younger generation, but as veterans returned home, they too questioned the war. Emphasize to students that people in the U.S. witnessed the Vietnam War nightly on their televisions, and this persistent immediacy fueled their alarm.
• Have the students listen to some music from the Vietnam era. Distribute lyrics so they can follow along as they listen. Explain that music played an important role in expressing people's concerns about the war. Song lyrics are easily found on the Internet. Some possible songs are:
  • "The Ballad of the Green Berets," Barry Sadler and Robin Moore
  • "Fortunate Son," Credence Clearwater Revival/John Fogarty
  • "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," Peter Paul and Mary
  • "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag," Country Joe McDonald
  • "What's Going On," Marvin Gaye
  • "For What It's Worth," Buffalo Springfield
• As they listen to the music, ask students specific questions related to a particular song and/or the following general questions:
  • What is the tone or mood of the song?
  • What was the target audience for the song?
  • What does the song tell you about life in the United States during this time?

WEB SITES

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/
Resources and information on the Cold War from CNN

http://www.cia.gov/csi/books/19335/art-1.html
At Cold War's End: US Intelligence on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 1989-1991

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/coldwar.htm
Avalon Project at Yale Law School: The Cold War

http://www.nato.int/docu/basictxt/treaty.htm
North Atlantic Treaty

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nato.htm
Avalon Project at Yale Law School: NATO

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX58.html
People & Events: The Korean War from PBS

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=488
Korean War

http://www.pwc.k12.nf.ca/coldwar/plain/korea.html
Korean War interviews

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/
Cuban Missile Crisis

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/colc.html
Cuban Missile Crisis

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/index.html
Vietnam Online from PBS

http://vietnam.vassar.edu/
Wars for Vietnam

http://www.nps.gov/vive/
Vietnam Veterans Memorial

http://www.appropriatesoftware.com/BerlinWall/welcome.html
Berlin Wall

http://www.remote.org/frederik/culture/berlin/
Fall of the Berlin Wall

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/23/
The fall of the Berlin Wall

Copyright ©2008 Prince William Network/Virginia Department of Education