The Cold War Lesson Plan
1COLD WAR LESSON PLANAccording to some, the Cold War was a rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union in which each side worked to undermine the other as they sought to dominate the world. We call it cold because the rivalry never erupted into direct warfare between these two nuclear-armed countries. But in truth, the Cold War was a global conflict that drew hundreds of countries into a sprawling ideological, economic, and military contest between the world’s first two nuclear superpowers. It reshaped global power, launched humanity into space, demolished the vestiges of European empires, and unleashed weapons of horrifying destructive capacity. The Cold War often got hot.As they complete these three lessons, students will work together to build a timeline of the Cold War and develop a mental framework that will help them explain this complex global conflict and its relationship to decolonization. First, they will encounter an overview of the conflict and step into the shoes of world leaders in a simulation of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Next, they will view the Cold War through the lens of decolonization, as they learn how colonized peoples around the world seized the opportunity presented by the Cold War to break the chains of empire. Finally, they will encounter some primary sources critical to understanding the causes and consequences of the conflict. The lessons conclude by encouraging students to reflect on the surprising human achievements that emerged from the Cold War as they take a page from Jimmy Carter and attempt to explain the conflict to an extraterrestrial in 192 words. OverviewLength: Three lessons. Each lesson should take one or two 50-minute class periods. Learning Objectives• Employ causation and claim-testing skills in a simulation of the Cuban Missile Crisis. • Explain the ways in which the Cold War and decolonization were linked and how they affected each other.• Use the skill of sourcing to understand the causes and consequences of the Cold War.
2Lesson 1: Cold War Crisis! Lesson objective:• Employ causation and claim-testing skills in a simulation of the Cuban Missile CrisisDescription:In this introductory lesson on the Cold War, students explore some of the causes and context of the global conflict stretching from 1945 to 1991. They begin by watching a timeline video that will provide a foundation for the lessons that follow. An article will introduce students to the basic contours of the Cold War. In the next activity, a simulation of a world on the edge of a terrible nuclear catastrophe, they take on the role of world leaders attempting to navigate the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Finally, in the closer activity, students examine a timeline of the Cold War and consider which side was “winning” at a given moment.Opener: Cold War Timeline videoBefore students start exploring the many causes and consequences of this global conflict that lasted 45 years, they need to understand its scope. This short video provides a timeline of sorts, and features some of the most important moments of the Cold War and decolonization. But it’s an incomplete timeline. The lessons that follow will help students fill in some of the blanks. After they’ve watched the video, ask students to try to list as many of the events in the order in which they appeared in the video. Each student should then write three to five sentences explaining what they know about the Cold War and what this video suggests about it.Article: “Cold War: An Overview”While the United States and the Soviet Union had worked together to defeat the Axis powers in World War II, without a common enemy, their alliance soon fell apart. The Cold War was the result of two superpowers—whose visions of world order reflected the competing ideologies of communism and capitalism—in a struggle for supremacy. Europe was divided between a capitalist West and communist East. Across Latin America, Asia, and Africa, the two superpowers fought each other through proxy wars. The conflict ended without a global nuclear war, and the Soviet Union collapsed with relatively little bloodshed. For additional teaching support, including key idea reading questions, click here (log-in required).Activity: Simulation Cold War CrisisIn this activity, students are tasked with trying to understand the causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as the consequences that might have occurred because of the actions they chose to take to end the crisis. To understand these causes, students have to contextualize what was happening in the world at the time to better understand this crisis. Finally, students use their claim-testing skills by providing claims and counterclaims that support their course of action.View of “Checkpoint Charlie” border crossing.
3Closer: Who is “Winning” the Cold War?In this activity, students will look at a timeline that includes major events from the Cold War. In pairs or small groups, students research events from the timeline to decide whether the US or USSR was “winning” the Cold War at that time. Then, students will post their choice to the large class timeline and explain their reasoning.Additional Materials: • Article:“Devastation of Old Markets”• Data Exploration:Nuclear WeaponsA selection of Lesson 3 materials
4Lesson 2: The Cold War and Decolonization Lesson objective:• Explain the ways in which the Cold War and decolonization were linked and how they affected each other.Description:Now that students have a general understanding of the Cold War, it’s time to add some complexity and talk about decolonization. We can’t talk about the Cold War without talking about decolonization. Decolonizing conflicts were heavily influenced by the context of the Cold War and its alliance systems. Students begin by using a world map to add a clear idea of where the conflicts were taking place to their mental timeline. Next, they take a trip around the world via an article investigating the global contours and linkages between the Cold War and decolonization. Then, they zoom in on one region, as they watch a video on these entwined conflicts in the Caribbean. Finally, they return to their timeline, and working both in groups and as a whole class, flesh it out further by adding detail to the events they think were the most significant. Opener: Decolonization and the Cold War Thematic MapIn groups of two, students should rewatch the Cold War Timeline and write down a rough timeline of all the events mentioned, in order. Then, using the map above, each group should identify three events on the map that are not featured in the video. Students should place their events on their timeline in order. (Optional: have students find—or draw—an image or video that they think represents each event.) Article: “The Cold War Around the World”The Cold War started just as European colonialism was collapsing all around the world. The new heads of state and governments that rose to lead their newly independent nations no longer had to fight colonial rule, but they now had to contend with pressure from the two superpowers. The United States and the Soviet Union were eager to win allies to their side, and both were willing to use violence and coercion to stop the other from expanding. This article examines how the Cold War and decolonization collided in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. For additional teaching support, including key idea reading questions, click here (log-in required).Decolonization and the Cold War Thematic Map
5Video: Decolonization and the Cold War: Through a Caribbean LensIn this video, Professor Sharika Crawford explains how the Cold War and decolonization affected the Caribbean. The region has a long history of formal European colonialism, some of it continuing into the late twentieth century. But informal colonialism was more common by the time the Cold War started. The United States tried hard to control the economy, politics, and culture of Caribbean nations. By the 1960s, people all over the Caribbean sought to break free of this system of informal colonialism. But as they tried, they were caught in the middle of the global conflict between the two superpowers. For additional teaching support, including key idea reading questions, click here (log-in required).Closer: Annotated Cold War Timeline Students have now watched the video and filled in some blanks. As a full class, construct a timeline of the Cold War on the board or on poster paper, listing the events in the video and all the events that students identified from the map, in chronological order. Then, in small groups, students should choose one event from this class timeline that they think was the most important to the history of the Cold War. Each group should spend about five to ten minutes researching the event and filling in the form below. Finally, each group will annotate the timeline with their notes.Event:Date:Location:Result:Significance:Additional Materials: • Graphic Biography:Kwame Nkrumah• Article: “Connecting Decolonization and the Cold War”• Video:Decolonization and the Cold War: Through an Asian Lens
6Lesson 3: The Cold War...in Space! Lesson objective:• Use the skill of sourcing to understand the causes and consequences of the Cold War.Description:Students begin this lesson by reading a short statement from President Jimmy Carter that was sent aboard the Voyager spacecraft in 1977 and will consider why this was written and who it was for. Next, they get more context on this letter in an article about the connected arms race and space race that dominated international attention and concern during the twentieth century. Then, they’ll read a primary source collection focused on the causes and consequences of the Cold War. Finally, in a closing writing assignment, students look back on the timeline they have created of this 45-year historical conflict and on Carter’s Voyager statement, as they consider how they might explain this global and complicated conflict to an extraterrestrial in just 192 words. Opener: A Present from a Small Distant WorldHave students read the 192-word statement by President Jimmy Carter linked above. Do not provide students any additional context. Once they’ve read the document, students should write a few sentences speculating about when and why the document was written and for whom it was intended. Article: “Arms Race, Space Race” The invention and proliferation of nuclear weapons defined the course of the Cold War. While the superpowers engaged in proxy wars all over the world, they never directly went to war. The world escaped nuclear Armageddon in large part because of the strategy of mutually assured destruction. The superpowers’ race to build these incredibly destructive weapons and their competition to send rockets into space reshaped international politics. This article will provide evidence to evaluate the impact of the arms race and space race on ideas of international conflict and cooperation.Primary Sources: Cold WarThis collection explores the emergence and intensification of the Cold War. It provides sources that help us see how the conflict was framed in its early days by political officials. The collection also brings in “popular” sources of the era to give a sense of how propaganda played a role in creating Cold War sensibilities on both sides. Finally, there are sources that examine important events, policies, and political programs that occurred during the Cold War, which help students see the “hot” aspects of a multidecade tension. We recommend that students use the Quick-Sourcing Tool to analyze these sources, which will help them answer the question, What were the causes and consequences of the Cold War?‘Long live the world’s first female cosmonaut’, a Soviet poster celebrating Valentina Tereshkova who orbited the Earth in Vostok 6, in June 1963.
7Assessment: Explain the Cold War to ET in 192 WordsBy the end of these lessons, students should have a firm grasp of the chronology and causes of the Cold War. They have read primary source excerpts focusing on the causes and consequences of the conflict. Now, they will conclude these lessons by imitating a world leader from the Cold War: President Jimmy Carter. Tell students to reflect on the statement written by Jimmy Carter that they read in the opener. In his statement, Carter introduced the US and the world to an audience that included a hypothetical alien species in just 192 words. Tell students their task is similar: They must write a 192-word statement explaining the Cold War to an extraterrestrial. They should remember that the alien will have no context and no background knowledge about the conflict. Additional Materials: • Article:“Collapse of the Soviet Union”A selection of Lesson 3 materials