Lessons on the Cold War

Susan J. Cunningham

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
8 (Winter 1994). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 1994, Organization of American Historians

Teachers of the Cold War find themselves with an exciting challenge in the 1990s. True to form, young people are adapting quickly to the new attitudes toward Russia and forcing their instructors to find new ways to present Soviet-American relations in the classroom. Some students are even questioning America's obsessive fear of communism in light of the end result of that system in the former Soviet Union.

Variety is essential with today's students, most of whom have been raised with computers, video games and other highly stimulating visual products. They become impatient with lectures which they perceive as boring and irrelevant to their lives. They need more interactive learning exercises with clearly defined goals and immediate feedback. Lesson plans must be "pitched" just above their current level of achievement with material that is both interesting and reachable. Abstract ideas or general themes must be fleshed out with concrete images, stories and examples.

The following lesson plans include activities of different lengths so teachers can stretch or shrink them to fit a particular school's class schedule. Instructors should also feel free to experiment by adapting any one lesson to a different topic area.

Effective teachers know that the most meaningful learning sessions have a beginning, a middle and an end. The "beginning" of each lesson should include a brief connection to past learning and a clear description of the expected outcome in order to raise the level of receptivity.

The "middle" involves working with the information to be presented in a way that allows the teacher to monitor student understanding and input. The "end" should bring closure to the lesson, put it in the larger context and assess student progress toward deeper awareness. One closing technique is to ask students in the last two minutes of class to sum up one idea in writing that they learned and pose one question they leave with. To save space, the following lesson plans have been condensed to an introduction, a statement of objectives and a list of activities.

Comparisons of the early development of the superpowers-to-be allow students an introduction to Russian history and an opportunity to separate Russians as people from Cold War labels and prejudices against Soviet communism.

This lesson will help students understand the importance of geography as an influence on choices that human groups make. Students will compare and contrast climate, location and terrain of the areas currently occupied by the United States and the former Soviet Union.

Using any world almanac, compare the average summer and winter temperatures in Moscow and the city in which the students' school is located. Discuss the effect on both countries of climate and geography.

Using copies of maps of the United States and the former Soviet Union which show physical characteristics only, ask students to think logically about where the natural trade routes would have developed and how people would have supported themselves. Compare maps of the expanding United States and of the Russian empire discussing how and why some groups of people thrive and extend their influence over others. More advanced students might want to explore Robert Kelley's application of sociological theory of core culture and outgroups to American and Russian patterns of expansion as well as political and economic dominance.

Although most people refer to the Cold War era as beginning in 1945, an argument can be made that it actually began in 1917 with the events surrounding the Russian revolution.

Students will understand the roots of Soviet-American conflicts by examining the Russian transition from a predominantly feudal monarchy with elements of capitalism to a socialist system with a powerful bureaucratic elite.

Prepare students to view "Lenin and his Legacy," a video offering a 28-minute overview of key events in Soviet history from 1917 to 1920 (Films for the Humanities, Princeton, NJ, 1990).

Using overhead transparencies or wall maps, tell students the story of the spring revolution of 1917, Lenin's return to Russia and the subsequent takeover by the Bolsheviks. Explain the decision to withdraw from the war against Germany, the price paid at Brest-Litovsk with the giving up of Baltic territory, and how these events caused Russia's former allies to send troops to Murmansk, Archangel and Vladivostok. Explain to students the reaction in the United States to the changes in Russia using overhead transparencies of cartoons of the time from Robert K. Murray's Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920. Many students will likely be interested in the story of the bombing incident at Attorney General Palmer's house which makes a good springboard to a discussion of xenophobia and the need for scapegoats.

To introduce the political and economic systems of the United States and Soviet Union, spell out the words capitalism, socialism and communism on different sections of blackboard and ask students what they know or have heard about any of these theories. List the ideas (or use the webbing technique) from the students and encourage them to agree, disagree, add or subtract information. Once the teacher has determined the level of knowledge and has identified some possible misperceptions or biases, he or she can lead them through an explanation of the basic concepts behind each system and ask how those theories might demonstrate themselves through concrete examples from their own lives.

The immediate postwar period has been the subject of extensive examination and interpretation by scholars, military experts and statesmen over the past four decades. American analyses of the origins of the Cold War tended to be very nationalistic at first, blaming Stalin for taking advantage of his troop positions in 1945 and imprisoning all of Eastern Europe behind what Winston Churchill called an "iron curtain." Truman was originally described as having risen to the challenge and credited with saving Western Europe, Greece and Turkey from communism.

During the 1960s, revisionist historians shifted the blame for starting the Cold War more toward Truman, with some scholars going so far as to accuse him of using atomic weapons unnecessarily and for acting in a confrontational manner with Russian diplomats.

By the early 1980s, some historians of the Cold War broke away from the debate over blame altogether and pioneered a wide variety of new approaches to the period. Because of the extensive work by scholars on the origins question over the years, this period offers an excellent opportunity for teachers to introduce the concept of changing interpretations. It is also a good place to demonstrate how decision-makers must act in the context of their environment.

Students will be able to outline key events from 1945 to 1950 in order to describe the origins of the Cold War. By looking at these events through the eyes of both Americans and Russians, they will better understand the role of perception in the formulation of foreign policy. They will also broaden their appreciation of the many levels of influence on decision-makers and how historical interpretations change over time.

Using an overhead transparency listing key events from 1945-50 and a map of Europe at the end of World War II, explain how decisions by allied leaders during the war led to feelings of mistrust on the part of the Russians. There are several good videos on this period including overviews from Yalta to Korea and others which focus specifically on events like the Berlin airlift. Also, most standard textbooks come with overhead transparencies showing the NATO and Warsaw Pact alliances. For reading assignments, teachers might want to look at something readable and yet comprehensive like Stephen Ambrose's Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938, now in its sixth revised edition.

Prepare students for a debate on the origins question by asking them to think about the positions of both sides. Advanced classes might choose from the many viewpoints offered in Thomas Paterson's The Origins of the Cold War which is part of the Problems in American Civilization series. During the preparation for debate, the teacher can weave in concepts such as sphere of influence, balance of power and Realpolitik. Like a choreographer who works intensively with the preparation of the performance and then disappears into the wings, the teacher should try to melt into the audience and encourage debaters to speak directly to one another. The class can be divided into two groups representing American and Russian decision-makers or into three groups with one acting as judges from neutral countries. In either case, ask students to write a brief summary of the main points from both sides to bring a sense of closure to the activity.

Using Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb in Japan, explain how leaders must operate within concentric circles of influence. On this topic, see Deborah Larson's Origins of Containment: A Psychological Explanation (1985) and Robert Berkhofer's A Behavioral Approach to Historical Analysis (1969). To underscore how views of an event are colored by circumstances, ask students to interview their grandparents on the question of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Because today's students have grown up with photographic images of the horrible suffering caused by nuclear weapons and have studied the long-term effects of radiation, they are often shocked to hear Truman praised for ending the war and saving both American and Japanese lives. This gap in perspective between students and their grandparents serves as an example of how opinions are formed by circumstances. Zenger Video offers a 20-minute examination of this question called "Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Was Truman's Decision to Use the Bomb Justified?"

Today's students seem to be greatly interested in the 1950s and 1960s. Perhaps because of their growing awareness of the enormous economic and environmental costs of the arms race, they are asking questions about how and why decisions were made in earlier decades. Many students are also interested in how the Cold War competition spilled over into less well-developed nations such as Iran, Guatemala and Vietnam.

Students will gain a deeper understanding of the causes of the strong anti-communist feeling of the McCarthy period and how those fears influenced policy decisions toward the Third World. Students will see how the Cold War shifted to countries outside NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and how U.S. strategies came to rely even more heavily on psychological operations, backstage political manipulation, guerrilla warfare and subversion.

Prepare students to view the video, "The Atomic Cafe," by asking them to put themselves in the place of school children of the 1950s and to think about how they would have reacted to the anti-communist educational campaign and popular songs of the period. After the film, ask first for immediate reactions uncensored by rational argument or information. Using these responses as a starting point, ask them how much they know about the development of nuclear weapons, delivery systems and proliferation. There are several good visual representations of the total stockpile of nuclear weapons available from groups such as SANE-FREEZE, American Friends Service Committee or the Union of Concerned Scientists. With the end of the Cold War and dismantling of certain classes of weapons by the superpowers, two new concerns which today's students must live with are the disposal of containments and the proliferation of nuclear technology and its possible use in regional conflicts.

Using a combination of lecture and video clips, describe American actions in Iran and Guatemala in the early 1950s as examples of some of the CIA's first successful covert ventures. Ask students to compare the goals of U.S. policies in those countries, tactics used, and long-term effects. Supplement this activity with newspaper accounts of current conditions in Iran and Guatemala.

Most teachers are aware of Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive levels and the key words that stimulate different levels of response. The following list of questions is offered as an example of how teachers can probe for different levels of cognitive activity.

Level 1: Knowledge/recall/memory (define, describe, name, list). "What was the name of the Iranian leader overthrown by his people with the help of the CIA in 1953?"

Level 2: Comprehension (explain, summarize, paraphrase). "What methods were used by the CIA to convince Jacobo Arbenz Guzman to flee Guatemala?"

Level 3: Application (demonstrate, interpret, relate) "How do the Iranian and Guatemalan operations by the CIA demonstrate the stated goals of American policy in those countries?"

Level 4: Analysis (compare, contrast, rearrange components). "How were the Iranian and Guatemalan operations similar? Different? What long-term effects can you discover?"

Level 5: Synthesis (explain, compose, create, hypothesize, combine parts in a new way). "How might the U.S. have achieved its objectives in Iran and Guatemala without the use of deceptive covert acts?"

Level 6: Evaluation (judge, evaluate, criticize). "What have been the long-term benefits and costs of Eisenhower's decision to intervene in Iran and Guatemala?"

Introduce Vietnam by asking students what they know or have heard about where, when and why the U.S. first became involved there. Most will not realize that American intervention began during World War II and the war against Japan. Starting with Truman's aid to the French in their war against the Vietnamese (The First Indochina War), explain why the perception of communist expansion was so strong in the American mind. This would be a good place to review the definitions of communism, socialism and capitalism developed in lesson two.

Discuss also the role of misperception on both the American and Vietnamese sides which resulted ultimately in The Second Indochina War. According to historian Louis Halle, the foreign policy of any nation addresses itself to the images of the external world in the minds of the people who determine the policy of that nation. Most Americans in the 1950s viewed all nationalist or socialist movements such as the one led by Ho Chi Minh as orchestrated directly by either Moscow or Peking (Beijing) or both. Communism was perceived as a disease which would spread like a virus if not contained, and the Asian subcontinent was chosen as the place to draw the line. While the Iranian and Guatemalan operations can be viewed as having a strong economic component, Vietnam was primarily, but not entirely, ideological in motivation.

Using "before and after" maps of Indochina, demonstrate how the country called "South Vietnam" by the Americans did not exist prior to 1954 and the defeat of the French at Dienbienphu. Explain the provisions of the Geneva Accords, including the plan for elections in 1956, and why Eisenhower decided to ignore those proposals in favor of covert operations and the establishment of a new government under Diem.

On a time line graph of "Hot Points of the Cold War," the confrontation between the U.S. and Cuba in the early 1960s reaches the most dangerous level. Since "relating the new to the known" is a major goal of education, teachers can use what knowledge students have gained from movies like JFK as a basis for developing their understanding further.

Students will become familiar with events leading to the Bay of Pigs and U.S. attempts to unseat Castro. They will also understand what led to the standoff between Kennedy and Khrushchev, including the competition between the superpowers for influence in the Third World. By putting themselves in the place of superpower decision-makers, students may better experience the different forms of pressure leaders face.

Using maps and photographs, provide students with background history of U.S./Latin American relations including the Monroe Doctrine, Spanish-American War, Roosevelt Corollary, and the role of U.S. investors in the extractive industries of the region. There are many good videos on Castro's rise to power and the Bay of Pigs debacle.

Show the film, Dr. Strangelove and ask students to write first impressions and discuss them. Ask what they learned about the way large bureaucracies can sometimes become dysfunctional and even dangerous.

The Cuban missile crisis lends itself well to a simulation exercise which can be developed by the teacher or ordered from companies such as History Simulations, PO Box 2775, Santa Clara, CA 95055. Their "Superpowers in Crisis" game includes conflicts over Berlin, Korea, Cuba, Vietnam and the Middle East. A good preparation activity might be to view scenes from the "Missiles of October" television special to let the students visualize how ExComm members such as Robert McNamara, Robert Kennedy, John McCone, McGeorge Bundy, Ted Sorensen and others looked, talked and acted during the crisis. Students then can choose which parts to play and write a script that might have been the participants’ actual words.

After a period of denial and amnesia during the 1970s and early 1980s in which Americans chose not to discuss U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the topic has resurfaced to the point of becoming one of the most popular courses at the high school and college level. Young people have mixed impressions based on family conversations and war movies, but most do not realize that the war in Vietnam began and ended because of events and perceptions within the larger context of the Cold War.

What began as a war for Americans to contain virulent, atheistic communism spreading outward from the Soviet Union and China, ended, ironically, when American decision-makers in the 1970s decided to re-establish contact with those same communist adversaries. It has been said that only Richard Nixon could have visited China and Moscow in 1972 because he had established his strong anti-communist credentials during the McCarthy era and as Eisenhower's vice-president. His promise to end the war during his 1968 campaign helped him win the presidency. It took four years of gradual withdrawal, "Vietnamization," and alternate bombing and negotiating before the last American troops left in 1973. Nixon in his 1985 book, No More Vietnams, claims that America won the war but lost the peace. The "lessons" of Vietnam remain elusive and debatable.

To help students see American involvement in Vietnam in the larger context of the Cold War, teachers might review the events of the 1950s covered in lesson four and especially the "before and after maps" of Indochina. The impression of many Americans is that the war started because of an invasion by North Vietnam against South Vietnam. Explain that there was only one Vietnam with the capital in Hanoi prior to the decision by the U.S. to establish a second government in Saigon. Using another map of the area during peak U.S. involvement in the 1960s, point out how the Ho Chi Minh trail extended into neighboring countries and the location of the Gulf of Tonkin. A third map showing Vietnam since 1975 will demonstrate how the country has been reunited and Saigon renamed Ho Chi Minh city. Explain that since U.S. withdrawal in 1975, Vietnam has been led by a communist government friendly to the Soviet Union and that the U.S. continues to impose an embargo against its former enemy.

Using a timeline and other visual materials, present the chronology of U.S. involvement from 1954 to 1975 concentrating only on key events and changes in policies. There are many excellent overviews of this period, some from the military point of view, others from the domestic side. The Center for Social Studies Education offers a collection of topics in notebook form which is compact and yet dense with information. It is The Lessons of the Vietnam War and may be ordered from Publishers Choice, Mars Industrial Park, PO Box 848, Mars, PA 16046 or from Educators for Social Responsibility of Cambridge, MA. Congressional Quarterly, 20 January 1973, published a "highlights" chronology complete with U.S. troop levels from 1960 to 1972. Also, most of the popular newspapers and magazines offered retrospectives in their spring 1985 issues. Teachers will have to decide which direction to take in terms of discussion of the many possible topics concerning Vietnam while trying to keep the overview as broad as possible and related to the larger Cold War events.

What had changed by the 1970s? Why was it time for "detente"? Why was it in the best interest of the U.S. to look beyond its war in Vietnam to friendlier relations with China and the Soviet Union? Besides the pressure domestically to end the war, events in Europe and Asia also made preoccupation with containment of communism less urgent.

Talks between European countries on both sides of the Iron Curtain about trade and the eventual treaties between West Germany and three of its communist neighbors made it more and more difficult to justify a huge U.S. military presence in Europe. Additionally, Nixon recognized that the Sino-Soviet tensions of the late 1960s could be exploited by increased contact with both communist powers. Although both countries had been supplying the North Vietnamese, especially in the last years of the war, both Moscow and Peking were more interested in closer relations with the United States than with propping up the regime in Hanoi. This type of self-interest demonstrated a new pragmatic, less ideological, stance by Moscow. Although both superpowers continued their wars by proxy in places like Angola, Afghanistan and Nicaragua well into the 1980s, both sides also recognized the danger of direct confrontation in the nuclear age.

Teachers will have to decide how far into the "lessons" of Vietnam quagmire to venture, but students should at least be given a brief summary of the deterioration of relations between China and Vietnam, and the Cambodian holocaust which resulted in a Vietnamese invasion into that country. These events call into question the original domino theory and explanation for U.S. involvement in 1954. Students may also be asked to collect newspaper accounts of current affairs in those countries affected by the war and the debate over whether the U.S. should resume normal relations with Vietnam now that the Cold War is over.

Ambrose, Stephen. Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938. 6th ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.

Berkhofer, Robert F. A Behavioral Approach to Historical Analysis. New York: The Free Press, 1969.

Billington, James H. The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture. New York: Random House, 1970.

Bloom, Benjamin. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. Rev. ed. New York: Longman, 1984.

Cunningham, Susan J. Teaching the Cold War Using a Comparative Approach. Unpublished dissertation. Illinois State University, 1991. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, 1992.

Halle, Louis J. Dream and Reality: Aspects of American Foreign Policy. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.

LaFeber, Walter. America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-1992. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993.

Hunt, Michael H. Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.

Larson, Deborah Welch. Origins of Containment: A Psychological Explanation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Murray, Robert K. Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1955.

Paterson, Thomas and Robert McMahon. The Origins of the Cold War. 3d ed. Lexington, Mass.: DC Heath & Co., 1991.

Thompson, Robert Smith. Missiles of October: The Declassified Story of John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Filmic Archives, The Cinema Center, Botsford, CT 06404.

Films for the Humanities and Sciences, PO Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543-2053.

PBS Video, Public Broadcasting System, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314-1698.

Zenger Video, PO Box 802, Culver City, CA 90232-0802.

Susan J. Cunningham is Adjunct Professor of History at East Central College in Union, Missouri.