Exploring Events of the Cold Warin EuropeSocial Studies Skill Builder

Overview

In this Social Studies Skill Builder students create a map and annotated timeline to analyzeescalating events during the Cold War in Europe. Working in pairs, students receive12 cards that contain brief descriptions of Cold War events. Students create a symbol torepresent each event, draw it on the corresponding countries on a map of Europe, andsummarize each event on an a timeline. Afterward, students work in groups of four toanalyze key events of the Cold War, using their maps and timelines as resources. Finally, theteacher holds a class disbussion to evaluate the significance of Cold War events.

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Procedures at a GIance

Before class, divide your students into mixed-ability pairs. Tell students they will learnabout and map 72 major Cold War events in Europe. Pass out Student Handout 3.2A toeach student, and give each pair one event card from Student Handout 3.28. Have pairsread the event card, create a visual symbol to represent the event, draw it on thecoresponding countries on the map, and summarize each event in 10 words or less toannotate the timeline. Continue this until all pairs have completed labeling the map and thetimeline. Then, combine pairs into groups of four. Read aloud the Follow-up Questions.Tell groups to use their maps and timelines to determine the answer. Reveal the correctanswer, and award points to groups with correct answers. Finally, hold a class discussion toevaluate the significance of Cold War events in Europe. Project Transparency 3.ZAanddiscuss the Cold War's effects on conflicts around the world.

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Procedures in Detail

t. Before class, divide your students into mixed-ability pairs. Prepare an overhead

transparency that shows students who their pafiners are and how to alrange their desks.

Project the transparency, and ask students to move into their correct places.

Tell students that this activity will help them understand many of the escalating events ofthe Cold War. Review with students the meaning of the term Cold War.

In 1948, Journalist Walter Lippman first used the term Cold War, borrowing from a

French phrase, to refer to a " constant war of nerves" between the Soviet Union and the

United States. The phrase caught on and came to describe an epoch of enduring hostilitybetween the two nations-ahe two superpowers of the world-with weapons of mass

destruction serving as a frightening backdrop.

Once students have reviewed the meaning of the term ColdWar, tell them they are readyto learn about and map 12 major Cold War events. Pass out Student Handout 3.242Map of the Cold War in Europe to each student. Have each pair tape together the twopages of their map. Then give each pair one event card from Student Handout 3.282Event Cards.

Have pairs read the event card, create a visual symbol to represent the essence of the

event, and draw it on the coffesponding countries on the map. Have students use theykey to the left of the map to show country groupings. For example, they may want to use

colors-blue for NATO members and red for Warsaw Pact members-to show whichcountries belonged to each military alliance. Next, have students annotate their timelineby summarizing the event in 10 words or less. (Option: You may want to have students

write their summaries in their notebooks.) Tell students that these summaries need notinclude proper grammar, but they must define the event accurately. For example, a

student might write the following summary for NAIO: military alliance linked UnitedStates,Western Europe--feared Soviet attack. Emphasize that the notes and illustrationsstudents write on their map willbe the only resource they will be allowed to use to

answer a set of questions in the second part of the activity. After pairs have labeled theirmap and timelines, have one student bring the map to you. Check the answers forthoroughness and accuracy, optionally award points, and give them a new event card.

Before students begin working, you may want to model these steps with the class.

When pairs have finished labeling all 12 event cards on the map and timeline, collect the

event cards. Combine the pairs into groups of four. Tell students they will use their maps

and timelines to compete with other groups to answer a set of follow-up questions about

the Cold War in Europe.

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Read aloud the first follow-up question. Have each group discuss the question and use

their maps and timelines to determine the correct answer. Have students record thequestion and the answer on the back of their maps.

7. Once all groups have finished with the first question, reveal the correct answer and awardpoints to groups who gave the comect response. Address any questions students haveabout the topic. Continue this process for each of the remaining follow-up questions.

Follow-up Questions

. Which four countries occupied Germany following World War II?Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union.

. Which Soviet-controlled countries make up the Iron Curtain border?East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungarlt, Yugoslavia, Albania, and Bulgaria.

. Which Cold War events involved economic aid to European nations?The Marshall Plan and the Molotov Plan.

. Why did President Truman give economic and military aid to Greece and Ttrrkey?They were resisting communist takeovers.

. What did the Warsaw Pact and NATO have in common?Both were military pacts.

. Which countries accepted economic aid from the Marshall Plan but refusedto be members of NATO by 1955?Spain, Austria, and Sweden.

. After the Hungarian uprising failed, which free country would the uprisingsympathizers try to escape to by land?Austria.

. Why was a wall built in Berlin?To prevent citizens from Eastern Germany (East Berlin) from escaping to the west.

. Why did the Soviet Union invade its own ally, Czechoslovakia?Because the Czech leader, Alexander Dubcek, tried to loosen his country from strictSoviet control.

. According to your timeline, in which decade-the forties, fifties, or sixties-werethere more Cold War conflicts in Europe?The forties: Churchill's lron Curtain Speech, Marshall Plan, Molotov Plan, TrumanDoctrine, Berlin Blockade, Berlin Airlift, NATO , and the Soviet development of theatomic bomb.

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3.2

Wrap Up

1. After you have completed the class competition on Follow-up Questions, lead the class

in a discussion about the Cold War, centering on the questions below. Have students referto their completed maps and timelines during the discussion.

. What were the major fears of the superpowers? Motivations?

. Which Cold War event do you think brought the two superpowers closest to thebrink of World War III?

. How could the superpowers have prevented the Cold War from escalating?

. How might the Cold War have affected the rest of the world outside Europe?

2. ProjectTransparency 3.2A, a map of Cold War conflicts around the world. Ask students

to carefully examine the transparency and answer the following questions: What do yousee here? In which regions of the world were there ColdWar conflicts? Why might theColdWar have spread to all these countries throughout the world? What does this maptell you about the effects of the ColdWar? Use the following information to summarizewhat the map reveals about the influence of the Cold War throughout the world.

From the 1940s through the 1980s, ColdWar tensions were felt throughout the world.The conflict that began in Europe soon spilled over to many countries, from newlyindependent African nations to developing nations in Asia and Latin America. The twosuperpowers sometimes used their military power to intervene directly in the affairs ofother nations, as the United States did inVietnam and the USSR did in Afghanistan.More often, however, Cold War battles were fought indirectly, with both sides using

economic, political, diplomatic, and covert means to gain influence in or control of aregion. For example, the United States refused to trade with Cuba in an attempt todestabilize its Soviet-backed economy.

Most of the superpower battles were fought as proxy wars in which political groups

or nations----aligned with either the Soviet Union or the United States--fought to achieve

the superpower's foreign policy. Therefore, any tensions between communist andnon-communist nations were considered Cold War conflicts because they reflected the

ideological battle between the two superpowers. Even tensions within a country were

considered part of the ColdWar if they represented a struggle between communist andnon- c ommunist .factions.

Idea for Student Response: Pass out a new copy of Student Handout3.1A to each student, which shows Uncle Sam and the Russian Bear

playing poker. Have students integrate the European Cold War events they just studiedwith the metaphor "the Cold War was a poker game." For example, students mightshow a pile of money near Uncle Sam-labeled Marshall Plan-with a note attached

that reads, "For friends joining the game." Or students might have the Russian Bearconcealing an ace labeled "Soviet nuclear weapons."

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Directions: For each event card youreceive, carefully read about the event,create a visual symbol to represent it, andplace the symbol on the correspondingcountries on the map. Use the key toshow country groupings. Finally,summarize the event-using 10 words orless-to annotate the timeline below.

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Event Cards

Iron Curtain Speech

Winston Churchill, prime minister of England during World War II, visited the UnitedStates in the spring of 1946 and delivered his famous Iron Curtain speech. "From Stettinin the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the continent."This "iron curtain" of Soviet-controlled countries in Eastern Europe ran along the west-ern border of East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Albania, andalong the southern border of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.

Truman Doctrine

In 1947 President Truman asked for and received from the U.S. Congress $400 millionto provide assistance "to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation[enslavement] by armed minorities [communists] or by outside pressures." Providingmilitary and economic assistance to nations resisting communist takeovers becameknown as the Truman Doctrine. The first nations to receive aid under the TrumanDoctrine were Greece and Turkey, both of which then successfully defeated attemptedcommunist takeovers.

Marshall Plan

ln l94l U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall created a plan to rebuild a Europedevastated by World War IL All European nations, including the Soviet Union, couldreceive U.S. dollars to rebuild their devastated economies as long as the money wasspent on products made in the United States. In 1948 the U.S. Congress approved$17 billion in aid. Nations receiving Marshall Plan aid were Great Britain, France,Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, West Germany, Denmark,Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria,ltaly, Greece, and Turkey.

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Molotov Plan

The Soviet Union rejected participation in the Marshall Plan rn 1947 and decided to

create an economic union of Eastern European nations. This plan was called the

Molotov Plan after the Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheshav Molotov. The nations ofEastern Europe would rebuild their postwar economies according to a plan set forth bythe Communist parties of each participating nation. The nations involved in the

Molotov Plan were the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany,

Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania.

NATO

Fearful that western European nations could not resist a Soviet attack from eastern

Europe, President Truman signed a treaty that created a military alliance (a pact between

states in a common cause) known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

NAIO linked the United States and western Europe in such a way that, as Truman said,

"an armed attack against one or more of the [nations] in Europe or North America shall

be considered an attack against them a11." Members of NATO in 1949 were Canada, the

United States, Great Britain, France, Iceland, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands,

Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and Italy. Greece and Turkey joined the

alliance tn 1952, and West Germany was admitted in 1954.

Warsaw Pact

The leaders of the Eastem European nations met in 1955 in Warsaw, Poland and signed

the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance (a pact between states in a common cause) with the

Soviet Union as the leading military power. Warsaw Pact member nations pledged to

defend one another in the event of an attack on any of the member states. The members

of the Warsaw Pact in 1955 were the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Hungary,

Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania, and Bulgaria.

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Berlin Blockade

Following World War II, the Americans and the Soviet Union agreed to divide Germanyinto four occupation zones to be controlled by the Americans, Soviets, British, andFrench. Berlin, the capital city of Germany thatlay deep within the Soviet occupationzone, would itself be divided into four occupation zones held by the same powers. In1948, when the western nations agreed to create a cuffency for.their occupation zones as

the first step in creating the new nation of West Germany, the Soviet Union decided toclose off all road and rail access to the western occupation zones in Berlin. This action,known as the Berlin Blockade, created a crisis for the West because it seemed as if theywould either have to fight their way into Berlin to supply the people living there or giveup their zones of occupation in the German capital.

Berlin Airlift

The Berlin Blockade of 1948 left two million West Berliners without electricity, food,and fuel needed for survival. Unwilling to give up West Berlin to the Soviet Union andunwilling to fight the Soviet army and risk starting World War III, President Trumandecided to launch the Berlin Airlift. For 10 months, starting in August 1948, the UnitedStates sent two million tons of supplies to West Berlin on cargo planes. The planes hadto land and take off 24 hours a day to keep from having to give up the West's occupationzones in the German capital. The Soviet Union lifted the blockade in May 1949.

Berlin Wall

Because of strict laws preventing citizens of communist nations from leaving theircountries for the West, West Berlin was seen as an escape route out of otherwise tightlysealed borders between communist and non-communist nations. After years of usingpropaganda to discourage people in East Berlin from defecting (abandoning theircountry) to West Berlin, a wall was constructed in 196l that sealed shut the entire borderbetween East and West Berlin. The Berlin Wall, 15 feet high and built of solid concretemasonry, stretched across the city, blocking streets, traversing the river, and separatingbuildings. It was manned by armed East German soldiers in watchtowers with shoot-to-kill orders for anyone attempting to scale the wall and enter West Berlin.

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The Soviet Union Tests the Bomb

When the news became public that the Soviets had successfully completed their first test

of an atomic bomb tn 1949, Soviet citizens felt pride while the Americans and

Europeans felt fear and despair. The American monopoly (total control by one group) ofweapons of mass destruction, which had begun in August 1945, was over. Both sides

now competed in arace to build enough atomic power to defeat one another in the event

of a war. Soon each superpower was armed with enough destructive power to destroy an

entire continent, and, later, the world.

The Invasion of Hungary, 1956

Rioting broke out in Hungary in 1956 as Hungarians took to the streets demanding morefreedom from their communist govemment and threatening to return to a parliamentarydemocracy if their demands were not met. The new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev,quickly dispatched the Soviet Army with tanks into the streets of Budapest, theHungarian capital, rounding up the protesters and executing their leaders. Within a fewdays, the uprising was brutally crushed, and Hungary was returned to a Soviet-stylecommunist nation.

The Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968

In 1968 Czechoslovakia attempted to loosen itself from strict Soviet control. A newCzech leader, Alexander Dubcek, emerged and restored freedoms to his people lost since

the end of World War II. Czechoslovakians freely expressed themselves and distributedand read previously banned literature. Alarmed that Czechoslovakia would be wrestedfrom their control, the Soviet Union quickly sent in Warsaw Pact troops and tanks and,

with little resistance, restored Czechoslovakia as a hard-line communist nation.

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