Effects of the Cold War
Teacher Resources
Lesson Guide
This lesson includes a source collection, activities, articles, and videos. The guide has everything you’ll need to teach these materials.
Blog: The Elements of Comparison: A Cold War Case Study
Help students make Cold War comparisons by using a 1948 American cartoon. Learn more about the ways students can compare the US to the USSR in this blog post.
Driving Question: What tactics did the United States and the Soviet Union use to compete for influence, and what were the consequences of their actions?
The Cold War and decolonization took place at the same time. The United States and the Soviet Union competed to influence a growing number of newly independent states, interfering in and shaping emerging regional conflicts around the world. Though the Soviet Union eventually fell, the global legacy of Cold War conflicts still lives on.
Learning Objectives
- Compare the ways in which the United States and the Soviet Union sought to maintain influence over the course of the Cold War.
- Use quick-sourcing skills to assess the impacts of the Cold War.
This opener helps prepare students for the decisions that newly independent states faced during the Cold War and asks them to think about the benefits and challenges of aligning with the US, USSR, or remaining unaligned.
The Cold War was about many other nations besides the two superpowers. As you get ready to tour the global Cold War, consider the perspective of a smaller nation.
Want to engage students with audio? Allow them to listen to the article for the first and/or second read and follow along with the article while listening. Have them use a pencil or pen to help track the speaker and pause at ideas or words they aren’t sure of.
The Cold War certainly ran “hot” in regional wars around the world. What led to the worldwide flare-ups during this fifty-year conflict?
-
Guiding Questions
You can use OER Project source collections in different ways. If your students aren’t ready to analyze multiple sources just yet, have them focus on one of the sources in this collection by asking them to analyze the historical context, the author’s purpose, point of view, or audience to help them practice their sourcing skills.
Examine a variety of sources that describe the emergence and intensification of the Cold War. We recommend you use the Quick-Sourcing Tool to complete this exercise.
As students watch the videos on decolonization and the Cold War, help them engage critically with the material by providing a note-taking strategy or a graphic organizer, or have them answer the guiding questions and pause the video to check for understanding. Providing them with something to do while watching helps activate thinking and makes connections to prior knowledge.
The Caribbean provides a case study of how decolonization and the Cold War were intertwined. Explore how both these trends impacted the region.
-
Guiding Questions
The Korean and Vietnam Wars are perhaps the best-known “hot” conflicts of the Cold War. The roots of both conflicts lay in the colonial era, and in both conflicts, the United States and Soviet Union supported different sides.
-
Guiding Questions
How would you rank the legacies of the Cold War? Take a stand and use evidence to support your decisions.
Competition can be destructive or inspire people to greater heights. During the Cold War, the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union was no exception.
-
Guiding Questions
-
Guiding Questions
a political or economic theory in which community members own all property, resources, and the means of production, and control the distribution of goods
Individuals who think community members should own and control property, production, and distribution subscribe to socialism.