NAME:

BRAINPOP - COLD WAR

I. VIDEO - USE THE VIDEO TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW

HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=JMKIWZHKKP8 B

1. What was the Cold War?

2. What countries were included in the Soviet Union?
3. What relationship did the US & USSR have during WWII?
4. What did the western nations fear about Joseph Stalin?
5. What is communism?
6. What happened to the Soviet Union and China under communism?
7. What did Germany look like after WWII?
8. What happened to Berlin in 1948?
9. What is the Iron Curtain? Who coined that phrase?
10. What was President Harry S. Truman’s policy towards communism?
11. How many approaches to communism did containment include?
12. What did the Marshall Plan do?
13. What did the Truman Doctrine hope to do?
14. What is NATO?
15. Why did the USSR fear the US? What did this lead to?
16. How did nuclear weapons help to prevent a US-Soviet war? Tim
17. Why did the US get involved in the Korean War?
18. What other conflict was actually a part of the Cold War?
19. In what other way did the US and USSR compete for dominance?
20. When did the Cold War begin to end? IM
21. When did the Berlin Wall fall?
22. When did the Soviet Union collapse?

II. Related Readings – Use the readings below to answer the questions underneath

A. Way Back When

 Easily the tensest moment of the entire Cold War came in October
of 1962. American spy planes discovered that the Soviet Union
was installing long-range nuclear missiles in Cuba—an island
nation just 90 miles off the Florida coast!

Many of President John F. Kennedy’s advisors believed that the

only way to respond was to invade and occupy Cuba. But Kennedy
believed that this would make matters worse—if the U.S. attacked
Cuba, the U.S.S.R. might attack and occupy West Berlin, an action
that could touch off World War III.

Instead, Kennedy decided that the U.S. Navy would block Soviet ships from entering Cuba. He
announced this decision in a televised address to a frightened nation. The crisis deepened as
Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered Soviet ships to ignore the blockade, and Kennedy
ordered the U.S. military to its highest state of readiness. The world waited for the worst: a direct
confrontation between the planet’s only nuclear powers.

Finally, a secret deal was struck: The Soviets would pull their missiles out of Cuba if the United
States agreed to remove the missiles it had stationed at the border of Turkey and the USSR.

Thus, the Cuban Missile Crisis ended. It is now widely considered to be President Kennedy’s
finest hour. At the height of the crisis, Kennedy’s secretary of state, Dean Rusk, famously said,
“We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked.”

Image: President Kennedy and his advisors meet during the Cuban Missile Crisis

1. Explain what the Cuban Missile Crisis was: a

2. How did the crisis come to an end?

B. REAL LIFE
As Tim mentions, some historians argue that the United States “won” the cold war. But there
wasn’t a surrender ceremony or anything like that; instead, the Soviet Union simply collapsed.

The Soviet economy wasn’t as strong as the American economy. But in order to match the U.S.’s
achievements in space exploration, and its massive investment in military technology and
readiness, the U.S.S.R. had to spend a lot of money that it just didn’t have.

By the 1970s, the Soviet Union wasn’t producing enough wheat to feed its enormous population,
and it was forced to spend even more to import food. Shortages of food and goods were
common, leading to unhappiness and unrest among the population.

Making matters worse, the U.S.S.R. invaded the nation of Afghanistan in 1979, and, over the
next nine years spent billions of dollars in that country.

By the time Mikhail Gorbachev, a young, reform-minded leader, came to power in 1985, it was
too late. Although Gorbachev loosened the grip the Communist Party had on the country,
increased freedom, which included a free press, allowed Soviet citizens to fully understand how
far their nation had fallen behind America and the rest of the West.

Meanwhile, the Communist nation of East Germany tore down the Berlin Wall and re-united
with democratic West Germany in 1989-1990. Soon, the republics that made up the U.S.S.R.
began demanding independence. Finally, the public desire for the break-up of the U.S.S.R. and
 the end of Communist rule forced
the Soviet Union to cease to exist
by the end of 1991.

1. Why did the Soviet

Union begin to collapse
2. When did the Soviet
Union collapse?
3. Who was Mikhail
Gorbachev?

C. Famous Faces

During times of crisis, politicians

often manipulate people’s fears to
gain votes, popularity, and influence. Such was the case during the
cold war with U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, Republican of
Wisconsin.

In 1949, the little-known McCarthy made headlines nationwide when

he said he had a list of Communist Party members who worked at the
U.S. State Department. Although a Senate investigation later found
that McCarthy’s charges were untrue, it was too late: McCarthy now
had a national platform from which he could throw accusations at
anyone, and his behavior polarized the country.

McCarthy continued to accuse high-ranking officials of traitorous acts.

Many Americans viewed him as a hero, a strong man who would do
whatever it took to defeat communism. But others thought he was a
mudslinging liar who stirred up people’s anti-Communist passions in order to further his own
reputation.

In 1953, McCarthy launched a Senate investigation into the U.S. Army to see who among the
ranks might be considered a Communist. This stunt ended with McCarthy discovering only one
disloyal soldier: a left-wing dentist who’d been drafted in 1952 and then discharged.

The Army fought back, and when McCarthy’s bullying, obnoxious behavior at the hearings were
broadcast live on television, his popularity began to fade. Soon after, McCarthy was publicly
reprimanded by the Senate, and his reputation suffered as a result. McCarthy died while still in
office, in 1957.
1. Who was Joseph McCarthy?
2. What did McCarthy accuse people of being?

D. LANGUAGE
 Here are some Cold War-related terms!

Arms race: Throughout the Cold War, the U.S. and the
U.S.S.R. invested heavily in national defense. The two
sides struggled to keep up with each other’s military
spending and technological advances; this was called the
“arms race.”

Containment: A policy to prevent the spread of Soviet

influence into non-Communist countries in Europe and
Asia. The U.S. and its allies frequently offered support to
democratic nations that were in danger of becoming
Communist.

Red scare: A kind of national paranoia, where politicians and others in the 1940s became
determined to identify and “root out” secret Communists. Many innocent people were falsely
accused; others were forced to testify against friends and co-workers; and some people’s lives
and careers were ruined.

Proxy war: Although the U.S. and the Soviet Union never openly fought each other on the
battlefield, they engaged in “proxy wars” in other nations. The Vietnam War is a good example:
The U.S. provided financial and military aid to the non-Communist government of South
Vietnam, while the Soviet Union provided aid to the Communist government of North Vietnam.

SALT I and SALT II: Standing for “Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty,” these were two
agreements between the U.S. and Soviet Union. They froze the number of nuclear weapons the
two sides were building.

Glasnost and perestroika: Two terms referring to reforms introduced by Soviet premier Mikhail
Gorbachev during the 1980s. “Glasnost” was a new policy of openness and transparency within
the Soviet government, and “perestroika” was a set of economic reforms that introduced
elements of capitalism into the Soviet system.
1. Define these 6 terms in your own words:

a. Arms Race
b. Containment
c. Proxy War
d. Salt I & Salt II
e. Glasnost and Perestroika

E. Arts & Entertainment

 During the Cold War, Americans feared the spread of
communism both abroad and within the United States. The
government, led by Congress’s House Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC), sought to root out the
country's communist sympathizers. HUAC interrogated
suspected communists, mostly artists and entertainers,
during a period known as the Red Scare. Critics called it a
"witch hunt," a baseless persecution. In 1953, a celebrated
writer brought the comparison center stage for the
American public.

Playwright Arthur Miller noticed startling parallels between the Red Scare’s communist hunt and Salem,
Massachusetts's infamous 1692 witch hunt. The Salem Witch Trials saw hundreds of people accused of
witchcraft. As during the Red Scare, those considered "outsiders" were put on trial and pressured to name
other suspects. Miller dramatized the events of the Salem Witch Trial in his 1953 play The Crucible. It
tells the story of Puritan teenager Abigail Williams, who seeks revenge on a Salem man by accusing his
wife—and many other villagers—of being a witch. Abigail convinces other young girls to fake
bewitchment to support her claims in court. Panic sweeps through Salem Village, resulting in the deaths
of 20 innocent people. While most of the characters’ personal details and dialogue are fictional, the trials
and executions were real events.

Miller wrote The Crucible as an allegory, or symbolic narrative, for the Red Scare. It illustrates how a
society can be destroyed by intolerance and hysteria, just as it was in Salem. As you may imagine,
members of HUAC did not appreciate the play's comparison. Following The Crucible’s debut, Miller was
called before the committee. He refused to name any communist friends or colleagues, and was convicted
of contempt of Congress. Though his conviction was later overturned, Miller’s trial is remembered as an
infamous example of life imitating art.

1. What was the Red Scare?

2. What was the HUAC? What did they do?
3. Why did Arthur Miller write The Crucible?
4. What is The Crucible about?

F. Cartoon
Explain what you think this cartoon means

III. Cold War Quiz - Mark your answers to the quiz in the box provided below
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.