The Cold War At Home Analysis
UNITED STATES
HISTORY
1945-1960
The Cold War:
Containment
at Home and
Abroad
PLEASE SEE
NOTES ON
THE PDF,
PAGE 5.
LESSONS IN US HISTORY
By Eileen Luhr, Department of History, The University of California, Irvine
Teacher Consultant, Chuck Lawhon, Century High School, Santa Ana
Faculty Consultant, Vicki L. Ruiz, Professor of History and Chicano-Latino Studies,
The University of California, Irvine
Managing Editor, Danielle McClellan
The publication of this CD has been made possible largely through funding from GEAR UP Santa Ana. This branch of GEAR UP has made a distinctive contribution to public school education in the U.S. by creating intellectual space within an urban school district for students who otherwise would …show more content…
not have access to the research, scholarship, and teaching represented by this collaboration between the University of California, the Santa Ana Partnership, and the Santa Ana Unified School District. Additional external funding in 2004-2005 has been provided to HOT by the Bank of America Foundation, the Wells Fargo Foundation, and the Pacific
Life Foundation.
THE UCI CALIFORNIA HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE PROJECT
The California History-Social Science Project (CH-SSP) of the University of California, Irvine, is dedicated to working with history teachers in Orange County to develop innovative approaches to engaging students in the study of the past. Founded in 2000, the
CH-SSP draws on the resources of the UCI Department of History and works closely with the UCI Department of Education. We believe that the history classroom can be a crucial arena not only for instruction in history but also for the improvement of student literacy and writing skills. Working together with the teachers of Orange County, it is our goal to develop history curricula that will convince students that history matters.
HUMANITIES OUT THERE
Humanities Out There was founded in 1997 as an educational partnership between the School of Humanities at the University of
California, Irvine and the Santa Ana Unified School District. HOT runs workshops in humanities classrooms in Santa Ana schools.
Advanced graduate students in history and literature design curricular units in collaboration with host teachers, and conduct workshops that engage UCI undergraduates in classroom work. In the area of history, HOT works closely with the UCI HistorySocial Science Project in order to improve student literacy and writing skills in the history classroom, and to integrate the teaching of history, literature, and writing across the humanities. The K-12 classroom becomes a laboratory for developing innovative units that adapt university materials to the real needs and interests of California schools. By involving scholars, teachers, students, and staff from several institutions in collaborative teaching and research, we aim to transform educational practices, expectations, and horizons for all participants.
THE SANTA ANA PARTNERSHIP
The Santa Ana Partnership was formed in 1983 as part of the Student and Teacher Educational Partnership (STEP) initiative at UC Irvine.
Today it has evolved into a multi-faceted collaborative that brings institutions and organizations together in the greater Santa Ana area to advance the educational achievement of all students, and to help them enter and complete college. Co-directed at UC Irvine by the Center for Educational Partnerships, the collaborative is also strongly supported by Santa Ana College, the Santa Ana Unified School District,
California State University, Fullerton and a number of community based organizations. Beginning in 2003-2004, HOT has contributed to the academic mission of the Santa Ana Partnership by placing its workshops in GEAR UP schools. This unit on The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad reflects the innovative collaboration among these institutions and programs.
CONTENT COUNTS: A SPECIAL PROJECT OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
This is one in a series of publications under the series title Content Counts: Reading and Writing Across the Humanities, supported by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Content Counts units are designed by and for educators committed to promoting a deep, content-rich and knowledge-driven literacy in language arts and social studies classrooms. The units provide examples of “content reading”—primary and secondary sources, as well as charts, data, and visual documents—designed to supplement and integrate the study of history and literature.
Additional external funding in 2003-2004 has been provided to HOT by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, UC
Links, the Bank of America Foundation, the Wells Fargo Foundation, and the Pacific Life Foundation.
A publication of Humanities Out There and the Santa Ana Partnership
(including UCI’s Center for Educational Partnerships, Santa Ana College, and the Santa Ana Unified School District).
Copyright 2005 The Regents of the University of California
UNITED STATES HISTORY—1945-1960
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS
This unit introduces students to the themes of the Cold War, emphasizing the connections between political events and cultural beliefs. Although the standards emphasize the leaders and major foreign policy initiatives of the era, the Cold War affected the way that average
Americans perceived themselves.
During these years, public policy, political ideology, and the American home became so intertwined that everyday practices like grocery shopping and familial living arrangements were infused with geo-political significance.
Historian Elaine Tyler May has observed that, during these years, consumption—the use of economic goods to satisfy wants—became synonymous with democracy.
This unit will introduce students to efforts to contain communism at home and abroad.
Lesson 1 reviews the source of tensions between the United
States and the Soviet Union in the postwar era so that students understand the origins and consequences of the Cold War. It begins by asking students to draw the battle lines of the Cold War in Europe. After an introduction to the basic differences between capitalism and communism, students are asked to consider both the United States’ and the
Soviet Union’s objectives in the aftermath of World War II. Stu-
dents then review excerpts of the major foreign policy initiatives of the era, including the “Iron Curtain” speech, the Truman Doctrine, and NSC-68 and discuss what impact these policies had on American democracy.
Lessons 2 and 3 introduce students to the Cold War “home fronts” in both the Soviet Union and the United States. By reviewing advertising and propaganda, students deepen their understanding of the basic tenets of capitalism and communism and gain a better understanding of the conflict between the nations.
Students examine state-sponsored Soviet propaganda and
American advertising campaigns to see how each nation promised prosperity. Students also read the Nixon-Khrushchev “kitchen debate” and learn that Cold War diplomacy extended beyond discussions of military might to include issues such as way of life. In the final lesson, students discuss whether fears about communist subversion caused
(or justified) limitations on First
Amendment rights in the United
States. In particular, students read testimony presented to the
House Un-American Activities
Committee as well as files from the FBI’s investigation of communism in Hollywood and discuss whether the threat posed by the CP warranted the measures taken to suppress them.
This unit includes a writing prompt at the end of the unit
(Lesson 4), though students would need supplementary information from lectures and textbooks to give satisfactory answers. The writing prompt asks students to assess the United
States’ foreign and domestic policy of “containment” in the
1940s and 1950s. They are given a range of potential topic sentences to use in their responses.
This unit emphasizes skills associated with historical interpretation, as students use primary sources to explore the causes of the Cold War and the connections between the war and domestic economic expansion and cultural change. The modules also ask students to consider the meaning and impact of the Cold
War on American society. While reading the major speeches and diplomatic texts of the era, students also learn that the Cold
War affected domestic as well as foreign policy.
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
3
HISTORY STANDARDS COVERED IN THIS UNIT
Skills
Chronological and Spatial thinking
Students analyze how change happens at different rates at different times; understand
that some aspects can change while others remain the same; and understand that change is complicated and affects not only technology and politics but also values and beliefs. Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View
Students construct and test hypotheses; collect, evaluate, and employ information from
multiple primary and secondary sources; and apply it in oral and written presentations.
Historical Interpretation
Students show the connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical
events and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments.
Students interpret past events and issues within the context in which an event
unfolded rather than solely in terms of present-day norms and values.
Content standards
11.7. Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events on the U.S. home front. 11.7.8. Analyze the effect of massive aid given to Western Europe under the Marshall
Plan to rebuild itself after the war and the importance of a rebuilt Europe to the U.S. economy. 11.8. Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of postWorld War II America
11.8.7. Describe the effects on society and the economy of technological developments
since 1945, including the computer revolution, changes in communication, advances in medicine, and improvements in agricultural technology.
11.8.8. Discuss forms of popular culture, with emphasis on their origins and
geographic diffusion (e.g., jazz and other forms of popular music, professional sports, architectural and artistic styles).
11.9. Students analyze U.S. foreign policy since World War II.
11.9.2. Understand the role of military alliances, including NATO and SEATO, in
deterring communist aggression and maintaining security during the Cold War.
11.9.3. Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the
Cold War and containment policy, including the following: the era of McCarthyism, instances of domestic Communism (e.g., Alger Hiss) and blacklisting; the Truman
Doctrine; the Korean War; the “mutual assured destruction” doctrine.
4
Lessons in United States History
KEY TERMS
NOTES ON THE PDF:
1) Please note that in this pdf document the page numbers are two off from the printed curriculum. For example, page 2 in the printed curriculum is now page 4 in this pdf document.
2) We apologize if some of the hyperlinks are no longer accurate. They were correct at the time of printing.
3) Full-page versions of the images in this unit—some in color—can be found at the back of this pdf.
4) You can easily navigate through the different parts of this document by using the “Bookmark” tab on the left side of your Acrobat window.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Capitalism—an economy based
on private ownership of wealth, by investments that are decided privately (not publicly), and by prices/ production/distribution of goods determined by competition. Communism—in the USSR,
communism meant government ownership of land and property, a singleparty government, and the absence of individual rights.
There was also a call for worldwide revolution.
Consumption—the use of
Domestic policy and culture
* Michael Barson and Steven Heller, Red Scared! The Commie
Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture (San Francisco:
Chronicle Books, 2001). Aimed at a popular audience, this text offers extensive popular images of communism and the
Soviet Union from both the First and Second Red Scares in the
United States.
Paul Buhle, Radical Hollywood (New York: New Press, 2002). In this work, Buhle assesses the influence of the Hollywood Left in the early years of the movie industry.
Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass
Consumption in Postwar America (New York: Knopf, 2003).
This monograph offers an analysis of how consumerism reshaped American citizenship during the postwar era.
Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of
American Democracy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 2000). Dudziak examines the struggle for racial equality in the United States in the context of the global Cold War. She shows how segregation (not to mention lynching) became a liability for American foreign policy as well as how Presidents
Eisenhower and Kennedy linked desegregation to national security. * Thomas Hine, Populuxe (New York: Knopf, 1986). Another work aimed at a popular audience, this text reviews the popular culture—and the consumerism—of the 1950s through advertisements, automobiles, and appliances.
Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the
Cold War Era (New York: Basic Books, 1988). May’s work explores the connections between Cold War foreign policies of
“containment” and American family life.
economic goods to satisfy wants and/or shape identity.
Historians like Elaine Tyler
May and Lizabeth Cohen have noted that during the twentieth century,
Americans increasingly identified themselves as consumers rather than workers. Containment—a term first
used by American diplomat
George Kennan during the late 1940s. As the USSR exerted influence in Eastern
Europe, the American government adopted a foreign policy that sought to limit, or “contain,” Soviet influence in the rest of the world. Diplomatic history—history
that examines the negotiated relationships between nations. Diplomatic historians usually focus on areas such as leadership and treaties. Political history—history
that examines government
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
5
and activities related to government (e.g., political parties, elections).
Production—the making of
goods available for use. In mass production, goods are created using assembly-line techniques. Social history—history that
explores the interaction of individuals and groups.
Victor Navasky, Naming Names (New York: Viking Press, 1980).
This is a history of the House Un-American Activities
Committee, with a particular interest in the “friendly” witnesses. Ellen Schrecker, Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1998). Schrecker explores the impact of anticommunism in the United States from the first Red
Scare until the end of McCarthyism. In doing so, she also offers a history of the Communist Party in the United States.
Lynn Spigel, Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1992). Spigel explores the connection between television and the nuclear family ideal in the 1950s.
ASSESSMENT:
Diagnostic—see final lesson for writing prompt.
Foreign policy
* Victoria E. Bonnell, The Iconography of Power: Soviet political posters under Lenin and Stalin (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1997). This monograph offers examples of and insights into Soviet propaganda.
* Michael Herr, Dispatches (New York: Knopf, 1977). In this account of the Vietnam War, Herr, a journalist who covered the war, attempts to capture the feel of combat from …show more content…
the perspective of American soldiers.
Stephen Kinzer, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the
Roots of Middle East Terror (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley &
Sons, 2003). In this monograph, New York Times reporter
Kinzer reviews the events and reasons for the American coup of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953.
Thomas Paterson, On Every Front: The Making and Unmaking of the Cold War (New York: W.W. Norton, 1992). This work offers an overview of the events and policies of the Cold War in the United States.
Marilyn B. Young, The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990 (New York:
Harper Collins, 1991). Young reviews the history of the Vietnam War, including policy decisions, political justifications, and the war’s impact on both American and
Vietnamese civilians.
* Denotes a work with primary sources that could be used in the classroom. 6
Lessons in United States History
Primary sources available on the Web
Avalon Project at Yale Law School: http://www.yale.edu/ lawweb/avalon. This website offers an alphabetized—and searchable—database of documents from American history, including the Cold War. Its twentieth century diplomatic collection includes the text of the Truman Doctrine (1947) and the NATO treaty (1949).
FBI: http://foia.fbi.gov/room.htm. This site includes FBI documents from its investigation of communism in the motion picture industry. Look for information through the link to “historical interest listing.”
The Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/movies. This film archive, drawn from the Prelinger Collection, includes Cold
War-era ephemeral films, including the classic “Duck and
Cover” as well as films that feature students discussing the relative merits of capitalism, democracy, and communism.
Films may be downloaded or watched via Real Player streaming format. The films in this collection are in the public domain. The website is fairly easy to use, as it is organized so that visitors may browse by topic as well as by title. Relevant titles for Cold War instruction include
Capitalism, It’s Everybody’s Business, Meet King Joe (a cartoon that highlights the benefits of capitalism for American workers) and several others.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: http://www.fordham.edu/ halsall/mod/modsbook.html. This database includes various
Cold War-era documents that are part of the public domain.
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at University of Texas,
Austin: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html. This site offers an excellent collection of contemporary and historical maps.
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
7
LESSON 1
The Cold War: Why did the United States and the USSR enter into the Cold War after World War II?
STANDARDS ADDRESSED
IN THIS LESSON
Skills
Historical Interpretation
Students show the
connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical events and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments. Students interpret past
events and issues within the context in which an event unfolded rather than solely in terms of present-day norms and values.
Content standards
11.7. Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events on the
U.S. home front.
11.7.8: Analyze the effect
of massive aid given to
Western Europe under the Marshall Plan to rebuild itself after the war and the importance of a rebuilt Europe to the U.S. economy. 11.9. Students analyze
U.S. foreign policy since
World War II.
11.9.2. Understand the
role of military alliances, including NATO and
SEATO, in deterring communist aggression and
8
Lessons in United States History
INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS
Lesson 1 reviews the source of tensions between the United
States and the Soviet Union (USSR) in the post-World War II era so that students understand the origins of the Cold War.
In a sense, World War II represented a break in the hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union, which had become a communist nation during World War I. Even then, the United
States was concerned that the Soviet Union would pose a challenge to America’s government and values. As a capitalist nation, the United States feared the revolutionary rhetoric of communism, which vowed to create a world order led by workers and which denounced organized religion. As a result, Americans did not establish diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union until 1933. American and Soviet relations soured when Joseph Stalin agreed to a nonagression pact with Adolf Hitler, but Hitler nullified the treaty by invading the USSR in 1941. During World War II, the United States sided with Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union (the Grand
Alliance) to fight the Axis Powers. However, the United States and the Soviet Union disagreed about what postwar Europe should look like, and their mutual suspicion gradually led to a Cold War that lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
After World War II, American leaders hoped that an American monopoly on the atomic bomb would convince the Soviet Union to agree to American plans for Europe (the monopoly was short lived, as the Soviets developed a bomb by 1949). American leaders wanted to ensure the continued health of its economy, so it wanted to see governments with similar economic and political systems established in Europe. Although this foreign policy coincided with
American economic needs, Americans saw these goals not as selfinterest but as a crusade to bring freedom, democracy, and capitalism to the world. They therefore tried to “contain,” or limit, the spread of communism all over the world.
On the other hand, the Soviet Union feared another invasion and wanted to protect its western borders by establishing pro-communist governments in Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union suffered incredible losses—including 20 million deaths and heavy damage to industry and agriculture—during World War II. Joseph Stalin wanted to protect the USSR from further attack by establishing
“satellite nations” that were sympathetic to communism along its western borders. Stalin claimed that he was protecting Soviet interests in Europe, just as the United States was protecting its interests. Suspicious of the United States, Stalin did not participate in agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund, which helped established capitalist economies in Western
Europe.
Lesson Goals
Lesson 1 will introduce students to the major diplomatic and economic issues of the early Cold War. Teachers should begin by asking students to locate the key nations involved in the Cold War on a map. The students then read and analyze a series of speeches and papers that outline “containment,” which became the key policy of American foreign policy. In the next module, students will discuss how the idea of “containment” affected American culture. A Discussion Guide for Teachers
maintaining security during the Cold War.
11.9.3. Trace the
LESSON 1
During the Cold War, the United States divided the world into the “free” and “unfree” world. The “free world” included nations that were willing to cooperate with the United States and Western Europe. This did not necessarily mean that its allies were all democracies; indeed, it may be noted that countries such as
South Africa—whose official policy of apartheid ended only in the
1990s—and the Philippines—which was ruled by US-supported dictator Ferdinand Marcos—were considered “free” nations. At the same time, the Soviet Union—and most notoriously Joseph
Stalin—pursued oppressive policies in its own nation and across
Eastern Europe. While this module focuses on events in Europe, teachers might initiate fruitful discussions of these contradictions by expanding class discussion to include content standards that focus on the Vietnam War, Latin America, and/or the Middle
East.
origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy.
KEY TERMS
Capitalism—an economy based
on private ownership of wealth, by investments that are decided privately (not publicly), and by prices/ production/distribution of goods determined by competition. Communism—in the USSR,
communism meant government ownership of land and property, a singleparty government, and the absence of individual rights.
There was also a call for worldwide revolution.
Containment—a term first
Format: Students should be divided into groups of five or six
students. Depending on time constraints, the teacher may wish to have each group examine one excerpt, then report to the class.
This lesson is intended to introduce students to some of the basic political, economic, and military objectives of both the United
States and the Soviet Union following World War II. Since the lesson only includes Europe, teachers may wish to expand discussion beyond the map of Europe, since the Cold War included so many
“theaters” around the world, including Southeast Asia, Central
America, and the Caribbean. A discussion of these non-European theaters could lead to an interesting discussion of how the United
States and the Soviet Union attempted to—or more often failed to—consider themes such as nationalism and racial geopolitics in these countries during the Cold War. After conducting such a discussion, teachers could add another column to the “Cold War perspectives” exercise at the end of the module that asks students to consider events from the perspective of a non-Western nation
(e.g., Vietnam).
In Part II, students read several well-known foreign policy documents associated with the early years of the Cold War. In these documents, American, British, and Soviet leaders and policy
used by American diplomat
George Kennan during the late 1940s. As the USSR exerted influence in Eastern
Europe, the American government adopted a foreign policy that sought to resist, or “contain,” Soviet influence in the rest of the world. The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
9
TIME REQUIRED
70 minutes. The first half of the workshop is intended to familiarize students with the alliances of World War
II and the Cold War. If students are already familiar with this information, teachers can use the map exercise as a review, or they can skip it altogether.
MATERIALS
Photocopies of documents and map, markers/colored pencils to draw on map.
In addition to the map of
Europe, it is recommended that teachers also have a world map available so they can have students locate
Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
10
Lessons in United States History
analysts outline their nation’s actions. Teachers should have their students circle or outline key words in an effort to identify the vocabulary used to justify the War (teachers should decide whether they wish to give students the list of “goals” given at the beginning of the section). At the end of the section, students should brainstorm a list of economic, political, and military/national security goals, collected from the lesson, which each country pursued (there could be more than two potential responses).
The writing assignment at the end of this module asks students to apply the concept of “containment” to the situation in Korea in 1950. Teachers may wish to assign this brief “position paper” along with textbook reading; the assignment gives the student the opportunity to practice persuasive writing. The theme of “containment” will continue as the modules move to a discussion of domestic policy.
Writing Exercise:
[See end of lesson]
The Cold War: Why did the United States and the USSR enter into the Cold War after World War II?
INTRODUCTION FOR STUDENTS
In this lesson, you will learn about the source of tensions between the United
States and the Soviet Union in the post-World War II era. The two nations were allies during World War II, but the United States was concerned that the Soviet
Union, which was a communist nation, posed a challenge to America’s government and values. As a capitalist nation, the United
States feared the revolutionary rhetoric of communism, which vowed to create a world order led by workers and which denounced organized religion. The United
States and the Soviet Union disagreed about what postwar Europe should look like, and their mutual suspicion led to a Cold War that lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
After World War II,
American leaders hoped that an American monopoly on the atomic bomb would convince the Soviet
Union to agree to American plans for Europe (the monopoly was short lived, as the Soviets developed a bomb by 1949). American leaders wanted to ensure
the continued health of its economy, so it wanted to see governments with similar economic and political systems established in Europe. They therefore tried to “contain,” or limit, the spread of communism all over the world. On the other hand, after suffering
20 million deaths and huge damage during the war, the
Soviet Union feared another invasion and wanted to protect its western borders by establishing pro-commu-
nist governments in Eastern
Europe. Stalin claimed that he was protecting Soviet interests in Europe, just as the
United States was protecting its interests.
In the rest of this lesson, you will map the alliances that formed in Europe during the Cold War. You will also read sources in which
American, British, and Soviet politicians explore their goals and their foreign policy in the years after World
War II.
Temporary basement fallout shelter, circa 1957.
Source: Michael Barson and Steven Heller, Red Scared, p. 134
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
11
LESSON 1
LESSON 1
PART 1—MAPPING WORLD WAR II AND THE COLD WAR IN EUROPE
Europe at the end of World War II
1. During World War II, the United States sided with Great Britain, France and the Soviet
Union against Germany, Italy and Japan. On your map of Europe, please locate the following countries:
a. Allies: Great Britain, France, USSR, USA. Mark these countries with the letter “A.”
b. Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan. Mark these countries with the letters “AP
.”
With your teacher, find Japan on a world map.
2. In February 1945, when it was clear that the Allies would win the war, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Joseph Stalin (USSR) and Winston Churchill (Great
Britain) to discuss the fate of postwar Europe. The leaders divided Germany into quarters to be occupied by American, French, British, and Russian forces, and Stalin agreed to allow elections in Poland, which was occupied by Soviet forces. On your map of Europe, please locate the following countries:
a. Germany: draw a line from the northwest corner of the German border with
Czechoslovakia to the Baltic Sea. The area to the west of this line will be West
Germany (the combined quarters of USA, France, and England) and the area to the east of this line will be East Germany (USSR). Color East Germany red.
b. Poland. Color red.
The division of Europe
3. The Soviet Union gained control over parts of Eastern Europe that Germany had captured during the war. On your map of Europe, please locate the following countries and color them red:
a. Albania and Bulgaria. Occupied by USSR in 1944, communist-controlled by 1948.
b. Czechoslovakia. Communist-controlled by 1948.
c. Hungary and Romania. Communist-controlled by
1947.
d. East Germany. Occupied by Soviet Union after war, communist government established 1949.
4. As the Soviet Union established satellite nations, the United States collected allies among Western European nations. In 1949, the United States joined the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to counter Soviet power in Europe. On your map of Europe, please locate the following countries and color them blue:
a. Great Britain
b. France
c. West Germany
12
d. Norway
e. Belgium
f. Italy
Lessons in United States History
g. Turkey
h. Greece
i. Netherlands
j. Denmark
k. Portugal
PART II: COLD WAR DIPLOMACY
Soviet goals: The Soviet Union suffered huge
wanted to keep the nation’s economy strong, so they wanted to see nations with capitalist economies and representative governments established in Europe. Although this foreign policy met American economic needs, Americans saw these goals not as self-interest but as a crusade to bring freedom, democracy, and capitalism to the world.
They therefore tried to “contain” the spread of communism all over the world.
losses—including 20 million deaths and heavy damage to industry and agriculture—during
World War II. Joseph Stalin wanted to protect the
USSR from further attack by establishing “satellite nations”—that is, nations that were sympathetic to communism—along its western borders. Stalin said that he was protecting Soviet interests in
Europe, just as the United States was protecting its interests. Suspicious of the United States, Stalin did not let the USSR join agencies such as the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which helped the capitalist economies in Western
Europe.
Winston Churchill
GLOSSARY FOR
EXCERPT:
ill inston Church eech Speech by W this famous sp rchill delivered uri Winston Chu ollege in Misso
Westminster C at 946. on March 5, 1 rieste in the the Baltic to T cross the in …From Stettin ain has descended a of n curt all the capitals
Adriatic an iro d that line lie hin ern Europe.
Continent. Be entral and East tes of C
Budapest, Belthe ancient sta gue, Vienna,
, Pra ies Warsaw, Berlin nd Sofia; all these famous cit st a hat I grade, Buchare them lie in w tions around la re subject, in and the popu here, and all a ce oviet sp
Soviet influen must call the S r, not only to othe sing one form or an e cases increa h and in som hig but to a very om Moscow… re of control fr measu odern History
et M
Source: Intern
descended—fallen over
or covered sphere—an area of
interest or influence
Sourcebook
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad 13
LESSON 1
American goals: American leaders
Questions about Churchill’s speech (see page 13):
1. Looking at your map of Europe (page 22), draw a line that separates the Soviet-bloc nations from the Western European nations that were members of NATO.
2. What phrase does Churchill use to describe Soviet power in Eastern Europe? Why might this scare an American audience in 1946?
3. Why would an American care about Soviet power in Europe?
Joseph Stalin
l se to Churchil rch talin’s respon
Joseph S s (p.4) on Ma ew York Time
N
Printed in the ravda) terview with P
946 (in
14, 1 f the position o l now stands in l is not alone il ... Mr. Church urchil ar. And Mr. Ch rand of w land but also a fireb ot only in Eng iends n here. He has fr
.
tes of America ably the United Sta in inded remark t, one is rem t war
In this respec ler began to se is friends. Hit ng of Hitler and h ing his racial theory, declari e unc rman languag loose by anno eaking the Ge ill le sp
n. Mr. Church that only peop valuable natio lly cial theory, represent a fu
, also by a ra war loose aking the Eng begins to set ly nations spe at on nations, called maintaining th fully valuable are rld. lish language f the entire wo the destinies o e t Hitler and upon to decid theory brough cial The German ra nclusion that the Germans, the co ver his friends to n, must rule o valuable natio lly ngs as the only fu cial theory bri
The English ra the conclusion other nations. his friends to
Churchill and nguage, being
Mr.
g the English la eakin that nations sp
14
Lessons in United States History
GLOSSARY FOR
EXCERPT:
firebrand—one who
speaks forcefully for a cause irrevocably—unable to
change oblivion—the state of
being forgotten expansionist tendencies—
having the desire to grow or achieve more power
Stalin continues on next page.
ory et Modern Hist
Source: Intern
Sourcebook
Questions about Stalin’s response:
1. What historical figure does Stalin compare Churchill to? Why do you think Stalin uses this comparison?
2. In the fourth through sixth paragraphs above, Stalin states how many Russians died during World War II. Why were these losses important, according to Stalin?
3. How does Stalin defend the Soviet Union’s post-World War II actions in Europe? Were
Stalin’s goals military goals, national security goals, or economic goals?
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad 15
LESSON 1
r ould rule ove ble nations, sh valua the only fully the world.... ing nations of
, the Soviet the remain rman invasion the Ge with the GerAs a result of lost in battles and vocably
Union has irre ring the German occupation du Germans, and also iet citizens to ulsion of Sov xp ple. In through the e
7,000,000 peo camps, about r st in men sevman slave labo t Union has lo e Sovie tates other words, th an Britain and the United S th eral times more ying to push together. quarters are tr some Soviet people
It may be that crifices of the e these sa urope from th into oblivion liberation of E the which insured et them. One
Hitlerite yoke. n cannot forg
Unio
sing in the fact
But the Soviet at can be surpri cure, wh to ensure its se can ask therefo ion, in a desire
Un
ese counthat the Soviet achieve that th re, tries to s to rity for the futu governments whose relation t ave n one, withou tries should h loyal? How ca l n are these peacefu the Soviet Unio reason, qualify ne’s xpansionist having lost o t Union as “e the Sovie
..
aspirations of
Government?.
encies” of our tend Harry Truman
). arch 12, 1947 n Doctrine (M dent Harry
Truma
, given by Presi ss, speech This excerpted ion of Congre to fore a joint sess r economic aid
Truman be dent’s plans fo resi outlined the p rkey. Greece and Tu d cy of the Unite ust be the poli m g atI believe that it ho are resistin free peoples w rt rities or by
States to suppo y armed mino gation b tempted subju rily res… uld be prima outside pressu our help sho esI believe that l aid which is ic and financia rderly political m through econo ic stability and o om sential to econ alat a map to re processes… only to glance reek It is necessary grity of the G r vival and inte r ide ize that the su e importance in a much w l grav der the contro nation are of should fall un reece bor, situation. If G upon its neigh rity, the effect ino onfuof an armed m and serious. C ut be immediate ugho Turkey, would ll spread thro rder might we sion and diso an dle East. of Greece as the entire Mid disappearance found effect
Moreover, the ld have a pro ate wou hose peoples independent st s in Europe w in ountrie lties to mainta upon those c st great difficu again they are struggling ndence while d their indepe an their freedoms ages of war. repair the dam odern History
et M
Source: Intern
16
Lessons in United States History
Sourcebook
GLOSSARY FOR
EXCERPT:
subjugation—control armed minorities—
Truman means a small group that takes over through force survival—ability to live integrity—soundness or
completeness profound—important or deep
Questions about the Truman Doctrine:
LESSON 1
1. Find Greece and Turkey on your map again.
2. Given the world political situation in 1947, who do you think are the “armed minorities” and “outside pressures” who are trying to take over Greece and Turkey?
3. According to this excerpt, what kind of aid does Truman plan to give to Greece and
Turkey?
4. Looking at the final two paragraphs, what does Truman say will happen in Europe and the Middle East if the United States does not help Greece and Turkey?
5. Truman’s foreign policy has often been described as the “domino theory.” Here’s the concept: if dominoes are stacked one slightly behind the other, a slight push on one will knock down all of the pieces in a row. Why do you think it has been described in this way?
6. Were Truman’s plans in Greece and Turkey military goals, national security goals, political goals, or economic goals?
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
17
George C. Marshall
)
(June 5, 1947 etary of State
Marshall Plan
, given by Secr can speech need for Ameri
This excerpted
, outlined the rshall George C. Ma pe. to western Euro economic aid e’s requirer is that Europ f the matte od and other
…The truth o ars of foreign fo a—are so ext 3 or 4 ye from Americ ments for the n ts—principally ility to pay that she uc essential prod er present ab
, social, and greater than h much face economic r stantial help o racter… must have sub very grave cha at tion of a ora t on the world political deteri oralizing effec dem a reAside from the nces arising as ies of disturba ossibilit ed, the conlarge and the p people concern eration of the tates should be sult of the desp of the United S ld e economy ed States shou sequences to th al that the Unit f nor. It is logic in the return o apparent to all to do to assist is able t which there do whatever it world, withou health in the d peace. Our mal economic y and no assure ne tical stabilit ntry or doctri can be no poli gainst any cou nd chaos. Its ted not a policy is direc desperation, a unger, poverty, economy in but against h l of a working be the reviva litical and purpose should permit the emergence of po s to exist. the world so a ee institutions ns in which fr social conditio
GLOSSARY FOR
EXCERPT:
requirements—needs substantial—great deterioration—decline
or fall apart demoralizing—taking away the spirit disturbances—lack of
order stability—order doctrine—a set of
beliefs, especially religious or political revival—a return to
working order
Questions about the Marshall Plan:
1. What kind of aid did Europe need from the United States?
2. Why would the United States want to help Europe?
3. What does Marshall mean when he says, “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos”?
4. Was Marshall’s plan a military goal, a national security goal, a political goal, or an economic goal?
18
Lessons in United States History
cil Paper 68
Security Coun
National
) mo (April 7, 1950 an internal me et document, rity Council,
This top-secr
National Secu rmed tes could stop of the newly fo the United Sta nly argued that o s the policy of
n. It advocate o Soviet expansi
t.”
“containmen one inment,” it is licy of “conta
(1)
As for the po ort of war to y all means sh iet power, (2) which seeks b ansion of Sov k further exp tensions, (3) bloc s of Soviet pre ontrol and lsitie c expose the fa f the Kremlin’s the seeds a retraction o er induce general, so fost nce, and (4) in em that the influe the Soviet syst within ypoint of modif of destruction t at least to the ugh pted
Kremlin is bro generally acce to conform to r ing its behavio standards. t theory and international ar from Sovie cle ee
…It is quite to bring the fr
Kremlin seeks e e practice that th minion by the methods of th do rt s bve world under it hnique is to su ue preferred tec
Every instit cold war. Th intimidation. and is by infiltration ment which it ty is an instru cie oses. tion of our so ainst our purp ify and turn ag material and sought to stult st closely our ch mo prime targets,
Those that tou obviously the are hschools, churc moral strength ic enterprises, civ he eflabor unions, ing opinion. T ia for influenc us es, and all med h to make them serve obvio uc ur fort is not so m revent them from serving o to p fuSoviet ends as sources of con to make them s body ends, and thu lture, and our onomy, our cu sion in our ec politic… GLOSSARY FOR
EXCERPT:
containment—to
prevent or limit the advance, spread, or influence of expansion—the process of growth: the opposite of containment falsities—lies pretensions— appearances retraction—a pulling
back foster—to encourage
growth modifying—changing dominion—rule subvert—to ruin or
corrupt from within infiltration—enter secretly intimidation—threat of
force stultify—to make
useless
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad 19
LESSON 1
National Security Council
Questions about the National Security Council Paper 68, page 17:
1. How did the United States plan to stop Soviet expansion? Does the document argue that the United States should go to war with the USSR?
2. According to this document, what were the key parts of “containment”? What does the phrase “by all means short of war” mean?
3. According to the document, how is the Soviet Union trying to increase its influence over the free world? Is the Soviet Union using armed confrontation or another method? How does this threaten American institutions, and how might this threat differ from other wars, like WWI or WWII?
4. Using NSC-68, can you argue that Americans were worried that communists would
“subvert” (definition: to ruin or corrupt from within) American culture? Why?
5. If Stalin had issued a response to the NSC-68, what do you think he would have said?
20
Lessons in United States History
PERSPECTIVES ON THE COLD WAR
United States
Soviet Union
Economic Goals
Economic Goals
1)
1)
2)
2)
Political Goals
Political Goals
1)
1)
2)
2)
Military/National Security Goals
Military/National Security Goals
1)
1)
2)
LESSON 1
Now that you have read the documents, please describe the objectives of the United
States and the Soviet Union as each nation’s leaders (or allies) explained them. Are there any similarities?
2)
WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
The year is 1950, and North Korea, a communist country, has invaded South Korea (look at world map). President Harry Truman has to decide whether to commit ground troops to help the South Koreans fight the invasion, which would mean that the “cold war” would become a “hot war.” You are a policy analyst for the newly-formed National Security Council. Using the documents in this worksheet, write a five-sentence paragraph in which you argue for or against committing ground troops. You will need to address why the policy of
“containment” applies or does not apply to the situation in Korea.
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
21
BARENTS
SEA
ICELAND
FINLAND
NORWAY
NORTH
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
SWEDEN
SCOTLAND
SCOTLAND
IRELAND
NORTH
SEA
DENMARK
DENMARK
GREAT
GREAT
BRITAIN
BRITAIN
ENGLAND
ENGLAND
WALES
WALES
CELTIC
SEA
NETHERNETHERLANDS
LANDS
BALTIC
SEA
EAST
GERMANY
BELGIUM
WEST
LUXEMBURG GERMANY
SOVIET UNION
POLAND
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
HUNGARY
SWITZERLAND AUSTRIA
ROMANIA
FRANCE
ITALY
YUGOSLAVIA
SPAIN
CORSICA
ADRIATIC
BULGARIA
SEA
ALBANIA
SARDINIA
PORTUGAL
GREECE
SICILY
TUNISIA
MOROCCO
ALGERIA
BLACK
SEA
TURKEY
CASPIAN
SEA
AEGEAN
SEA
SYRIA
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
LEBANON
ISRAEL
IRAQ
IRAN
JORDAN
LIBYA
EGYPT
22
Lessons in United States History
RED
SEA
SAUDI
ARABIA
PERSIAN
GULF
LESSON 2
The Cold War: How did the Cold War affect American culture and Soviet culture?
In this module, students will learn how the Cold War affected
American and Soviet culture during the early years of the conflict. In the Soviet Union, state-sponsored propaganda campaigns claimed that the nation had created considerable prosperity and happiness for its citizens, despite the fact that the war, fought on
Soviet grounds, had severely damaged the economy. The campaigns criticized capitalism in the West for problems such as war, unemployment, exploitation, and racism.
Americans enjoyed an era of prosperity after World War II, but the fear of communism dominated American culture during the
1950s. The war had revived the American economy, and Americans quickly adjusted to a consumer economy. Advertisements encouraged Americans to invest in homes, televisions, and kitchen appliances. While concerned about the Soviet Union’s advancements in nuclear arms and space technology, Americans believed that consumer abundance proved the superiority of the capitalist system. Lesson Goals
In Lesson 2, students examine the American and Soviet “home fronts” during the Cold War. By examining a variety of primary sources—advertisements, magazine articles, and state-sponsored propaganda—they will consider how the Cold War affected thinking in both the United States and the Soviet Union. They will also try to understand why each country believed that its economic and political system—capitalism/democracy or communism—offered the better path to prosperity. Although it may seem as though consumer goods would have little relevance to a war, they will see that consumer culture had an important role in the Cold War. By reading the Nixon-Khrushchev “kitchen debate,” students will learn that Cold War diplomacy extended beyond discussions of military might to include issues such as way of life. The workshop is designed to help students understand the connection between the Cold War and the era’s economic, social, and cultural transformation.
It is important that students remember that all of the sources they examine will have a bias. The sources were intended to convince citizens that their nation’s way of life, whether democracy or communism, was the best way to achieve happiness.
STANDARDS ADDRESSED
IN THIS LESSON
Skills
Historical Research,
Evidence, and Point of
View
Students construct and
test hypotheses; collect, evaluate, and employ information from multiple primary and secondary sources; and apply it in oral and written presentations.
Historical Interpretation
Students show the
connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical events and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments. Content standards
11.8. Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of postWorld War II America
11.8.7. Describe the
effects on society and the economy of technological developments since 1945, including the computer revolution, changes in communication, advances in medicine, and improvements in agricultural technology.
11.8.8. Discuss forms
of popular culture, with emphasis on their origins and geographic diffusion
(e.g., jazz and other
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
23
LESSON 2
INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS
forms of popular music, professional sports, architectural and artistic styles). Discussion Guide for Teachers
Format: Teachers may want to divide students into groups to dis-
cuss the different sections. Some of the work could be completed for homework.
This lesson is designed to help students understand the domestic consequences of the Cold War. To supplement the images in this workshop, teachers may wish to include a clip from one of the Cold War-era educational films available through the Prelinger
Collection at the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/), a collection of public-domain films from the twentieth century. Films such as Capitalism, A Look at Capitalism, Meet King Joe, and It’s Everybody’s Business, locatable using the alphabetical index, address the perceived differences between American and Soviet culture, and students may enjoy analyzing how Americans compared their system to that of the Soviet Union.
In this lesson, the primary sources from American culture are drawn from popular magazines and advertisements. Students should notice the emphasis on the (white) “nuclear family,” consumer abundance, and “traditional” gender roles. They may also notice that the ads do not depict blue-collar Americans (some of the films at the Prelinger Archive do depict working-class Americans). Moreover, the excerpt from Look magazine equates women’s rights with access to beauty salons. The teacher may wish to ask students what groups of Americans are missing from these advertisements.
In contrast to the American ads, the Soviet posters champion the worker while condemning capitalism. For example, Viktor
Govorkov’s poster depicts an American worker who is literally counting his pennies in front of a fat-cat tycoon while a Soviet worker (wearing a tie) happily holds consumer goods. The question posed in the poster, “Who Receives the National Income?”, is thus answered: the Soviet worker. Ivan Semenov’s poster, “The
Goal of Capitalism is Always the Same,” similarly condemns capitalism. Each frame of the poster depicts a worker in a different
“capitalist” struggle: extraction of resources, slavery, and war (the workers are of different races). In each case, the profit/sweat/blood drains into the bottom frame, where the capitalist collects his profits.
Although it may seem as though consumer goods would have little relevance to a war, students will see that consumer culture had an important role in the Cold War. By reading the NixonKhrushchev “kitchen debate,” students will learn that Cold War diplomacy extended beyond discussions of military might to include issues such as way of life. During the tour, which occurred two years after Sputnik challenged American technical supremacy,
Nixon consistently attempted to draw attention to the benefits of the American consumer economy. Although Khrushchev refused to concede defeat on this front of the Cold War, he nonetheless offered stinging criticism of consumerism, including his retort that
Soviets did not share “the capitalist attitude toward women” and his assertion that household goods “are merely gadgets.”
KEY TERMS
Capitalism—an economy based
on private ownership of wealth, by investments that are decided privately (not publicly), and by prices/ production/distribution of goods determined by competition. Communism—in the USSR,
communism meant government ownership of land and property, a singleparty government, and the absence of individual rights.
There was also a call for worldwide revolution.
Consumption—the use of
economic goods to satisfy wants and/or shape identity.
Historians like Elaine Tyler
May and Lizabeth Cohen have noted that during the
20th century, Americans increasingly identified themselves as consumers rather than workers.
Production—the making of
goods available for use. In mass production, goods are created using assembly-line techniques. TIME REQUIRED
MATERIALS
Lessons in United States History
Photocopies of workshop images and text.
WRITING ASSIGNMENT
24
At least one hour plus the writing assignment
See end of lesson.
LESSON 2
The Cold War: How did the Cold War affect American culture and Soviet culture?
In today’s lesson, you will learn how the Cold War affected American and Soviet culture in the 1950s. The sources you will examine tried to convince citizens that their nation’s way of life, whether democracy or communism, was the best way to achieve happiness. In the United
States, Americans quickly adjusted to a consumer economy after World War II.
Advertisements encouraged Americans to invest in homes, televisions, and kitchen appliances. However, Americans were
also worried about the spread of communism.
Many advertising campaigns and magazine articles tried to persuade Americans that the availability of consumer goods proved the superiority of the American way of life. In the
Soviet Union, which suffered tremendous damage to its economy during World War II, statesponsored propaganda campaigns claimed that the nation resulted in prosperity and happiness for its citizens. The campaigns criticized capitalism in the West for problems such as war, unemployment, exploitation, and racism.
COLD WAR: HOW DID AMERICANS EXPLAIN
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMMUNISM AND CAPITALISM?
Following are advertisements, articles, and photographs from American magazines and television during the 1940s and 1950s. Using these pictures, answer the questions at the bottom of page 27.
Advertisement for kitchen appliances, 1950s. Source: Thomas Hine, Populuxe (New York: Knopf, 1986), p. 22
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
25
LESSON 2
INTRODUCTION FOR STUDENTS
Life magazine cover, 1953. The caption on the cover reads,
“Family Buys ‘Best
$15,000 House’”
A 1950s Family
Source: Thomas Hine,
Populuxe (New York:
Knopf, 1986), title page. 26
Lessons in United States History
me.html
~afilreis/50s/ho
n.edu/
.english.upen
: http://www
Source
American advertising and culture:
1. Which photograph best summarizes capitalism and/or democracy in the 1950s as you understand it? Who are the “heroes” of these advertisements? Be ready to explain your answer.
2. Which photographs (there is more than one) celebrate life in the United States?
Explain why.
3. Which source contains a critique of communism and/or the Soviet Union?
4. Do you think these images accurately depict life in the United States in the 1950s?
5. Do these images leave any group of Americans out of the picture?
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad 27
LESSON 2
ns” d-Class Citize spaperman,” Russia’s Secon merican new an A
“Women—
-born wife of ney, “Russian e in 1954]
Julie Whit
Look Magazin ppeared in
[this excerpt a g, except a almost anythin be as a chance to litan Moscow, a good-lookan in Russia h er, “A wom ely cosmopo ings: a foreign ay, in a relativ one of three th
Even tod ian -up is woman. women in Russ wearing make ll-dressed girl ty of statues of ing, we is no ‘Miss
The majori ss to say, there a prostitute.... edle an actress or gym pants! Ne
, “there are just brassieres and of five million tion he parks wear e the name. T with its popula andards deserv
” In Moscow, rn st
U.S.S.R.’
hich by Weste
s.’”
auty parlors w etic institution two be
‘medical cosm en are other half-doz
COLD WAR: SOVIET PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGNS
Answer the questions at the bottom of this page using these posters from Soviet propaganda campaigns in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s (also see next page).
Viktor Govorkov, “Who Receives the National Income?” 1950. The worker on the left is an American.
The worker on the right is a Soviet.
Source: Victoria E. Bonnell, Iconography of Power (LA and Berkeley: UC Press, 1997), figure 6.6
Propaganda in the Soviet Union
1. Which poster best summarizes communism as you understand it? Who are the
“heroes” of the posters? Who are the “villains”?
2. Which posters celebrate life in the Soviet Union?
3. Which posters (there is more than one) contain a critique of capitalism and/or the
United States?
4. Do you think these posters accurately depict life in the Soviet Union?
28
Lessons in United States History
LESSON 2
Ivan Semenov, “The Goal of Capitalism is Always the Same,” 1953.
Source: Victoria E. Bonnell, Iconography of Power (LA and Berkeley: UC Press, 1997), figure 6.15.
Nikolai Charukhin, “I am a man. Racism—shame of America” 1969.
Source: Aulich & Sylvestrova, Signs of the Times: Political Posters in Central and Eastern Europe 1945-1995 (NY: St.
Martin’s, 1999), p. 197.
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
29
THE KITCHEN DEBATE
The Cold War was an unusual war in that the two nations involved did not face each other on a battlefield.
Instead, Americans and Soviets argued that their political system was better by comparing each nation’s way of life. Such was the case in
1959, when Vice President Richard
Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev held a public discussion at the American National Exhibit in
Moscow comparing the technological capabilities of the two powers.
Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev during the Kitchen Debate, 1959.
Source: Thomas Hine, Populuxe (New York: Knopf, 1986), p. 131
After reading the following excerpt from the debate, answer the questions on page 32.
Nixon: “…There are some instances where you may be ahead of us, for
example in the development of the thrust of your rockets for the investigation of outer space; there may be some instances in which we are ahead of you – in color television, for instance.”
Khrushchev: “No, we are up with you on this, too. We have bested you in
one technique and also in the other.”
Nixon: “You see, you never concede anything.”
Khrushchev: “I do not give up.”
Nixon: …[Later in the tour, Nixon halted Khrushchev at model kitchen in
model house]: “You had a very nice house in your exhibition in New
York. My wife and I saw and enjoyed it very much. I want to show you this kitchen. It is like those of our houses in California.”
Khrushchev: [after Nixon called attention to a built-in panel-controlled
washing machine]: “We have such things.”
Nixon: “This is the newest model. This is the kind which is built in
thousands of units for direct installation in the houses.” He added that
Americans were interested in making life easier for their women.
The kitchen Debate continues on the next page.
30
Lessons in United States History
Mr. Khrushchev remarked that in the Soviet Union, they did not have “the
capitalist attitude toward women.”
Nixon: “I think that this attitude toward women is universal. What we
want to do is make easier the life of our housewives.”
He explained that the house could be built for $14,000 and that most veterans had bought houses for between $10,000 and $15,000.
Nixon: “Let me give you an example you can appreciate. Our steelworkers,
LESSON 2
as you know, are on strike. But any steelworker could buy this house.
They earn $3 an hour. This house costs about $100 a month to buy on a contract running 25 to 30 years.”
Khrushchev: “We have steel workers and we have peasants who also can
afford to spend $14,000 for a house.”
He said American houses were built to last only 20 years, so builders could sell new houses at the end of that period
“We build firmly. We build for our children and grandchildren.”
Mr. Nixon said he thought American houses would last more than 20
years, but after 20 years many Americans want a new home/kitchen, which would be obsolete then. The American system is designed to take advantage of new inventions, he said.
Khrushchev: “This theory does not hold water.” He said some things
never got out of date -- furniture and furnishings, perhaps, but not houses. He said he did not think that what Americans had written about their houses was all strictly accurate.
Nixon [pointing to television screen]: “We can see here what is happening
in other parts of the home.”
Khrushchev: “Don’t you have a machine that puts food into the mouth and
pushes it down? Many things you’ve shown us are interesting but they are not needed in life. They have no useful purpose. They are merely gadgets…” Source: New York Times, as excerpted at http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/14/documents/ debate/ The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
31
Questions about the Kitchen Debate:
1 Can you summarize what Nixon and Khrushchev are talking about in this excerpt?
Nixon says that
Khrushchev says that
2. Can you compare what Nixon says about consumer goods like houses and washing machines to what Khrushchev says about them?
Nixon says that
Khrushchev says that
3. Khrushchev says that the Soviet Union did not have “the capitalist attitude toward women.” What do you think he means?
4. How could you argue that this disagreement fits into the Cold War context, when capitalism and communism were in conflict?
Writing Assignment
If you have any time left at the end of this lesson, you may complete the following writing exercise. Pretend that you are an advertising executive in the weeks after Nixon’s kitchen debate with Khrushchev in 1959. You have decided to develop an ad campaign for a brand of car or home appliance (for example, a television, dishwasher, or washing machine) that uses the ideas from the kitchen debate. Write a paragraph explaining what your ad campaign will look like. You may include an illustration for your campaign as well.
32
Lessons in United States History
LESSON 3
The Cold War: How did anti-communist fear affect
American politics and Culture in the 1950s?
In the years after World War II, American society experienced a wave of anti-communist fear. During this period, opportunists like Joseph McCarthy used accusations of communism to undercut political and cultural opponents. The foreign policy and domestic policy initiatives began at approximately the same time, as the first hearings of House Un-American Activities Committee began within days of the Truman Doctrine speech in the spring of 1947.
The United States had experienced a Red Scare before, in 19191920, when government officials attempted to deport foreign-born labor activists. The Communist Party (CP) in the United States was not popular again until the Great Depression, when some
Americans became disenchanted with capitalism; during this period, members of the CP joined other Americans in calling for unemployment relief and union organizing. The CP also called on its members to join noncommunists to form a “Popular Front” to fight fascism in Germany. The (short-lived) 1939 non-aggression pact between Adolf Hitler (Germany) and Joseph Stalin (USSR) ended the Popular Front, and the CP encountered attacks from liberals and conservatives alike until Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, making the nation an American ally in WWII.
The Cold War revived American anticommunism. Communism was inevitably linked to the Soviet Union, and it was assumed that all communists were loyal to the USSR, that they followed the party line, and that they would work to subvert the American system.
In retrospect, some historians have questioned whether the threat posed by the CP warranted the measures taken to suppress them.
Although anticommunism affected all parts of American society, the federal government conducted the most well-known anticommunist campaign. The most famous of these efforts was the House
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a Congressional committee that investigated Communist subversion of American society and institutions, especially in labor unions, universities, and the entertainment industry. At HUAC hearings, witnesses were often assumed to be guilty of subversion and were pressured to “name names” of associates involved in their activities. The
1950s also witnessed the Army-McCarthy hearings and the trial of former state department official Alger Hiss. While HUAC hearings on communism uncovered sympathy for liberal causes in places like Hollywood, it did not find rampant subversion of American institutions. Nonetheless, many of the accused found themselves
“blacklisted” by former employers—that is, unable to find work.
STANDARDS ADDRESSED
IN THIS LESSON
Skills
Chronological and Spatial
Thinking
Students analyze how
change happens at different rates at different times; understand that some aspects can change while others remain the same; and understand that change is complicated and affects not only technology and politics but also values and beliefs.
Historical Interpretation
Students show the
connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical events and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments. Students understand the
meaning, implication, and impact of historical events and recognize that events could have taken other directions. Content standards
11.9. Students analyze
U.S. foreign policy since
World War II.
11.9.3. Trace the
origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy, including the following:
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
33
LESSON 3
INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS
the era of McCarthyism, instances of domestic
Communism (e.g., Alger
Hiss) and blacklisting; the Truman Doctrine; the
Korean War; the “mutual assured destruction” doctrine. KEY TERMS
Blacklist—in the wake of
the House Un-American
Activities Committee
(HUAC) investigation of the motion picture industry, during which the
“Hollywood Ten” refused to answer questions about their membership in the
Communist Party, industry executives met in New York to condemn the Ten and issue a statement to ward off future investigation from Washington. The
“blacklist,” which prevented actors, writers, and directors with radical sympathies from getting jobs in
Hollywood, arose out of this meeting. The Hollywood
Ten, who included Ring
Lardner, Jr. and Dalton
Trumbo, were among those on the blacklist, though many worked under pseudonyms. House Un-American Activities
Committee (HUAC)—a
Congressional committee that was created in 1938 and made permanent in
1945. HUAC investigated the present and past political affiliations of citizens. The committee was particularly interested in the affiliations of civil servants, people in the movie industry, labor
34 Lessons in United States History
Lesson Goals
In Lesson 3, students will use information drawn from laws, testimony, and government surveillance to learn about the fear of communism in American society in the 1940s and 1950s. They will discuss how the American government tried to “contain” communism at home and whether the threat of communist subversion merited restrictions on civil liberties.
A Discussion Guide for Teachers
Format: Students should be divided into groups of five or six students. Depending on time constraints, the teacher may wish to have each group examine one excerpt, then report to the class.
The documents in Lesson 3 are intended to help students weigh the issue of free speech (and individual rights) against the issue of national security during the Cold War. The lesson attempts to get the students to take a stand on whether the threat of domestic communism warranted the large-scale campaigns that were conducted to root out party members.
The lesson begins by asking students to read the First Amendment, define their understanding of “freedom of speech,” and offer examples of possible applications of “freedom of speech.” The questions then ask students to consider whether they would support restrictions on freedom of speech. The lesson then presents students with historical examples of curbs that have been placed on freedom of speech. In the first, an excerpt from the Schenk vs.
United States decision (which upheld the Espionage Act of 1917),
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. established the need to prove that a “clear-and-present danger” exists to restrict speech. Students may notice Holmes’ famous example of “shouting fire in a theatre.” For this lesson, however, it is important for students to see the distinction that Holmes makes between times of war and times of peace for free speech. Students also review an excerpt from the Smith Act, which banned any group that advocated the overthrow of the government; the law was used to prosecute
Communist Party leaders in 1949. Students then read a section of NSC-68, which argued that the Soviet Union would attempt to subvert democratic values through “infiltration and intimidation.”
According to this document, Soviet targets included not just the
American government but also “labor unions, civic enterprises, schools, churches, and all media.”
The second section of the lesson focuses on the House UnAmerican Activities hearings on the entertainment industry.
Teachers may wish to prompt students to define “un-American,” especially as it would have related to the Cold War context. Students read testimony from Ronald Reagan, who speaks of the communists in the Screen Actors Guild. They also read the testimony of Paul Robeson several years later (specifically, after the Senate’s
Army-McCarthy hearings), after HUAC had lost much of its influence. In the third and final section of the lesson, students read excerpts from the COMPIC, the FBI files collected between 1942 and
1958 that investigated the Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry. The documents in this section specifically relate to Dalton Trumbo, a screenwriter and member of the “Hollywood
Ten” who was blacklisted by Hollywood after refusing to answer
HUAC’s questions regarding his affiliation with the Communist
Party. In this section, students should consider whether Trumbo’s leftist leanings constituted a threat to national security.
Because it focuses on the entertainment industry, this lesson stops short of analyzing the ways that anticommunism was used in the political arena, especially by Joseph McCarthy. This lesson might therefore be supplemented with a lesson that reviews the ways that some Republicans used the communist threat as a means for political gain.
unions, and teachers, and it held hearings in which citizens testified about their loyalty. The committee was abolished in 1975.
McCarthyism—named for
Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, this term describes anti-communist crusading that used intimidation and accusation to denounce its targets.
McCarthy actually began his crusade in 1950, a few years after the HUAC hearings in
Hollywood and shortly after the Hiss case ended.
LESSON 3
TIME REQUIRED
At least one class period, though students should complete some of the reading in advance.
MATERIALS
Photocopies of materials.
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
35
LESSON 3
The Cold War: How did anti-communist fear affect
American politics and Culture in the 1950s?
INTRODUCTION FOR STUDENTS
During the course of the twentieth centu- review testimony and government surveilry, Americans frequently worried about the lance documents to learn about commuimpact of communism on society. In 1919, nism in American society during the 1940s the United States experienced its first “Red and 1950s. You will then discuss whether
Scare,” as government officials attempted to the threat of communist subversion justideport foreign-born labor activists. During fied restrictions on civil liberties in the the Depression, however, some Americans United States during the Cold War. who were disenchanted with capitalism joined the Communist
Party (CP). Then, during World
War II, the USSR was an ally with the United States. As the Cold
War began to take shape, fears about the threat of domestic communism reappeared. During this period, politicians such as Senator
Joseph McCarthy used accusations of communism to attack political opponents. At the same time, the federal government began a series of anticommunist campaigns aimed at finding communists in
American institutions such as labor unions, schools, universities, and the entertainment industry.
The most famous of these efforts was the House Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC), a Congressional committee that pressured witnesses to “name names” of associates involved in their activities.
In this lesson, you will begin by discussing the First Amendment and some of the limits that were placed on the freedom of speech
Cover of Is This Tomorrow, a color comic book published by between 1919 and 1950. In the the Catechetical Guild Educational Society of St. Paul, MN second half of the lesson, you will
Source: Michael Barson and Steven Heller, Red Scared, p. 157
36 Lessons in United States History
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
The first four documents of this workshop will ask you to think about freedom of speech.
It will also ask you to consider how fear of communism caused Americans to place limits on this freedom.
Document 1: First Amendment (1789)
1. What does “freedom of speech” mean? Can you give any examples of “freedom of speech”? “freedom of speech” means:
examples of “freedom of speech”:
2. According to the excerpt, under what circumstances may the government limit the freedom of speech? Do you think there should be limits? limitations on “freedom of speech”:
agree/disagree with limitations:
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad 37
LESSON 3
or nt of religion, an establishme ech, cting e no law respe freedom of spe gress shall mak ise thereof; or abridging the
Con
mble, and to e free exerc aceably to asse le pe prohibiting th ht of the peop nces. ress; or the rig dress of grieva or of the p rnment for a re ve petition the go
Document 2: Schenck v. United States (1919). In 1919,
the Supreme Court upheld a decision against several
Socialist Party members who had printed out pamphlets urging young men to resist joining the armed forces.
The decision, written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, placed a limit on freedom of speech. It is partially excerpted below. the depends upon r of every act n…the characte ich it is done. The most stri a in wh ld not protect circumstances ee speech wou usn of fr theatre and ca gent protectio uting fire in a sho from man in falsely protect a man oes not even d that may have ing a panic. It ttering words against u in every case is an injunction
. The question umf force d in such circ all the effect o s used are use ord create clear whether the w a nature as to of such t the stances and are r that they will bring abou reange as a right to p and present d at Congress h hen ils th and degree. W substantive ev n of proximity stio ht be said in vent. It is a que things that mig ffort that ar many a nation is at w drance to its e en are such a hin d so long as m time of peace not be endure will protheir utterance Court could regard them as no fight and that utional right. by any constit tected GLOSSARY OF TERMS: stringent—tight or strict injunction—a court order uttering—saying substantive—substantial,
considerable proximity—closeness degree—a measure of
depth or rank hindrance—a drag (on a
cause) utterance—vocal expression endured—suffered patiently
1. According to the Schenck v. United States decision, what are the limits of free speech?
What analogy [comparison based on similarity] does Holmes make to explain the decision? 2. Why, according to Holmes, might the definition of “free speech” in a time of war be different from “free speech” during a time of peace?
3. Do you agree or disagree with these limits?
38 Lessons in United States History
in 1940. In 1949, the Justice Department used the Smith
Act to jail Communist Party leaders. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1951 (Dennis et al. v. United
States). The law is partially excerpted below. ts, advocates, abe gly or willfully in desirability,
Whoever know uty, necessity, ches the d ying the govadvises, or tea wing or destro f f overthro government o or propriety o d States or the n thereof, or e Unite ernment of th ict or Possessio
Territory, Distr ion therein, any State, litical subdivis t of any po f any the governmen ce, or by the assassination o len r… by force or vio government; o to er of any such s or attempts offic anizes or help rg ly of persons
…Whoever o up, or assemb ciety, gro hrow organize any so ate, or encourage the overt e or voc who teach, ad f the United States] by forc tes [o ber of, or affilia or destruction es or is a mem com mbly of perviolence; or be group, or asse h society, f-with, any suc urposes thereo not knowing the p r imprisoned sons, der this title o un shall be inShall be fined or both, and enty years, d States or any more than tw t by the Unite ploymen five years next eligible for em thereof, for the agency department or onviction. following his c
GLOSSARY OF TERMS: advocates—calls for abets—actively helps or
aids advises—gives suggestions or advice desirability—the fact
of believing that something would be good propriety—
appropriateness overthrowing—bringing the downfall or defeat of 1. What kind of actions or activities were illegal under the Smith Act?
2. Look at how you defined “freedom of speech” on the previous page. Is this a limit on free speech or free assembly as you defined it? Explain why or why not.
3. Do you think membership in the Communist Party is itself proof that party leaders wanted to overthrow the government? Explain your answer.
4. When the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of CP leaders in 1951, two justices dissented. Why might they have disagreed with the majority of the court?
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad 39
LESSON 3
Document 3: Smith Act. Congress passed the Smith Act
Document 4: National Security Council Paper
68 (1950). This top-secret document claimed that
only the United States could stop Soviet expansion.
It argues for the foreign policy of “containment”
(definition: the act of preventing the expansion of a hostile power). The following excerpt addresses fears about communism in American society.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS: dominion—rule subvert—to ruin or
corrupt infiltration—enter secretly intimidation—threat of
ctheory and pra r from Soviet lea world
…It is quite c bring the free mlin seeks to re e cold war. tice that the K e methods of th ion by th ltraunder its domin nique is to subvert by infi sotech itution of our
The preferred on. Every inst idati ultify tion and intim is sought to st ment which it ru se that touch ciety is an inst purposes. Tho are st our and turn again material and moral strength ur civic most closely o me targets, labor unions, pri ll media for obviously the urches, and a hools, ch t so much to enterprises, sc he effort is no t inion. T ds as to preven influencing op vious Soviet en e ob ake make them serv g our ends, and thus to m rvin conomy, our them from se sion in our e of confu them sources
…
ur body politic culture, and o
force stultify—to make useless
1. According to the document, how did the Soviets plan to gain control of the free world?
2. What organizations or institutions would be the target of Soviet threats? Are these institutions the same as those outlined in the Smith Act?
3. How could anticommunists use NSC-68 to support their crusade against domestic communism? Who would be the targets of the crusade?
40 Lessons in United States History
HOUSE UN-AMERICAN TESTIMONY
During the 1940s and 1950s, many individuals testified before the House Un-American
Activities Committee. The next section will ask you to consider the activities of some
Americans who testified before HUAC and/or were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As you read these documents, you will be asked to decide whether the person’s activities constitute subversion. Before you begin reading, you may want to think about how you would define “un-American activities.”
Testimony #1 (October 23, 1947)
Ronald Reagan was the president of the Screen Actor’s Guild in 1947. He later became Governor of California (1966) and then President of the United States
(1980).
STRIPLING: As a member of the board of directors, as president of the Screen
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
LESSON 3
Actors Guild, and as an active member, have you at any time observed or noted within the organization a clique of either communists or fascists who were attempting to exert influence or pressure on the guild?
REAGAN: …There has been a small group within the Screen Actors Guild which has consistently opposed the policy of the guild board and officers of the guild, as evidenced by the vote on various issues. That small clique referred to has been suspected of more or less following the tactics that we associate with the Communist Party.
STRIPLING: Would you refer to them as a disruptive influence within the guild?
REAGAN: I would say that at times they have attempted to be a disruptive influence. STRIPLING: You have no knowledge yourself as to whether or not any of them are members of the Communist Party?
REAGAN: No, sir, I have no investigative force, or anything, and I do not know.
STRIPLING: Has it ever been reported to you that certain members of the guild were communists?
REAGAN: Yes, sir, I have heard different discussions and some of them tagged as communists. STRIPLING: Would you say that this clique has attempted to dominate the guild? REAGAN: Well, sir, by attempting to put their own particular views on various issues, I guess you would have to say that our side was attempting to dominate, too, because we were fighting just as hard to put over our views, and I think, we were proven correct by the figures—Mr. Murphy gave the figures—and those figures were always approximately the same, an average of 90 percent or better of the Screen Actors Guild voted in favor of those matters now guild policy.
41
Questions about Testimony 1:
1. Does Ronald Reagan testify that there are communists in the Screen Actors Guild?
2. Does the group to whom Reagan refers seem dangerous or subversive?
3. Why would the FBI be interested in possible communist activities in the entertainment industry? What does the entertainment industry have to do with national security?
Questions about Testimony 2 (on the following page):
1. Why, according to Mr. Scherer, has Mr. Robeson been asked to testify in front of
HUAC?
2. Mr. Robeson claims that he felt like “a full human being” when he went to Russia.
What does he mean? Besides the Cold War, what else was happening in the United
States during the 1940s and 1950s?
3. When Mr. Scherer asks Robeson “Why do you not stay in Russia,” what is Robeson’s response? What Americans or American images does Robeson mention? Do you think the response was effective?
42 Lessons in United States History
Testimony #2 (June 12,1956)
Paul Robeson was an African-American actor and singer. Angered by racism and discrimination in American society, Robeson developed leftist beliefs during the
1930s; he protested lynchings and urged African Americans to resist the draft after
World War II. Because the government determined that the actor and his wife were members of the Communist Party, they were not able to use their passports between 1947 and 1958, when the Robesons moved to Europe. Robeson appeared before HUAC in 1956. His testimony is excerpted below:
MR. ARENS [quoting a speech by Paul Robeson]: If the American warmongers
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
LESSON 3
fancy that they could win America’s millions of Negroes for a war against those countries (i.e., the Soviet Union and the peoples’ democracies) then they ought to understand that this will never be the case. Why should the Negroes ever fight against the only nations of the world where racial discrimination is prohibited, and where the people can live freely? Never! I can assure you, they will never fight against either the Soviet Union or the peoples’ democracies.
Did you make that statement?
MR. ROBESON: I do not remember that. But what is perfectly clear today is that nine hundred million other colored people have told you that they will not. Four hundred million in India, and millions everywhere, have told you, precisely, that the colored people are not going to die for anybody: they are going to die for their independence. We are dealing not with fifteen million colored people, we are dealing with hundreds of millions.
[more testimony]
MR. ROBESON: In Russia I felt for the first time like a full human being. No color prejudice like in Mississippi, no color prejudice like in Washington.
It was the first time I felt like a human being. Where I did not feel the pressure of color as I feel [it] in this Committee today.
MR. SCHERER: Why do you not stay in Russia?
MR. ROBESON: Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here, and have a part of it just like you.
And no Fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear? I am for peace with the Soviet Union, and I am for peace with China, and I am not for peace or friendship with the Fascist Franco [Spain], and I am not for peace with Fascist Nazi Germans. I am for peace with decent people.
MR. SCHERER: YOU are here because you are promoting the Communist cause. MR. ROBESON: I am here because I am opposing the neo-Fascist cause which
I see arising in these committees. You are like the Alien [and] Sedition Act, and Jefferson could be sitting here, and Frederick Douglass could be sitting here, and Eugene Debs could be here.
43
FBI FILES; DALTON TRUMBO
Between 1942 and 1958, the FBI investigated the
Communist Party’s supposed infiltration of the motion picture industry. Ten individuals—later known as the “Hollywood Ten”— refused to answer HUAC’s questions regarding their affiliation with the Communist Party; they were convicted of contempt and blacklisted by Hollywood.
Source: http://foia.fbi.gov/compic.htm
Figure 1: Dalton Trumbo
44 Lessons in United States History
Dalton Trumbo, a screenwriter with leftist sympathies, was one of the
“Hollywood Ten.” During
World War II, he wrote the screenplay for films such as “Thirty Seconds Over
Tokyo,” but he was blacklisted by Hollywood after he refused to testify before
HUAC. Writing under a different name, Trumbo wrote the Oscar-winning original
stories and screenplays for films like “Roman Holiday” and “The Brave One.”
The following information is an excerpt from the
FBI’s files on communism in Hollywood. The blackened marks represent information—like informant names—that is still considered confidential.
Figure 2. Excerpt from document concerning the CP influence on Hollywood
LESSON 3
unions and cultural organizations. Dalton Trumbo was the editor of the Screen
Writers Guild member publication, “Screen Writer.”
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
45
Questions about Dalton Trumbo:
1. Was Dalton Trumbo a member of the Communist Party?
2. According to the files, what kind of activities did CP members like Trumbo engage in?
Do you think these activities were subversive (i.e., a threat to American institutions)?
3. When Dalton Trumbo testified before HUAC, he refused to answer questions about his CP membership on the grounds that the First Amendment guaranteed his right to free speech. Looking back at the First Amendment, do you agree that the amendment protected his decision?
46 Lessons in United States History
LESSON 4
Final Assessment: Did the policy of containment go too far or not far enough to stop the spread of communism during the
1940s and 1950s?
INTRODUCTION AND ASSESSMENT GOALS
will decide upon a thesis statement, which may be one of their own or may be drawn from one of the five thesis statements presented on the chart below. Based on the materials provided in this unit plus additional materials covered in lectures and textbook reading, students should develop a well-supported argument in defense of their thesis state-
ment. The final product is expected to be a five-paragraph (at minimum) essay, ranging from two to three pages in length. If teachers don’t wish to assign this essay as an in-class test or homework assignment, they might wish to consider developing another in-class assignment around the assignment and rubric.
LESSON 4
This unit has introduced students to a variety of perspectives about the Cold
War, including those of critics on both the Left and the Right. As a culminating activity for the unit, the students should compose a written essay that asks them to create their own interpretation about the foreign and domestic implications of the Cold War. Students
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
47
LESSON 4
Final Assessment: Did the policy of containment go too far or not far enough to stop the spread of communism during the 1940s and 1950s?
ESSAY PROMPT FOR STUDENTS
Evaluate whether the steps taken by the United States government to “contain” communism after World War II went too far or not far enough. In your response, you must address America’s foreign and domestic policy, paying particular attention to whether the steps taken to contain communism were in line with the threat posed by communism. The first paragraph of your essay must contain a thesis statement that will likely fall somewhere along the continuum represented below. Once you have determined the position you want to take, you may create your own statement, or you may adapt one of the statements on the following page.
48 Lessons in United States History
Matrix for Essay
2
3
4
5
The United
States went too far to contain communism at home and abroad. The threat of communism at home and abroad was overestimated. The foreign policy led to wars in Vietnam and Korea and a near war with
Cuba. Attempts at locating communists at home led to
McCarthyism
and a culture of conformity. For the most part, the United
States went too far to contain communism at home and abroad.
The Soviet Union was a threat in certain locations around the globe, but the policy of containment tended to overestimate the overall threat of communism. The policy of containment was a sensible approach to the potential threat posed by the
Soviet Union.
There were some domestic and foreign policy mistakes to the policy of containment, but on the whole it was the right policy to protect the nation.
In the face of
Soviet aggression at home and abroad, the
American policy of containment was necessary.
There may have been minor errors in carrying out the policy, but the threat was real.
Soviet aggression around the globe proved that communism posed a threat to democracy in the
United States.
Therefore,
the United
States took the necessary steps to contain communism both at home and abroad during the Cold
War.
LESSON 4
1
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
49
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE UCI CALIFORNIA HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE PROJECT
Robert G. Moeller, Faculty Director and Professor of History
Stephanie Reyes-Tuccio, Site Director
Eileen Powell, CH-SSP Program Assistant http://www.hnet.uci.edu/history/chssp/ HUMANITIES OUT THERE
Julia Reinhard Lupton, Faculty Director and Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Tova Cooper, Director of Publications
Peggie Winters, Grants Manager http://yoda.hnet.uci.edu/hot/ THE SANTA ANA PARTNERSHIP:
UCI’S CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
Juan Francisco Lara, Director http://www.cfep.uci.edu/ THE SANTA ANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
Lewis Bratcher, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education http://www.sausd.k12.ca.us/ SANTA ANA COLLEGE
Sara Lundquist, Vice-President of Student Services
Lilia Tanakeyowma, Director of the Office of School and Community Partnerships and
Associate Dean of Student Development
Melba Schneider, GEAR UP Coordinator http://www.sac.edu/ This unit would not have been possible without the support of Professor Karen Lawrence, Dean of the School of Humanities at the
University of California, Irvine; Professor Robert G. Moeller, Faculty Director of the UCI California History-Social Science Project, who provides ongoing intellectual leadership in all areas touching on historical research, interpretation, and teacher professional development; Dr. Manuel Gómez, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, who provided funding and has been a steadfast supporter of our work; and the leadership of the Santa Ana Partnership, including Dr. Juan Lara, Director of the UCI Center for Educational
Partnerships; Dr. Sara Lundquist, Vice-President of Student Services at Santa Ana College; Lilia Tanakeyowma, Director of the Office of School and Community Partnerships and Associate Dean of Student Development at Santa Ana College; and Dr. Lewis Bratcher,
Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education at the Santa Ana Unified School District.
PERMISSIONS
The materials included in this booklet are original works of authorship, works for which copyright permission has expired, works reprinted with permission, or works that we believe are within the fair use protection of the copyright laws. This is an educational and non-commercial publication designed specifically for high school History-Social Science classes, and is distributed to teachers without charge.
Book design by Susan Reese
1750
1760
1770
1780
1790
1800
1810
1820
1830
1840
1850
1860
1870
“These units in US History demonstrate to students that history matters to the past, present, and future. They expose students to the tools of the historians’ trade, helping them develop their own sense of what happened and why.
Through these units, young historians have a chance to explore the connections among the many regions, groups, and ideas that have shaped the history of the
United States. The units are carefully calibrated with the California State
Content Standards for US eleventh grade history in order to make these dynamic, engaging lessons meaningful to the real needs and interests of teachers and students in California schools.” 1880
—Vicki L. Ruiz, Professor of History and Chicano-Latino Studies,
The University of California, Irvine
1890
1900
1910
1920
CONTENT STANDARDS COVERED
1930
Skills
1940
1. Chronological and Spatial thinking
1950
2. Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View
1960
3. Historical Interpretation:
1970
Content standards
1980
11.7.8. Analyze the effect of massive aid given to Western Europe under the
Marshall Plan to rebuild itself after the war and the importance of a rebuilt Europe to the U.S. economy.
1990
2000
2010
2020
2030
11.8. Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of post-World
War II America
11.9. Students analyze U.S. foreign policy since World War II.
Page 11 Image: Temporary basement fallout shelter, circa 1957.
Source: Michael Barson and Steven Heller, Red Scared, p. 134
BARENTS
SEA
ICELAND
FINLAND
NORWAY
NORTH
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
SWEDEN
SCOTLAND
SCOTLAND
IRELAND
NORTH
SEA
DENMARK
DENMARK
GREAT
GREAT
BRITAIN
BRITAIN
ENGLAND
ENGLAND
WALES
WALES
CELTIC
SEA
NETHERNETHERLANDS
LANDS
BALTIC
SEA
EAST
GERMANY
BELGIUM
WEST
LUXEMBURG GERMANY
SOVIET UNION
POLAND
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
HUNGARY
SWITZERLAND AUSTRIA
ROMANIA
FRANCE
ITALY
YUGOSLAVIA
SPAIN
CORSICA
ADRIATIC
BULGARIA
SEA
ALBANIA
SARDINIA
PORTUGAL
GREECE
SICILY
TUNISIA
MOROCCO
ALGERIA
BLACK
SEA
TURKEY
CASPIAN
SEA
AEGEAN
SEA
SYRIA
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
LEBANON
ISRAEL
IRAQ
IRAN
JORDAN
LIBYA
EGYPT
Page 22 Image
RED
SEA
SAUDI
ARABIA
PERSIAN
GULF
Page 25 Image: Advertisement for kitchen appliances, 1950s.
Page 26 Image: Life magazine cover, 1953. The caption on the cover reads, “Family Buys ‘Best
$15,000 House’”
Page 26 Image: A 1950s Family
Source: Thomas Hine, Populuxe (New York: Knopf, 1986), title page.
Page 28 Image: Viktor Govorkov, “Who Receives the National Income?” 1950. The worker on the left is an American. The worker on the right is a Soviet.
Source: Victoria E. Bonnell, Iconography of Power (LA and Berkeley: UC Press, 1997), figure 6.6
Page 28 Image: Ivan Semenov, “The Goal of Capitalism is Always the Same,” 1953.
Source: Victoria E. Bonnell, Iconography of Power (LA and Berkeley: UC Press, 1997), figure 6.15.
Page 29 Image: Nikolai Charukhin, “I am a man. Racism—shame of America” 1969.
Source: Aulich & Sylvestrova, Signs of the Times: Political Posters in Central and Eastern Europe 1945-1995 (NY: St. Martin’s, 1999),
p. 197.
Page 30 Image: Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during the
Kitchen Debate, 1959.
Source: Thomas Hine, Populuxe (New York: Knopf, 1986), p. 131
Page 36 Image: Cover of Is This Tomorrow, a color comic book published by the Catechetical
Guild Educational Society of St. Paul, MN
Source: Michael Barson and Steven Heller, Red Scared, p. 157
HISTORY
1945-1960
The Cold War:
Containment
at Home and
Abroad
PLEASE SEE
NOTES ON
THE PDF,
PAGE 5.
LESSONS IN US HISTORY
By Eileen Luhr, Department of History, The University of California, Irvine
Teacher Consultant, Chuck Lawhon, Century High School, Santa Ana
Faculty Consultant, Vicki L. Ruiz, Professor of History and Chicano-Latino Studies,
The University of California, Irvine
Managing Editor, Danielle McClellan
The publication of this CD has been made possible largely through funding from GEAR UP Santa Ana. This branch of GEAR UP has made a distinctive contribution to public school education in the U.S. by creating intellectual space within an urban school district for students who otherwise would …show more content…
not have access to the research, scholarship, and teaching represented by this collaboration between the University of California, the Santa Ana Partnership, and the Santa Ana Unified School District. Additional external funding in 2004-2005 has been provided to HOT by the Bank of America Foundation, the Wells Fargo Foundation, and the Pacific
Life Foundation.
THE UCI CALIFORNIA HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE PROJECT
The California History-Social Science Project (CH-SSP) of the University of California, Irvine, is dedicated to working with history teachers in Orange County to develop innovative approaches to engaging students in the study of the past. Founded in 2000, the
CH-SSP draws on the resources of the UCI Department of History and works closely with the UCI Department of Education. We believe that the history classroom can be a crucial arena not only for instruction in history but also for the improvement of student literacy and writing skills. Working together with the teachers of Orange County, it is our goal to develop history curricula that will convince students that history matters.
HUMANITIES OUT THERE
Humanities Out There was founded in 1997 as an educational partnership between the School of Humanities at the University of
California, Irvine and the Santa Ana Unified School District. HOT runs workshops in humanities classrooms in Santa Ana schools.
Advanced graduate students in history and literature design curricular units in collaboration with host teachers, and conduct workshops that engage UCI undergraduates in classroom work. In the area of history, HOT works closely with the UCI HistorySocial Science Project in order to improve student literacy and writing skills in the history classroom, and to integrate the teaching of history, literature, and writing across the humanities. The K-12 classroom becomes a laboratory for developing innovative units that adapt university materials to the real needs and interests of California schools. By involving scholars, teachers, students, and staff from several institutions in collaborative teaching and research, we aim to transform educational practices, expectations, and horizons for all participants.
THE SANTA ANA PARTNERSHIP
The Santa Ana Partnership was formed in 1983 as part of the Student and Teacher Educational Partnership (STEP) initiative at UC Irvine.
Today it has evolved into a multi-faceted collaborative that brings institutions and organizations together in the greater Santa Ana area to advance the educational achievement of all students, and to help them enter and complete college. Co-directed at UC Irvine by the Center for Educational Partnerships, the collaborative is also strongly supported by Santa Ana College, the Santa Ana Unified School District,
California State University, Fullerton and a number of community based organizations. Beginning in 2003-2004, HOT has contributed to the academic mission of the Santa Ana Partnership by placing its workshops in GEAR UP schools. This unit on The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad reflects the innovative collaboration among these institutions and programs.
CONTENT COUNTS: A SPECIAL PROJECT OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
This is one in a series of publications under the series title Content Counts: Reading and Writing Across the Humanities, supported by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Content Counts units are designed by and for educators committed to promoting a deep, content-rich and knowledge-driven literacy in language arts and social studies classrooms. The units provide examples of “content reading”—primary and secondary sources, as well as charts, data, and visual documents—designed to supplement and integrate the study of history and literature.
Additional external funding in 2003-2004 has been provided to HOT by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, UC
Links, the Bank of America Foundation, the Wells Fargo Foundation, and the Pacific Life Foundation.
A publication of Humanities Out There and the Santa Ana Partnership
(including UCI’s Center for Educational Partnerships, Santa Ana College, and the Santa Ana Unified School District).
Copyright 2005 The Regents of the University of California
UNITED STATES HISTORY—1945-1960
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS
This unit introduces students to the themes of the Cold War, emphasizing the connections between political events and cultural beliefs. Although the standards emphasize the leaders and major foreign policy initiatives of the era, the Cold War affected the way that average
Americans perceived themselves.
During these years, public policy, political ideology, and the American home became so intertwined that everyday practices like grocery shopping and familial living arrangements were infused with geo-political significance.
Historian Elaine Tyler May has observed that, during these years, consumption—the use of economic goods to satisfy wants—became synonymous with democracy.
This unit will introduce students to efforts to contain communism at home and abroad.
Lesson 1 reviews the source of tensions between the United
States and the Soviet Union in the postwar era so that students understand the origins and consequences of the Cold War. It begins by asking students to draw the battle lines of the Cold War in Europe. After an introduction to the basic differences between capitalism and communism, students are asked to consider both the United States’ and the
Soviet Union’s objectives in the aftermath of World War II. Stu-
dents then review excerpts of the major foreign policy initiatives of the era, including the “Iron Curtain” speech, the Truman Doctrine, and NSC-68 and discuss what impact these policies had on American democracy.
Lessons 2 and 3 introduce students to the Cold War “home fronts” in both the Soviet Union and the United States. By reviewing advertising and propaganda, students deepen their understanding of the basic tenets of capitalism and communism and gain a better understanding of the conflict between the nations.
Students examine state-sponsored Soviet propaganda and
American advertising campaigns to see how each nation promised prosperity. Students also read the Nixon-Khrushchev “kitchen debate” and learn that Cold War diplomacy extended beyond discussions of military might to include issues such as way of life. In the final lesson, students discuss whether fears about communist subversion caused
(or justified) limitations on First
Amendment rights in the United
States. In particular, students read testimony presented to the
House Un-American Activities
Committee as well as files from the FBI’s investigation of communism in Hollywood and discuss whether the threat posed by the CP warranted the measures taken to suppress them.
This unit includes a writing prompt at the end of the unit
(Lesson 4), though students would need supplementary information from lectures and textbooks to give satisfactory answers. The writing prompt asks students to assess the United
States’ foreign and domestic policy of “containment” in the
1940s and 1950s. They are given a range of potential topic sentences to use in their responses.
This unit emphasizes skills associated with historical interpretation, as students use primary sources to explore the causes of the Cold War and the connections between the war and domestic economic expansion and cultural change. The modules also ask students to consider the meaning and impact of the Cold
War on American society. While reading the major speeches and diplomatic texts of the era, students also learn that the Cold
War affected domestic as well as foreign policy.
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
3
HISTORY STANDARDS COVERED IN THIS UNIT
Skills
Chronological and Spatial thinking
Students analyze how change happens at different rates at different times; understand
that some aspects can change while others remain the same; and understand that change is complicated and affects not only technology and politics but also values and beliefs. Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View
Students construct and test hypotheses; collect, evaluate, and employ information from
multiple primary and secondary sources; and apply it in oral and written presentations.
Historical Interpretation
Students show the connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical
events and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments.
Students interpret past events and issues within the context in which an event
unfolded rather than solely in terms of present-day norms and values.
Content standards
11.7. Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events on the U.S. home front. 11.7.8. Analyze the effect of massive aid given to Western Europe under the Marshall
Plan to rebuild itself after the war and the importance of a rebuilt Europe to the U.S. economy. 11.8. Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of postWorld War II America
11.8.7. Describe the effects on society and the economy of technological developments
since 1945, including the computer revolution, changes in communication, advances in medicine, and improvements in agricultural technology.
11.8.8. Discuss forms of popular culture, with emphasis on their origins and
geographic diffusion (e.g., jazz and other forms of popular music, professional sports, architectural and artistic styles).
11.9. Students analyze U.S. foreign policy since World War II.
11.9.2. Understand the role of military alliances, including NATO and SEATO, in
deterring communist aggression and maintaining security during the Cold War.
11.9.3. Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the
Cold War and containment policy, including the following: the era of McCarthyism, instances of domestic Communism (e.g., Alger Hiss) and blacklisting; the Truman
Doctrine; the Korean War; the “mutual assured destruction” doctrine.
4
Lessons in United States History
KEY TERMS
NOTES ON THE PDF:
1) Please note that in this pdf document the page numbers are two off from the printed curriculum. For example, page 2 in the printed curriculum is now page 4 in this pdf document.
2) We apologize if some of the hyperlinks are no longer accurate. They were correct at the time of printing.
3) Full-page versions of the images in this unit—some in color—can be found at the back of this pdf.
4) You can easily navigate through the different parts of this document by using the “Bookmark” tab on the left side of your Acrobat window.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Capitalism—an economy based
on private ownership of wealth, by investments that are decided privately (not publicly), and by prices/ production/distribution of goods determined by competition. Communism—in the USSR,
communism meant government ownership of land and property, a singleparty government, and the absence of individual rights.
There was also a call for worldwide revolution.
Consumption—the use of
Domestic policy and culture
* Michael Barson and Steven Heller, Red Scared! The Commie
Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture (San Francisco:
Chronicle Books, 2001). Aimed at a popular audience, this text offers extensive popular images of communism and the
Soviet Union from both the First and Second Red Scares in the
United States.
Paul Buhle, Radical Hollywood (New York: New Press, 2002). In this work, Buhle assesses the influence of the Hollywood Left in the early years of the movie industry.
Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass
Consumption in Postwar America (New York: Knopf, 2003).
This monograph offers an analysis of how consumerism reshaped American citizenship during the postwar era.
Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of
American Democracy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 2000). Dudziak examines the struggle for racial equality in the United States in the context of the global Cold War. She shows how segregation (not to mention lynching) became a liability for American foreign policy as well as how Presidents
Eisenhower and Kennedy linked desegregation to national security. * Thomas Hine, Populuxe (New York: Knopf, 1986). Another work aimed at a popular audience, this text reviews the popular culture—and the consumerism—of the 1950s through advertisements, automobiles, and appliances.
Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the
Cold War Era (New York: Basic Books, 1988). May’s work explores the connections between Cold War foreign policies of
“containment” and American family life.
economic goods to satisfy wants and/or shape identity.
Historians like Elaine Tyler
May and Lizabeth Cohen have noted that during the twentieth century,
Americans increasingly identified themselves as consumers rather than workers. Containment—a term first
used by American diplomat
George Kennan during the late 1940s. As the USSR exerted influence in Eastern
Europe, the American government adopted a foreign policy that sought to limit, or “contain,” Soviet influence in the rest of the world. Diplomatic history—history
that examines the negotiated relationships between nations. Diplomatic historians usually focus on areas such as leadership and treaties. Political history—history
that examines government
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
5
and activities related to government (e.g., political parties, elections).
Production—the making of
goods available for use. In mass production, goods are created using assembly-line techniques. Social history—history that
explores the interaction of individuals and groups.
Victor Navasky, Naming Names (New York: Viking Press, 1980).
This is a history of the House Un-American Activities
Committee, with a particular interest in the “friendly” witnesses. Ellen Schrecker, Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1998). Schrecker explores the impact of anticommunism in the United States from the first Red
Scare until the end of McCarthyism. In doing so, she also offers a history of the Communist Party in the United States.
Lynn Spigel, Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1992). Spigel explores the connection between television and the nuclear family ideal in the 1950s.
ASSESSMENT:
Diagnostic—see final lesson for writing prompt.
Foreign policy
* Victoria E. Bonnell, The Iconography of Power: Soviet political posters under Lenin and Stalin (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1997). This monograph offers examples of and insights into Soviet propaganda.
* Michael Herr, Dispatches (New York: Knopf, 1977). In this account of the Vietnam War, Herr, a journalist who covered the war, attempts to capture the feel of combat from …show more content…
the perspective of American soldiers.
Stephen Kinzer, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the
Roots of Middle East Terror (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley &
Sons, 2003). In this monograph, New York Times reporter
Kinzer reviews the events and reasons for the American coup of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953.
Thomas Paterson, On Every Front: The Making and Unmaking of the Cold War (New York: W.W. Norton, 1992). This work offers an overview of the events and policies of the Cold War in the United States.
Marilyn B. Young, The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990 (New York:
Harper Collins, 1991). Young reviews the history of the Vietnam War, including policy decisions, political justifications, and the war’s impact on both American and
Vietnamese civilians.
* Denotes a work with primary sources that could be used in the classroom. 6
Lessons in United States History
Primary sources available on the Web
Avalon Project at Yale Law School: http://www.yale.edu/ lawweb/avalon. This website offers an alphabetized—and searchable—database of documents from American history, including the Cold War. Its twentieth century diplomatic collection includes the text of the Truman Doctrine (1947) and the NATO treaty (1949).
FBI: http://foia.fbi.gov/room.htm. This site includes FBI documents from its investigation of communism in the motion picture industry. Look for information through the link to “historical interest listing.”
The Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/movies. This film archive, drawn from the Prelinger Collection, includes Cold
War-era ephemeral films, including the classic “Duck and
Cover” as well as films that feature students discussing the relative merits of capitalism, democracy, and communism.
Films may be downloaded or watched via Real Player streaming format. The films in this collection are in the public domain. The website is fairly easy to use, as it is organized so that visitors may browse by topic as well as by title. Relevant titles for Cold War instruction include
Capitalism, It’s Everybody’s Business, Meet King Joe (a cartoon that highlights the benefits of capitalism for American workers) and several others.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: http://www.fordham.edu/ halsall/mod/modsbook.html. This database includes various
Cold War-era documents that are part of the public domain.
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at University of Texas,
Austin: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html. This site offers an excellent collection of contemporary and historical maps.
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
7
LESSON 1
The Cold War: Why did the United States and the USSR enter into the Cold War after World War II?
STANDARDS ADDRESSED
IN THIS LESSON
Skills
Historical Interpretation
Students show the
connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical events and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments. Students interpret past
events and issues within the context in which an event unfolded rather than solely in terms of present-day norms and values.
Content standards
11.7. Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events on the
U.S. home front.
11.7.8: Analyze the effect
of massive aid given to
Western Europe under the Marshall Plan to rebuild itself after the war and the importance of a rebuilt Europe to the U.S. economy. 11.9. Students analyze
U.S. foreign policy since
World War II.
11.9.2. Understand the
role of military alliances, including NATO and
SEATO, in deterring communist aggression and
8
Lessons in United States History
INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS
Lesson 1 reviews the source of tensions between the United
States and the Soviet Union (USSR) in the post-World War II era so that students understand the origins of the Cold War.
In a sense, World War II represented a break in the hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union, which had become a communist nation during World War I. Even then, the United
States was concerned that the Soviet Union would pose a challenge to America’s government and values. As a capitalist nation, the United States feared the revolutionary rhetoric of communism, which vowed to create a world order led by workers and which denounced organized religion. As a result, Americans did not establish diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union until 1933. American and Soviet relations soured when Joseph Stalin agreed to a nonagression pact with Adolf Hitler, but Hitler nullified the treaty by invading the USSR in 1941. During World War II, the United States sided with Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union (the Grand
Alliance) to fight the Axis Powers. However, the United States and the Soviet Union disagreed about what postwar Europe should look like, and their mutual suspicion gradually led to a Cold War that lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
After World War II, American leaders hoped that an American monopoly on the atomic bomb would convince the Soviet Union to agree to American plans for Europe (the monopoly was short lived, as the Soviets developed a bomb by 1949). American leaders wanted to ensure the continued health of its economy, so it wanted to see governments with similar economic and political systems established in Europe. Although this foreign policy coincided with
American economic needs, Americans saw these goals not as selfinterest but as a crusade to bring freedom, democracy, and capitalism to the world. They therefore tried to “contain,” or limit, the spread of communism all over the world.
On the other hand, the Soviet Union feared another invasion and wanted to protect its western borders by establishing pro-communist governments in Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union suffered incredible losses—including 20 million deaths and heavy damage to industry and agriculture—during World War II. Joseph Stalin wanted to protect the USSR from further attack by establishing
“satellite nations” that were sympathetic to communism along its western borders. Stalin claimed that he was protecting Soviet interests in Europe, just as the United States was protecting its interests. Suspicious of the United States, Stalin did not participate in agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund, which helped established capitalist economies in Western
Europe.
Lesson Goals
Lesson 1 will introduce students to the major diplomatic and economic issues of the early Cold War. Teachers should begin by asking students to locate the key nations involved in the Cold War on a map. The students then read and analyze a series of speeches and papers that outline “containment,” which became the key policy of American foreign policy. In the next module, students will discuss how the idea of “containment” affected American culture. A Discussion Guide for Teachers
maintaining security during the Cold War.
11.9.3. Trace the
LESSON 1
During the Cold War, the United States divided the world into the “free” and “unfree” world. The “free world” included nations that were willing to cooperate with the United States and Western Europe. This did not necessarily mean that its allies were all democracies; indeed, it may be noted that countries such as
South Africa—whose official policy of apartheid ended only in the
1990s—and the Philippines—which was ruled by US-supported dictator Ferdinand Marcos—were considered “free” nations. At the same time, the Soviet Union—and most notoriously Joseph
Stalin—pursued oppressive policies in its own nation and across
Eastern Europe. While this module focuses on events in Europe, teachers might initiate fruitful discussions of these contradictions by expanding class discussion to include content standards that focus on the Vietnam War, Latin America, and/or the Middle
East.
origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy.
KEY TERMS
Capitalism—an economy based
on private ownership of wealth, by investments that are decided privately (not publicly), and by prices/ production/distribution of goods determined by competition. Communism—in the USSR,
communism meant government ownership of land and property, a singleparty government, and the absence of individual rights.
There was also a call for worldwide revolution.
Containment—a term first
Format: Students should be divided into groups of five or six
students. Depending on time constraints, the teacher may wish to have each group examine one excerpt, then report to the class.
This lesson is intended to introduce students to some of the basic political, economic, and military objectives of both the United
States and the Soviet Union following World War II. Since the lesson only includes Europe, teachers may wish to expand discussion beyond the map of Europe, since the Cold War included so many
“theaters” around the world, including Southeast Asia, Central
America, and the Caribbean. A discussion of these non-European theaters could lead to an interesting discussion of how the United
States and the Soviet Union attempted to—or more often failed to—consider themes such as nationalism and racial geopolitics in these countries during the Cold War. After conducting such a discussion, teachers could add another column to the “Cold War perspectives” exercise at the end of the module that asks students to consider events from the perspective of a non-Western nation
(e.g., Vietnam).
In Part II, students read several well-known foreign policy documents associated with the early years of the Cold War. In these documents, American, British, and Soviet leaders and policy
used by American diplomat
George Kennan during the late 1940s. As the USSR exerted influence in Eastern
Europe, the American government adopted a foreign policy that sought to resist, or “contain,” Soviet influence in the rest of the world. The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
9
TIME REQUIRED
70 minutes. The first half of the workshop is intended to familiarize students with the alliances of World War
II and the Cold War. If students are already familiar with this information, teachers can use the map exercise as a review, or they can skip it altogether.
MATERIALS
Photocopies of documents and map, markers/colored pencils to draw on map.
In addition to the map of
Europe, it is recommended that teachers also have a world map available so they can have students locate
Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
10
Lessons in United States History
analysts outline their nation’s actions. Teachers should have their students circle or outline key words in an effort to identify the vocabulary used to justify the War (teachers should decide whether they wish to give students the list of “goals” given at the beginning of the section). At the end of the section, students should brainstorm a list of economic, political, and military/national security goals, collected from the lesson, which each country pursued (there could be more than two potential responses).
The writing assignment at the end of this module asks students to apply the concept of “containment” to the situation in Korea in 1950. Teachers may wish to assign this brief “position paper” along with textbook reading; the assignment gives the student the opportunity to practice persuasive writing. The theme of “containment” will continue as the modules move to a discussion of domestic policy.
Writing Exercise:
[See end of lesson]
The Cold War: Why did the United States and the USSR enter into the Cold War after World War II?
INTRODUCTION FOR STUDENTS
In this lesson, you will learn about the source of tensions between the United
States and the Soviet Union in the post-World War II era. The two nations were allies during World War II, but the United States was concerned that the Soviet
Union, which was a communist nation, posed a challenge to America’s government and values. As a capitalist nation, the United
States feared the revolutionary rhetoric of communism, which vowed to create a world order led by workers and which denounced organized religion. The United
States and the Soviet Union disagreed about what postwar Europe should look like, and their mutual suspicion led to a Cold War that lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
After World War II,
American leaders hoped that an American monopoly on the atomic bomb would convince the Soviet
Union to agree to American plans for Europe (the monopoly was short lived, as the Soviets developed a bomb by 1949). American leaders wanted to ensure
the continued health of its economy, so it wanted to see governments with similar economic and political systems established in Europe. They therefore tried to “contain,” or limit, the spread of communism all over the world. On the other hand, after suffering
20 million deaths and huge damage during the war, the
Soviet Union feared another invasion and wanted to protect its western borders by establishing pro-commu-
nist governments in Eastern
Europe. Stalin claimed that he was protecting Soviet interests in Europe, just as the
United States was protecting its interests.
In the rest of this lesson, you will map the alliances that formed in Europe during the Cold War. You will also read sources in which
American, British, and Soviet politicians explore their goals and their foreign policy in the years after World
War II.
Temporary basement fallout shelter, circa 1957.
Source: Michael Barson and Steven Heller, Red Scared, p. 134
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
11
LESSON 1
LESSON 1
PART 1—MAPPING WORLD WAR II AND THE COLD WAR IN EUROPE
Europe at the end of World War II
1. During World War II, the United States sided with Great Britain, France and the Soviet
Union against Germany, Italy and Japan. On your map of Europe, please locate the following countries:
a. Allies: Great Britain, France, USSR, USA. Mark these countries with the letter “A.”
b. Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan. Mark these countries with the letters “AP
.”
With your teacher, find Japan on a world map.
2. In February 1945, when it was clear that the Allies would win the war, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Joseph Stalin (USSR) and Winston Churchill (Great
Britain) to discuss the fate of postwar Europe. The leaders divided Germany into quarters to be occupied by American, French, British, and Russian forces, and Stalin agreed to allow elections in Poland, which was occupied by Soviet forces. On your map of Europe, please locate the following countries:
a. Germany: draw a line from the northwest corner of the German border with
Czechoslovakia to the Baltic Sea. The area to the west of this line will be West
Germany (the combined quarters of USA, France, and England) and the area to the east of this line will be East Germany (USSR). Color East Germany red.
b. Poland. Color red.
The division of Europe
3. The Soviet Union gained control over parts of Eastern Europe that Germany had captured during the war. On your map of Europe, please locate the following countries and color them red:
a. Albania and Bulgaria. Occupied by USSR in 1944, communist-controlled by 1948.
b. Czechoslovakia. Communist-controlled by 1948.
c. Hungary and Romania. Communist-controlled by
1947.
d. East Germany. Occupied by Soviet Union after war, communist government established 1949.
4. As the Soviet Union established satellite nations, the United States collected allies among Western European nations. In 1949, the United States joined the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to counter Soviet power in Europe. On your map of Europe, please locate the following countries and color them blue:
a. Great Britain
b. France
c. West Germany
12
d. Norway
e. Belgium
f. Italy
Lessons in United States History
g. Turkey
h. Greece
i. Netherlands
j. Denmark
k. Portugal
PART II: COLD WAR DIPLOMACY
Soviet goals: The Soviet Union suffered huge
wanted to keep the nation’s economy strong, so they wanted to see nations with capitalist economies and representative governments established in Europe. Although this foreign policy met American economic needs, Americans saw these goals not as self-interest but as a crusade to bring freedom, democracy, and capitalism to the world.
They therefore tried to “contain” the spread of communism all over the world.
losses—including 20 million deaths and heavy damage to industry and agriculture—during
World War II. Joseph Stalin wanted to protect the
USSR from further attack by establishing “satellite nations”—that is, nations that were sympathetic to communism—along its western borders. Stalin said that he was protecting Soviet interests in
Europe, just as the United States was protecting its interests. Suspicious of the United States, Stalin did not let the USSR join agencies such as the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which helped the capitalist economies in Western
Europe.
Winston Churchill
GLOSSARY FOR
EXCERPT:
ill inston Church eech Speech by W this famous sp rchill delivered uri Winston Chu ollege in Misso
Westminster C at 946. on March 5, 1 rieste in the the Baltic to T cross the in …From Stettin ain has descended a of n curt all the capitals
Adriatic an iro d that line lie hin ern Europe.
Continent. Be entral and East tes of C
Budapest, Belthe ancient sta gue, Vienna,
, Pra ies Warsaw, Berlin nd Sofia; all these famous cit st a hat I grade, Buchare them lie in w tions around la re subject, in and the popu here, and all a ce oviet sp
Soviet influen must call the S r, not only to othe sing one form or an e cases increa h and in som hig but to a very om Moscow… re of control fr measu odern History
et M
Source: Intern
descended—fallen over
or covered sphere—an area of
interest or influence
Sourcebook
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad 13
LESSON 1
American goals: American leaders
Questions about Churchill’s speech (see page 13):
1. Looking at your map of Europe (page 22), draw a line that separates the Soviet-bloc nations from the Western European nations that were members of NATO.
2. What phrase does Churchill use to describe Soviet power in Eastern Europe? Why might this scare an American audience in 1946?
3. Why would an American care about Soviet power in Europe?
Joseph Stalin
l se to Churchil rch talin’s respon
Joseph S s (p.4) on Ma ew York Time
N
Printed in the ravda) terview with P
946 (in
14, 1 f the position o l now stands in l is not alone il ... Mr. Church urchil ar. And Mr. Ch rand of w land but also a fireb ot only in Eng iends n here. He has fr
.
tes of America ably the United Sta in inded remark t, one is rem t war
In this respec ler began to se is friends. Hit ng of Hitler and h ing his racial theory, declari e unc rman languag loose by anno eaking the Ge ill le sp
n. Mr. Church that only peop valuable natio lly cial theory, represent a fu
, also by a ra war loose aking the Eng begins to set ly nations spe at on nations, called maintaining th fully valuable are rld. lish language f the entire wo the destinies o e t Hitler and upon to decid theory brough cial The German ra nclusion that the Germans, the co ver his friends to n, must rule o valuable natio lly ngs as the only fu cial theory bri
The English ra the conclusion other nations. his friends to
Churchill and nguage, being
Mr.
g the English la eakin that nations sp
14
Lessons in United States History
GLOSSARY FOR
EXCERPT:
firebrand—one who
speaks forcefully for a cause irrevocably—unable to
change oblivion—the state of
being forgotten expansionist tendencies—
having the desire to grow or achieve more power
Stalin continues on next page.
ory et Modern Hist
Source: Intern
Sourcebook
Questions about Stalin’s response:
1. What historical figure does Stalin compare Churchill to? Why do you think Stalin uses this comparison?
2. In the fourth through sixth paragraphs above, Stalin states how many Russians died during World War II. Why were these losses important, according to Stalin?
3. How does Stalin defend the Soviet Union’s post-World War II actions in Europe? Were
Stalin’s goals military goals, national security goals, or economic goals?
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad 15
LESSON 1
r ould rule ove ble nations, sh valua the only fully the world.... ing nations of
, the Soviet the remain rman invasion the Ge with the GerAs a result of lost in battles and vocably
Union has irre ring the German occupation du Germans, and also iet citizens to ulsion of Sov xp ple. In through the e
7,000,000 peo camps, about r st in men sevman slave labo t Union has lo e Sovie tates other words, th an Britain and the United S th eral times more ying to push together. quarters are tr some Soviet people
It may be that crifices of the e these sa urope from th into oblivion liberation of E the which insured et them. One
Hitlerite yoke. n cannot forg
Unio
sing in the fact
But the Soviet at can be surpri cure, wh to ensure its se can ask therefo ion, in a desire
Un
ese counthat the Soviet achieve that th re, tries to s to rity for the futu governments whose relation t ave n one, withou tries should h loyal? How ca l n are these peacefu the Soviet Unio reason, qualify ne’s xpansionist having lost o t Union as “e the Sovie
..
aspirations of
Government?.
encies” of our tend Harry Truman
). arch 12, 1947 n Doctrine (M dent Harry
Truma
, given by Presi ss, speech This excerpted ion of Congre to fore a joint sess r economic aid
Truman be dent’s plans fo resi outlined the p rkey. Greece and Tu d cy of the Unite ust be the poli m g atI believe that it ho are resistin free peoples w rt rities or by
States to suppo y armed mino gation b tempted subju rily res… uld be prima outside pressu our help sho esI believe that l aid which is ic and financia rderly political m through econo ic stability and o om sential to econ alat a map to re processes… only to glance reek It is necessary grity of the G r vival and inte r ide ize that the su e importance in a much w l grav der the contro nation are of should fall un reece bor, situation. If G upon its neigh rity, the effect ino onfuof an armed m and serious. C ut be immediate ugho Turkey, would ll spread thro rder might we sion and diso an dle East. of Greece as the entire Mid disappearance found effect
Moreover, the ld have a pro ate wou hose peoples independent st s in Europe w in ountrie lties to mainta upon those c st great difficu again they are struggling ndence while d their indepe an their freedoms ages of war. repair the dam odern History
et M
Source: Intern
16
Lessons in United States History
Sourcebook
GLOSSARY FOR
EXCERPT:
subjugation—control armed minorities—
Truman means a small group that takes over through force survival—ability to live integrity—soundness or
completeness profound—important or deep
Questions about the Truman Doctrine:
LESSON 1
1. Find Greece and Turkey on your map again.
2. Given the world political situation in 1947, who do you think are the “armed minorities” and “outside pressures” who are trying to take over Greece and Turkey?
3. According to this excerpt, what kind of aid does Truman plan to give to Greece and
Turkey?
4. Looking at the final two paragraphs, what does Truman say will happen in Europe and the Middle East if the United States does not help Greece and Turkey?
5. Truman’s foreign policy has often been described as the “domino theory.” Here’s the concept: if dominoes are stacked one slightly behind the other, a slight push on one will knock down all of the pieces in a row. Why do you think it has been described in this way?
6. Were Truman’s plans in Greece and Turkey military goals, national security goals, political goals, or economic goals?
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
17
George C. Marshall
)
(June 5, 1947 etary of State
Marshall Plan
, given by Secr can speech need for Ameri
This excerpted
, outlined the rshall George C. Ma pe. to western Euro economic aid e’s requirer is that Europ f the matte od and other
…The truth o ars of foreign fo a—are so ext 3 or 4 ye from Americ ments for the n ts—principally ility to pay that she uc essential prod er present ab
, social, and greater than h much face economic r stantial help o racter… must have sub very grave cha at tion of a ora t on the world political deteri oralizing effec dem a reAside from the nces arising as ies of disturba ossibilit ed, the conlarge and the p people concern eration of the tates should be sult of the desp of the United S ld e economy ed States shou sequences to th al that the Unit f nor. It is logic in the return o apparent to all to do to assist is able t which there do whatever it world, withou health in the d peace. Our mal economic y and no assure ne tical stabilit ntry or doctri can be no poli gainst any cou nd chaos. Its ted not a policy is direc desperation, a unger, poverty, economy in but against h l of a working be the reviva litical and purpose should permit the emergence of po s to exist. the world so a ee institutions ns in which fr social conditio
GLOSSARY FOR
EXCERPT:
requirements—needs substantial—great deterioration—decline
or fall apart demoralizing—taking away the spirit disturbances—lack of
order stability—order doctrine—a set of
beliefs, especially religious or political revival—a return to
working order
Questions about the Marshall Plan:
1. What kind of aid did Europe need from the United States?
2. Why would the United States want to help Europe?
3. What does Marshall mean when he says, “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos”?
4. Was Marshall’s plan a military goal, a national security goal, a political goal, or an economic goal?
18
Lessons in United States History
cil Paper 68
Security Coun
National
) mo (April 7, 1950 an internal me et document, rity Council,
This top-secr
National Secu rmed tes could stop of the newly fo the United Sta nly argued that o s the policy of
n. It advocate o Soviet expansi
t.”
“containmen one inment,” it is licy of “conta
(1)
As for the po ort of war to y all means sh iet power, (2) which seeks b ansion of Sov k further exp tensions, (3) bloc s of Soviet pre ontrol and lsitie c expose the fa f the Kremlin’s the seeds a retraction o er induce general, so fost nce, and (4) in em that the influe the Soviet syst within ypoint of modif of destruction t at least to the ugh pted
Kremlin is bro generally acce to conform to r ing its behavio standards. t theory and international ar from Sovie cle ee
…It is quite to bring the fr
Kremlin seeks e e practice that th minion by the methods of th do rt s bve world under it hnique is to su ue preferred tec
Every instit cold war. Th intimidation. and is by infiltration ment which it ty is an instru cie oses. tion of our so ainst our purp ify and turn ag material and sought to stult st closely our ch mo prime targets,
Those that tou obviously the are hschools, churc moral strength ic enterprises, civ he eflabor unions, ing opinion. T ia for influenc us es, and all med h to make them serve obvio uc ur fort is not so m revent them from serving o to p fuSoviet ends as sources of con to make them s body ends, and thu lture, and our onomy, our cu sion in our ec politic… GLOSSARY FOR
EXCERPT:
containment—to
prevent or limit the advance, spread, or influence of expansion—the process of growth: the opposite of containment falsities—lies pretensions— appearances retraction—a pulling
back foster—to encourage
growth modifying—changing dominion—rule subvert—to ruin or
corrupt from within infiltration—enter secretly intimidation—threat of
force stultify—to make
useless
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad 19
LESSON 1
National Security Council
Questions about the National Security Council Paper 68, page 17:
1. How did the United States plan to stop Soviet expansion? Does the document argue that the United States should go to war with the USSR?
2. According to this document, what were the key parts of “containment”? What does the phrase “by all means short of war” mean?
3. According to the document, how is the Soviet Union trying to increase its influence over the free world? Is the Soviet Union using armed confrontation or another method? How does this threaten American institutions, and how might this threat differ from other wars, like WWI or WWII?
4. Using NSC-68, can you argue that Americans were worried that communists would
“subvert” (definition: to ruin or corrupt from within) American culture? Why?
5. If Stalin had issued a response to the NSC-68, what do you think he would have said?
20
Lessons in United States History
PERSPECTIVES ON THE COLD WAR
United States
Soviet Union
Economic Goals
Economic Goals
1)
1)
2)
2)
Political Goals
Political Goals
1)
1)
2)
2)
Military/National Security Goals
Military/National Security Goals
1)
1)
2)
LESSON 1
Now that you have read the documents, please describe the objectives of the United
States and the Soviet Union as each nation’s leaders (or allies) explained them. Are there any similarities?
2)
WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
The year is 1950, and North Korea, a communist country, has invaded South Korea (look at world map). President Harry Truman has to decide whether to commit ground troops to help the South Koreans fight the invasion, which would mean that the “cold war” would become a “hot war.” You are a policy analyst for the newly-formed National Security Council. Using the documents in this worksheet, write a five-sentence paragraph in which you argue for or against committing ground troops. You will need to address why the policy of
“containment” applies or does not apply to the situation in Korea.
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
21
BARENTS
SEA
ICELAND
FINLAND
NORWAY
NORTH
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
SWEDEN
SCOTLAND
SCOTLAND
IRELAND
NORTH
SEA
DENMARK
DENMARK
GREAT
GREAT
BRITAIN
BRITAIN
ENGLAND
ENGLAND
WALES
WALES
CELTIC
SEA
NETHERNETHERLANDS
LANDS
BALTIC
SEA
EAST
GERMANY
BELGIUM
WEST
LUXEMBURG GERMANY
SOVIET UNION
POLAND
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
HUNGARY
SWITZERLAND AUSTRIA
ROMANIA
FRANCE
ITALY
YUGOSLAVIA
SPAIN
CORSICA
ADRIATIC
BULGARIA
SEA
ALBANIA
SARDINIA
PORTUGAL
GREECE
SICILY
TUNISIA
MOROCCO
ALGERIA
BLACK
SEA
TURKEY
CASPIAN
SEA
AEGEAN
SEA
SYRIA
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
LEBANON
ISRAEL
IRAQ
IRAN
JORDAN
LIBYA
EGYPT
22
Lessons in United States History
RED
SEA
SAUDI
ARABIA
PERSIAN
GULF
LESSON 2
The Cold War: How did the Cold War affect American culture and Soviet culture?
In this module, students will learn how the Cold War affected
American and Soviet culture during the early years of the conflict. In the Soviet Union, state-sponsored propaganda campaigns claimed that the nation had created considerable prosperity and happiness for its citizens, despite the fact that the war, fought on
Soviet grounds, had severely damaged the economy. The campaigns criticized capitalism in the West for problems such as war, unemployment, exploitation, and racism.
Americans enjoyed an era of prosperity after World War II, but the fear of communism dominated American culture during the
1950s. The war had revived the American economy, and Americans quickly adjusted to a consumer economy. Advertisements encouraged Americans to invest in homes, televisions, and kitchen appliances. While concerned about the Soviet Union’s advancements in nuclear arms and space technology, Americans believed that consumer abundance proved the superiority of the capitalist system. Lesson Goals
In Lesson 2, students examine the American and Soviet “home fronts” during the Cold War. By examining a variety of primary sources—advertisements, magazine articles, and state-sponsored propaganda—they will consider how the Cold War affected thinking in both the United States and the Soviet Union. They will also try to understand why each country believed that its economic and political system—capitalism/democracy or communism—offered the better path to prosperity. Although it may seem as though consumer goods would have little relevance to a war, they will see that consumer culture had an important role in the Cold War. By reading the Nixon-Khrushchev “kitchen debate,” students will learn that Cold War diplomacy extended beyond discussions of military might to include issues such as way of life. The workshop is designed to help students understand the connection between the Cold War and the era’s economic, social, and cultural transformation.
It is important that students remember that all of the sources they examine will have a bias. The sources were intended to convince citizens that their nation’s way of life, whether democracy or communism, was the best way to achieve happiness.
STANDARDS ADDRESSED
IN THIS LESSON
Skills
Historical Research,
Evidence, and Point of
View
Students construct and
test hypotheses; collect, evaluate, and employ information from multiple primary and secondary sources; and apply it in oral and written presentations.
Historical Interpretation
Students show the
connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical events and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments. Content standards
11.8. Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of postWorld War II America
11.8.7. Describe the
effects on society and the economy of technological developments since 1945, including the computer revolution, changes in communication, advances in medicine, and improvements in agricultural technology.
11.8.8. Discuss forms
of popular culture, with emphasis on their origins and geographic diffusion
(e.g., jazz and other
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
23
LESSON 2
INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS
forms of popular music, professional sports, architectural and artistic styles). Discussion Guide for Teachers
Format: Teachers may want to divide students into groups to dis-
cuss the different sections. Some of the work could be completed for homework.
This lesson is designed to help students understand the domestic consequences of the Cold War. To supplement the images in this workshop, teachers may wish to include a clip from one of the Cold War-era educational films available through the Prelinger
Collection at the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/), a collection of public-domain films from the twentieth century. Films such as Capitalism, A Look at Capitalism, Meet King Joe, and It’s Everybody’s Business, locatable using the alphabetical index, address the perceived differences between American and Soviet culture, and students may enjoy analyzing how Americans compared their system to that of the Soviet Union.
In this lesson, the primary sources from American culture are drawn from popular magazines and advertisements. Students should notice the emphasis on the (white) “nuclear family,” consumer abundance, and “traditional” gender roles. They may also notice that the ads do not depict blue-collar Americans (some of the films at the Prelinger Archive do depict working-class Americans). Moreover, the excerpt from Look magazine equates women’s rights with access to beauty salons. The teacher may wish to ask students what groups of Americans are missing from these advertisements.
In contrast to the American ads, the Soviet posters champion the worker while condemning capitalism. For example, Viktor
Govorkov’s poster depicts an American worker who is literally counting his pennies in front of a fat-cat tycoon while a Soviet worker (wearing a tie) happily holds consumer goods. The question posed in the poster, “Who Receives the National Income?”, is thus answered: the Soviet worker. Ivan Semenov’s poster, “The
Goal of Capitalism is Always the Same,” similarly condemns capitalism. Each frame of the poster depicts a worker in a different
“capitalist” struggle: extraction of resources, slavery, and war (the workers are of different races). In each case, the profit/sweat/blood drains into the bottom frame, where the capitalist collects his profits.
Although it may seem as though consumer goods would have little relevance to a war, students will see that consumer culture had an important role in the Cold War. By reading the NixonKhrushchev “kitchen debate,” students will learn that Cold War diplomacy extended beyond discussions of military might to include issues such as way of life. During the tour, which occurred two years after Sputnik challenged American technical supremacy,
Nixon consistently attempted to draw attention to the benefits of the American consumer economy. Although Khrushchev refused to concede defeat on this front of the Cold War, he nonetheless offered stinging criticism of consumerism, including his retort that
Soviets did not share “the capitalist attitude toward women” and his assertion that household goods “are merely gadgets.”
KEY TERMS
Capitalism—an economy based
on private ownership of wealth, by investments that are decided privately (not publicly), and by prices/ production/distribution of goods determined by competition. Communism—in the USSR,
communism meant government ownership of land and property, a singleparty government, and the absence of individual rights.
There was also a call for worldwide revolution.
Consumption—the use of
economic goods to satisfy wants and/or shape identity.
Historians like Elaine Tyler
May and Lizabeth Cohen have noted that during the
20th century, Americans increasingly identified themselves as consumers rather than workers.
Production—the making of
goods available for use. In mass production, goods are created using assembly-line techniques. TIME REQUIRED
MATERIALS
Lessons in United States History
Photocopies of workshop images and text.
WRITING ASSIGNMENT
24
At least one hour plus the writing assignment
See end of lesson.
LESSON 2
The Cold War: How did the Cold War affect American culture and Soviet culture?
In today’s lesson, you will learn how the Cold War affected American and Soviet culture in the 1950s. The sources you will examine tried to convince citizens that their nation’s way of life, whether democracy or communism, was the best way to achieve happiness. In the United
States, Americans quickly adjusted to a consumer economy after World War II.
Advertisements encouraged Americans to invest in homes, televisions, and kitchen appliances. However, Americans were
also worried about the spread of communism.
Many advertising campaigns and magazine articles tried to persuade Americans that the availability of consumer goods proved the superiority of the American way of life. In the
Soviet Union, which suffered tremendous damage to its economy during World War II, statesponsored propaganda campaigns claimed that the nation resulted in prosperity and happiness for its citizens. The campaigns criticized capitalism in the West for problems such as war, unemployment, exploitation, and racism.
COLD WAR: HOW DID AMERICANS EXPLAIN
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COMMUNISM AND CAPITALISM?
Following are advertisements, articles, and photographs from American magazines and television during the 1940s and 1950s. Using these pictures, answer the questions at the bottom of page 27.
Advertisement for kitchen appliances, 1950s. Source: Thomas Hine, Populuxe (New York: Knopf, 1986), p. 22
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
25
LESSON 2
INTRODUCTION FOR STUDENTS
Life magazine cover, 1953. The caption on the cover reads,
“Family Buys ‘Best
$15,000 House’”
A 1950s Family
Source: Thomas Hine,
Populuxe (New York:
Knopf, 1986), title page. 26
Lessons in United States History
me.html
~afilreis/50s/ho
n.edu/
.english.upen
: http://www
Source
American advertising and culture:
1. Which photograph best summarizes capitalism and/or democracy in the 1950s as you understand it? Who are the “heroes” of these advertisements? Be ready to explain your answer.
2. Which photographs (there is more than one) celebrate life in the United States?
Explain why.
3. Which source contains a critique of communism and/or the Soviet Union?
4. Do you think these images accurately depict life in the United States in the 1950s?
5. Do these images leave any group of Americans out of the picture?
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad 27
LESSON 2
ns” d-Class Citize spaperman,” Russia’s Secon merican new an A
“Women—
-born wife of ney, “Russian e in 1954]
Julie Whit
Look Magazin ppeared in
[this excerpt a g, except a almost anythin be as a chance to litan Moscow, a good-lookan in Russia h er, “A wom ely cosmopo ings: a foreign ay, in a relativ one of three th
Even tod ian -up is woman. women in Russ wearing make ll-dressed girl ty of statues of ing, we is no ‘Miss
The majori ss to say, there a prostitute.... edle an actress or gym pants! Ne
, “there are just brassieres and of five million tion he parks wear e the name. T with its popula andards deserv
” In Moscow, rn st
U.S.S.R.’
hich by Weste
s.’”
auty parlors w etic institution two be
‘medical cosm en are other half-doz
COLD WAR: SOVIET PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGNS
Answer the questions at the bottom of this page using these posters from Soviet propaganda campaigns in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s (also see next page).
Viktor Govorkov, “Who Receives the National Income?” 1950. The worker on the left is an American.
The worker on the right is a Soviet.
Source: Victoria E. Bonnell, Iconography of Power (LA and Berkeley: UC Press, 1997), figure 6.6
Propaganda in the Soviet Union
1. Which poster best summarizes communism as you understand it? Who are the
“heroes” of the posters? Who are the “villains”?
2. Which posters celebrate life in the Soviet Union?
3. Which posters (there is more than one) contain a critique of capitalism and/or the
United States?
4. Do you think these posters accurately depict life in the Soviet Union?
28
Lessons in United States History
LESSON 2
Ivan Semenov, “The Goal of Capitalism is Always the Same,” 1953.
Source: Victoria E. Bonnell, Iconography of Power (LA and Berkeley: UC Press, 1997), figure 6.15.
Nikolai Charukhin, “I am a man. Racism—shame of America” 1969.
Source: Aulich & Sylvestrova, Signs of the Times: Political Posters in Central and Eastern Europe 1945-1995 (NY: St.
Martin’s, 1999), p. 197.
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
29
THE KITCHEN DEBATE
The Cold War was an unusual war in that the two nations involved did not face each other on a battlefield.
Instead, Americans and Soviets argued that their political system was better by comparing each nation’s way of life. Such was the case in
1959, when Vice President Richard
Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev held a public discussion at the American National Exhibit in
Moscow comparing the technological capabilities of the two powers.
Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev during the Kitchen Debate, 1959.
Source: Thomas Hine, Populuxe (New York: Knopf, 1986), p. 131
After reading the following excerpt from the debate, answer the questions on page 32.
Nixon: “…There are some instances where you may be ahead of us, for
example in the development of the thrust of your rockets for the investigation of outer space; there may be some instances in which we are ahead of you – in color television, for instance.”
Khrushchev: “No, we are up with you on this, too. We have bested you in
one technique and also in the other.”
Nixon: “You see, you never concede anything.”
Khrushchev: “I do not give up.”
Nixon: …[Later in the tour, Nixon halted Khrushchev at model kitchen in
model house]: “You had a very nice house in your exhibition in New
York. My wife and I saw and enjoyed it very much. I want to show you this kitchen. It is like those of our houses in California.”
Khrushchev: [after Nixon called attention to a built-in panel-controlled
washing machine]: “We have such things.”
Nixon: “This is the newest model. This is the kind which is built in
thousands of units for direct installation in the houses.” He added that
Americans were interested in making life easier for their women.
The kitchen Debate continues on the next page.
30
Lessons in United States History
Mr. Khrushchev remarked that in the Soviet Union, they did not have “the
capitalist attitude toward women.”
Nixon: “I think that this attitude toward women is universal. What we
want to do is make easier the life of our housewives.”
He explained that the house could be built for $14,000 and that most veterans had bought houses for between $10,000 and $15,000.
Nixon: “Let me give you an example you can appreciate. Our steelworkers,
LESSON 2
as you know, are on strike. But any steelworker could buy this house.
They earn $3 an hour. This house costs about $100 a month to buy on a contract running 25 to 30 years.”
Khrushchev: “We have steel workers and we have peasants who also can
afford to spend $14,000 for a house.”
He said American houses were built to last only 20 years, so builders could sell new houses at the end of that period
“We build firmly. We build for our children and grandchildren.”
Mr. Nixon said he thought American houses would last more than 20
years, but after 20 years many Americans want a new home/kitchen, which would be obsolete then. The American system is designed to take advantage of new inventions, he said.
Khrushchev: “This theory does not hold water.” He said some things
never got out of date -- furniture and furnishings, perhaps, but not houses. He said he did not think that what Americans had written about their houses was all strictly accurate.
Nixon [pointing to television screen]: “We can see here what is happening
in other parts of the home.”
Khrushchev: “Don’t you have a machine that puts food into the mouth and
pushes it down? Many things you’ve shown us are interesting but they are not needed in life. They have no useful purpose. They are merely gadgets…” Source: New York Times, as excerpted at http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/14/documents/ debate/ The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
31
Questions about the Kitchen Debate:
1 Can you summarize what Nixon and Khrushchev are talking about in this excerpt?
Nixon says that
Khrushchev says that
2. Can you compare what Nixon says about consumer goods like houses and washing machines to what Khrushchev says about them?
Nixon says that
Khrushchev says that
3. Khrushchev says that the Soviet Union did not have “the capitalist attitude toward women.” What do you think he means?
4. How could you argue that this disagreement fits into the Cold War context, when capitalism and communism were in conflict?
Writing Assignment
If you have any time left at the end of this lesson, you may complete the following writing exercise. Pretend that you are an advertising executive in the weeks after Nixon’s kitchen debate with Khrushchev in 1959. You have decided to develop an ad campaign for a brand of car or home appliance (for example, a television, dishwasher, or washing machine) that uses the ideas from the kitchen debate. Write a paragraph explaining what your ad campaign will look like. You may include an illustration for your campaign as well.
32
Lessons in United States History
LESSON 3
The Cold War: How did anti-communist fear affect
American politics and Culture in the 1950s?
In the years after World War II, American society experienced a wave of anti-communist fear. During this period, opportunists like Joseph McCarthy used accusations of communism to undercut political and cultural opponents. The foreign policy and domestic policy initiatives began at approximately the same time, as the first hearings of House Un-American Activities Committee began within days of the Truman Doctrine speech in the spring of 1947.
The United States had experienced a Red Scare before, in 19191920, when government officials attempted to deport foreign-born labor activists. The Communist Party (CP) in the United States was not popular again until the Great Depression, when some
Americans became disenchanted with capitalism; during this period, members of the CP joined other Americans in calling for unemployment relief and union organizing. The CP also called on its members to join noncommunists to form a “Popular Front” to fight fascism in Germany. The (short-lived) 1939 non-aggression pact between Adolf Hitler (Germany) and Joseph Stalin (USSR) ended the Popular Front, and the CP encountered attacks from liberals and conservatives alike until Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, making the nation an American ally in WWII.
The Cold War revived American anticommunism. Communism was inevitably linked to the Soviet Union, and it was assumed that all communists were loyal to the USSR, that they followed the party line, and that they would work to subvert the American system.
In retrospect, some historians have questioned whether the threat posed by the CP warranted the measures taken to suppress them.
Although anticommunism affected all parts of American society, the federal government conducted the most well-known anticommunist campaign. The most famous of these efforts was the House
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a Congressional committee that investigated Communist subversion of American society and institutions, especially in labor unions, universities, and the entertainment industry. At HUAC hearings, witnesses were often assumed to be guilty of subversion and were pressured to “name names” of associates involved in their activities. The
1950s also witnessed the Army-McCarthy hearings and the trial of former state department official Alger Hiss. While HUAC hearings on communism uncovered sympathy for liberal causes in places like Hollywood, it did not find rampant subversion of American institutions. Nonetheless, many of the accused found themselves
“blacklisted” by former employers—that is, unable to find work.
STANDARDS ADDRESSED
IN THIS LESSON
Skills
Chronological and Spatial
Thinking
Students analyze how
change happens at different rates at different times; understand that some aspects can change while others remain the same; and understand that change is complicated and affects not only technology and politics but also values and beliefs.
Historical Interpretation
Students show the
connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical events and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments. Students understand the
meaning, implication, and impact of historical events and recognize that events could have taken other directions. Content standards
11.9. Students analyze
U.S. foreign policy since
World War II.
11.9.3. Trace the
origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy, including the following:
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
33
LESSON 3
INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS
the era of McCarthyism, instances of domestic
Communism (e.g., Alger
Hiss) and blacklisting; the Truman Doctrine; the
Korean War; the “mutual assured destruction” doctrine. KEY TERMS
Blacklist—in the wake of
the House Un-American
Activities Committee
(HUAC) investigation of the motion picture industry, during which the
“Hollywood Ten” refused to answer questions about their membership in the
Communist Party, industry executives met in New York to condemn the Ten and issue a statement to ward off future investigation from Washington. The
“blacklist,” which prevented actors, writers, and directors with radical sympathies from getting jobs in
Hollywood, arose out of this meeting. The Hollywood
Ten, who included Ring
Lardner, Jr. and Dalton
Trumbo, were among those on the blacklist, though many worked under pseudonyms. House Un-American Activities
Committee (HUAC)—a
Congressional committee that was created in 1938 and made permanent in
1945. HUAC investigated the present and past political affiliations of citizens. The committee was particularly interested in the affiliations of civil servants, people in the movie industry, labor
34 Lessons in United States History
Lesson Goals
In Lesson 3, students will use information drawn from laws, testimony, and government surveillance to learn about the fear of communism in American society in the 1940s and 1950s. They will discuss how the American government tried to “contain” communism at home and whether the threat of communist subversion merited restrictions on civil liberties.
A Discussion Guide for Teachers
Format: Students should be divided into groups of five or six students. Depending on time constraints, the teacher may wish to have each group examine one excerpt, then report to the class.
The documents in Lesson 3 are intended to help students weigh the issue of free speech (and individual rights) against the issue of national security during the Cold War. The lesson attempts to get the students to take a stand on whether the threat of domestic communism warranted the large-scale campaigns that were conducted to root out party members.
The lesson begins by asking students to read the First Amendment, define their understanding of “freedom of speech,” and offer examples of possible applications of “freedom of speech.” The questions then ask students to consider whether they would support restrictions on freedom of speech. The lesson then presents students with historical examples of curbs that have been placed on freedom of speech. In the first, an excerpt from the Schenk vs.
United States decision (which upheld the Espionage Act of 1917),
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. established the need to prove that a “clear-and-present danger” exists to restrict speech. Students may notice Holmes’ famous example of “shouting fire in a theatre.” For this lesson, however, it is important for students to see the distinction that Holmes makes between times of war and times of peace for free speech. Students also review an excerpt from the Smith Act, which banned any group that advocated the overthrow of the government; the law was used to prosecute
Communist Party leaders in 1949. Students then read a section of NSC-68, which argued that the Soviet Union would attempt to subvert democratic values through “infiltration and intimidation.”
According to this document, Soviet targets included not just the
American government but also “labor unions, civic enterprises, schools, churches, and all media.”
The second section of the lesson focuses on the House UnAmerican Activities hearings on the entertainment industry.
Teachers may wish to prompt students to define “un-American,” especially as it would have related to the Cold War context. Students read testimony from Ronald Reagan, who speaks of the communists in the Screen Actors Guild. They also read the testimony of Paul Robeson several years later (specifically, after the Senate’s
Army-McCarthy hearings), after HUAC had lost much of its influence. In the third and final section of the lesson, students read excerpts from the COMPIC, the FBI files collected between 1942 and
1958 that investigated the Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry. The documents in this section specifically relate to Dalton Trumbo, a screenwriter and member of the “Hollywood
Ten” who was blacklisted by Hollywood after refusing to answer
HUAC’s questions regarding his affiliation with the Communist
Party. In this section, students should consider whether Trumbo’s leftist leanings constituted a threat to national security.
Because it focuses on the entertainment industry, this lesson stops short of analyzing the ways that anticommunism was used in the political arena, especially by Joseph McCarthy. This lesson might therefore be supplemented with a lesson that reviews the ways that some Republicans used the communist threat as a means for political gain.
unions, and teachers, and it held hearings in which citizens testified about their loyalty. The committee was abolished in 1975.
McCarthyism—named for
Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, this term describes anti-communist crusading that used intimidation and accusation to denounce its targets.
McCarthy actually began his crusade in 1950, a few years after the HUAC hearings in
Hollywood and shortly after the Hiss case ended.
LESSON 3
TIME REQUIRED
At least one class period, though students should complete some of the reading in advance.
MATERIALS
Photocopies of materials.
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
35
LESSON 3
The Cold War: How did anti-communist fear affect
American politics and Culture in the 1950s?
INTRODUCTION FOR STUDENTS
During the course of the twentieth centu- review testimony and government surveilry, Americans frequently worried about the lance documents to learn about commuimpact of communism on society. In 1919, nism in American society during the 1940s the United States experienced its first “Red and 1950s. You will then discuss whether
Scare,” as government officials attempted to the threat of communist subversion justideport foreign-born labor activists. During fied restrictions on civil liberties in the the Depression, however, some Americans United States during the Cold War. who were disenchanted with capitalism joined the Communist
Party (CP). Then, during World
War II, the USSR was an ally with the United States. As the Cold
War began to take shape, fears about the threat of domestic communism reappeared. During this period, politicians such as Senator
Joseph McCarthy used accusations of communism to attack political opponents. At the same time, the federal government began a series of anticommunist campaigns aimed at finding communists in
American institutions such as labor unions, schools, universities, and the entertainment industry.
The most famous of these efforts was the House Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC), a Congressional committee that pressured witnesses to “name names” of associates involved in their activities.
In this lesson, you will begin by discussing the First Amendment and some of the limits that were placed on the freedom of speech
Cover of Is This Tomorrow, a color comic book published by between 1919 and 1950. In the the Catechetical Guild Educational Society of St. Paul, MN second half of the lesson, you will
Source: Michael Barson and Steven Heller, Red Scared, p. 157
36 Lessons in United States History
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
The first four documents of this workshop will ask you to think about freedom of speech.
It will also ask you to consider how fear of communism caused Americans to place limits on this freedom.
Document 1: First Amendment (1789)
1. What does “freedom of speech” mean? Can you give any examples of “freedom of speech”? “freedom of speech” means:
examples of “freedom of speech”:
2. According to the excerpt, under what circumstances may the government limit the freedom of speech? Do you think there should be limits? limitations on “freedom of speech”:
agree/disagree with limitations:
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad 37
LESSON 3
or nt of religion, an establishme ech, cting e no law respe freedom of spe gress shall mak ise thereof; or abridging the
Con
mble, and to e free exerc aceably to asse le pe prohibiting th ht of the peop nces. ress; or the rig dress of grieva or of the p rnment for a re ve petition the go
Document 2: Schenck v. United States (1919). In 1919,
the Supreme Court upheld a decision against several
Socialist Party members who had printed out pamphlets urging young men to resist joining the armed forces.
The decision, written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, placed a limit on freedom of speech. It is partially excerpted below. the depends upon r of every act n…the characte ich it is done. The most stri a in wh ld not protect circumstances ee speech wou usn of fr theatre and ca gent protectio uting fire in a sho from man in falsely protect a man oes not even d that may have ing a panic. It ttering words against u in every case is an injunction
. The question umf force d in such circ all the effect o s used are use ord create clear whether the w a nature as to of such t the stances and are r that they will bring abou reange as a right to p and present d at Congress h hen ils th and degree. W substantive ev n of proximity stio ht be said in vent. It is a que things that mig ffort that ar many a nation is at w drance to its e en are such a hin d so long as m time of peace not be endure will protheir utterance Court could regard them as no fight and that utional right. by any constit tected GLOSSARY OF TERMS: stringent—tight or strict injunction—a court order uttering—saying substantive—substantial,
considerable proximity—closeness degree—a measure of
depth or rank hindrance—a drag (on a
cause) utterance—vocal expression endured—suffered patiently
1. According to the Schenck v. United States decision, what are the limits of free speech?
What analogy [comparison based on similarity] does Holmes make to explain the decision? 2. Why, according to Holmes, might the definition of “free speech” in a time of war be different from “free speech” during a time of peace?
3. Do you agree or disagree with these limits?
38 Lessons in United States History
in 1940. In 1949, the Justice Department used the Smith
Act to jail Communist Party leaders. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1951 (Dennis et al. v. United
States). The law is partially excerpted below. ts, advocates, abe gly or willfully in desirability,
Whoever know uty, necessity, ches the d ying the govadvises, or tea wing or destro f f overthro government o or propriety o d States or the n thereof, or e Unite ernment of th ict or Possessio
Territory, Distr ion therein, any State, litical subdivis t of any po f any the governmen ce, or by the assassination o len r… by force or vio government; o to er of any such s or attempts offic anizes or help rg ly of persons
…Whoever o up, or assemb ciety, gro hrow organize any so ate, or encourage the overt e or voc who teach, ad f the United States] by forc tes [o ber of, or affilia or destruction es or is a mem com mbly of perviolence; or be group, or asse h society, f-with, any suc urposes thereo not knowing the p r imprisoned sons, der this title o un shall be inShall be fined or both, and enty years, d States or any more than tw t by the Unite ploymen five years next eligible for em thereof, for the agency department or onviction. following his c
GLOSSARY OF TERMS: advocates—calls for abets—actively helps or
aids advises—gives suggestions or advice desirability—the fact
of believing that something would be good propriety—
appropriateness overthrowing—bringing the downfall or defeat of 1. What kind of actions or activities were illegal under the Smith Act?
2. Look at how you defined “freedom of speech” on the previous page. Is this a limit on free speech or free assembly as you defined it? Explain why or why not.
3. Do you think membership in the Communist Party is itself proof that party leaders wanted to overthrow the government? Explain your answer.
4. When the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of CP leaders in 1951, two justices dissented. Why might they have disagreed with the majority of the court?
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad 39
LESSON 3
Document 3: Smith Act. Congress passed the Smith Act
Document 4: National Security Council Paper
68 (1950). This top-secret document claimed that
only the United States could stop Soviet expansion.
It argues for the foreign policy of “containment”
(definition: the act of preventing the expansion of a hostile power). The following excerpt addresses fears about communism in American society.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS: dominion—rule subvert—to ruin or
corrupt infiltration—enter secretly intimidation—threat of
ctheory and pra r from Soviet lea world
…It is quite c bring the free mlin seeks to re e cold war. tice that the K e methods of th ion by th ltraunder its domin nique is to subvert by infi sotech itution of our
The preferred on. Every inst idati ultify tion and intim is sought to st ment which it ru se that touch ciety is an inst purposes. Tho are st our and turn again material and moral strength ur civic most closely o me targets, labor unions, pri ll media for obviously the urches, and a hools, ch t so much to enterprises, sc he effort is no t inion. T ds as to preven influencing op vious Soviet en e ob ake make them serv g our ends, and thus to m rvin conomy, our them from se sion in our e of confu them sources
…
ur body politic culture, and o
force stultify—to make useless
1. According to the document, how did the Soviets plan to gain control of the free world?
2. What organizations or institutions would be the target of Soviet threats? Are these institutions the same as those outlined in the Smith Act?
3. How could anticommunists use NSC-68 to support their crusade against domestic communism? Who would be the targets of the crusade?
40 Lessons in United States History
HOUSE UN-AMERICAN TESTIMONY
During the 1940s and 1950s, many individuals testified before the House Un-American
Activities Committee. The next section will ask you to consider the activities of some
Americans who testified before HUAC and/or were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As you read these documents, you will be asked to decide whether the person’s activities constitute subversion. Before you begin reading, you may want to think about how you would define “un-American activities.”
Testimony #1 (October 23, 1947)
Ronald Reagan was the president of the Screen Actor’s Guild in 1947. He later became Governor of California (1966) and then President of the United States
(1980).
STRIPLING: As a member of the board of directors, as president of the Screen
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
LESSON 3
Actors Guild, and as an active member, have you at any time observed or noted within the organization a clique of either communists or fascists who were attempting to exert influence or pressure on the guild?
REAGAN: …There has been a small group within the Screen Actors Guild which has consistently opposed the policy of the guild board and officers of the guild, as evidenced by the vote on various issues. That small clique referred to has been suspected of more or less following the tactics that we associate with the Communist Party.
STRIPLING: Would you refer to them as a disruptive influence within the guild?
REAGAN: I would say that at times they have attempted to be a disruptive influence. STRIPLING: You have no knowledge yourself as to whether or not any of them are members of the Communist Party?
REAGAN: No, sir, I have no investigative force, or anything, and I do not know.
STRIPLING: Has it ever been reported to you that certain members of the guild were communists?
REAGAN: Yes, sir, I have heard different discussions and some of them tagged as communists. STRIPLING: Would you say that this clique has attempted to dominate the guild? REAGAN: Well, sir, by attempting to put their own particular views on various issues, I guess you would have to say that our side was attempting to dominate, too, because we were fighting just as hard to put over our views, and I think, we were proven correct by the figures—Mr. Murphy gave the figures—and those figures were always approximately the same, an average of 90 percent or better of the Screen Actors Guild voted in favor of those matters now guild policy.
41
Questions about Testimony 1:
1. Does Ronald Reagan testify that there are communists in the Screen Actors Guild?
2. Does the group to whom Reagan refers seem dangerous or subversive?
3. Why would the FBI be interested in possible communist activities in the entertainment industry? What does the entertainment industry have to do with national security?
Questions about Testimony 2 (on the following page):
1. Why, according to Mr. Scherer, has Mr. Robeson been asked to testify in front of
HUAC?
2. Mr. Robeson claims that he felt like “a full human being” when he went to Russia.
What does he mean? Besides the Cold War, what else was happening in the United
States during the 1940s and 1950s?
3. When Mr. Scherer asks Robeson “Why do you not stay in Russia,” what is Robeson’s response? What Americans or American images does Robeson mention? Do you think the response was effective?
42 Lessons in United States History
Testimony #2 (June 12,1956)
Paul Robeson was an African-American actor and singer. Angered by racism and discrimination in American society, Robeson developed leftist beliefs during the
1930s; he protested lynchings and urged African Americans to resist the draft after
World War II. Because the government determined that the actor and his wife were members of the Communist Party, they were not able to use their passports between 1947 and 1958, when the Robesons moved to Europe. Robeson appeared before HUAC in 1956. His testimony is excerpted below:
MR. ARENS [quoting a speech by Paul Robeson]: If the American warmongers
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
LESSON 3
fancy that they could win America’s millions of Negroes for a war against those countries (i.e., the Soviet Union and the peoples’ democracies) then they ought to understand that this will never be the case. Why should the Negroes ever fight against the only nations of the world where racial discrimination is prohibited, and where the people can live freely? Never! I can assure you, they will never fight against either the Soviet Union or the peoples’ democracies.
Did you make that statement?
MR. ROBESON: I do not remember that. But what is perfectly clear today is that nine hundred million other colored people have told you that they will not. Four hundred million in India, and millions everywhere, have told you, precisely, that the colored people are not going to die for anybody: they are going to die for their independence. We are dealing not with fifteen million colored people, we are dealing with hundreds of millions.
[more testimony]
MR. ROBESON: In Russia I felt for the first time like a full human being. No color prejudice like in Mississippi, no color prejudice like in Washington.
It was the first time I felt like a human being. Where I did not feel the pressure of color as I feel [it] in this Committee today.
MR. SCHERER: Why do you not stay in Russia?
MR. ROBESON: Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here, and have a part of it just like you.
And no Fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear? I am for peace with the Soviet Union, and I am for peace with China, and I am not for peace or friendship with the Fascist Franco [Spain], and I am not for peace with Fascist Nazi Germans. I am for peace with decent people.
MR. SCHERER: YOU are here because you are promoting the Communist cause. MR. ROBESON: I am here because I am opposing the neo-Fascist cause which
I see arising in these committees. You are like the Alien [and] Sedition Act, and Jefferson could be sitting here, and Frederick Douglass could be sitting here, and Eugene Debs could be here.
43
FBI FILES; DALTON TRUMBO
Between 1942 and 1958, the FBI investigated the
Communist Party’s supposed infiltration of the motion picture industry. Ten individuals—later known as the “Hollywood Ten”— refused to answer HUAC’s questions regarding their affiliation with the Communist Party; they were convicted of contempt and blacklisted by Hollywood.
Source: http://foia.fbi.gov/compic.htm
Figure 1: Dalton Trumbo
44 Lessons in United States History
Dalton Trumbo, a screenwriter with leftist sympathies, was one of the
“Hollywood Ten.” During
World War II, he wrote the screenplay for films such as “Thirty Seconds Over
Tokyo,” but he was blacklisted by Hollywood after he refused to testify before
HUAC. Writing under a different name, Trumbo wrote the Oscar-winning original
stories and screenplays for films like “Roman Holiday” and “The Brave One.”
The following information is an excerpt from the
FBI’s files on communism in Hollywood. The blackened marks represent information—like informant names—that is still considered confidential.
Figure 2. Excerpt from document concerning the CP influence on Hollywood
LESSON 3
unions and cultural organizations. Dalton Trumbo was the editor of the Screen
Writers Guild member publication, “Screen Writer.”
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
45
Questions about Dalton Trumbo:
1. Was Dalton Trumbo a member of the Communist Party?
2. According to the files, what kind of activities did CP members like Trumbo engage in?
Do you think these activities were subversive (i.e., a threat to American institutions)?
3. When Dalton Trumbo testified before HUAC, he refused to answer questions about his CP membership on the grounds that the First Amendment guaranteed his right to free speech. Looking back at the First Amendment, do you agree that the amendment protected his decision?
46 Lessons in United States History
LESSON 4
Final Assessment: Did the policy of containment go too far or not far enough to stop the spread of communism during the
1940s and 1950s?
INTRODUCTION AND ASSESSMENT GOALS
will decide upon a thesis statement, which may be one of their own or may be drawn from one of the five thesis statements presented on the chart below. Based on the materials provided in this unit plus additional materials covered in lectures and textbook reading, students should develop a well-supported argument in defense of their thesis state-
ment. The final product is expected to be a five-paragraph (at minimum) essay, ranging from two to three pages in length. If teachers don’t wish to assign this essay as an in-class test or homework assignment, they might wish to consider developing another in-class assignment around the assignment and rubric.
LESSON 4
This unit has introduced students to a variety of perspectives about the Cold
War, including those of critics on both the Left and the Right. As a culminating activity for the unit, the students should compose a written essay that asks them to create their own interpretation about the foreign and domestic implications of the Cold War. Students
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
47
LESSON 4
Final Assessment: Did the policy of containment go too far or not far enough to stop the spread of communism during the 1940s and 1950s?
ESSAY PROMPT FOR STUDENTS
Evaluate whether the steps taken by the United States government to “contain” communism after World War II went too far or not far enough. In your response, you must address America’s foreign and domestic policy, paying particular attention to whether the steps taken to contain communism were in line with the threat posed by communism. The first paragraph of your essay must contain a thesis statement that will likely fall somewhere along the continuum represented below. Once you have determined the position you want to take, you may create your own statement, or you may adapt one of the statements on the following page.
48 Lessons in United States History
Matrix for Essay
2
3
4
5
The United
States went too far to contain communism at home and abroad. The threat of communism at home and abroad was overestimated. The foreign policy led to wars in Vietnam and Korea and a near war with
Cuba. Attempts at locating communists at home led to
McCarthyism
and a culture of conformity. For the most part, the United
States went too far to contain communism at home and abroad.
The Soviet Union was a threat in certain locations around the globe, but the policy of containment tended to overestimate the overall threat of communism. The policy of containment was a sensible approach to the potential threat posed by the
Soviet Union.
There were some domestic and foreign policy mistakes to the policy of containment, but on the whole it was the right policy to protect the nation.
In the face of
Soviet aggression at home and abroad, the
American policy of containment was necessary.
There may have been minor errors in carrying out the policy, but the threat was real.
Soviet aggression around the globe proved that communism posed a threat to democracy in the
United States.
Therefore,
the United
States took the necessary steps to contain communism both at home and abroad during the Cold
War.
LESSON 4
1
The Cold War: Containment at Home and Abroad
49
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE UCI CALIFORNIA HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE PROJECT
Robert G. Moeller, Faculty Director and Professor of History
Stephanie Reyes-Tuccio, Site Director
Eileen Powell, CH-SSP Program Assistant http://www.hnet.uci.edu/history/chssp/ HUMANITIES OUT THERE
Julia Reinhard Lupton, Faculty Director and Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Tova Cooper, Director of Publications
Peggie Winters, Grants Manager http://yoda.hnet.uci.edu/hot/ THE SANTA ANA PARTNERSHIP:
UCI’S CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
Juan Francisco Lara, Director http://www.cfep.uci.edu/ THE SANTA ANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
Lewis Bratcher, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education http://www.sausd.k12.ca.us/ SANTA ANA COLLEGE
Sara Lundquist, Vice-President of Student Services
Lilia Tanakeyowma, Director of the Office of School and Community Partnerships and
Associate Dean of Student Development
Melba Schneider, GEAR UP Coordinator http://www.sac.edu/ This unit would not have been possible without the support of Professor Karen Lawrence, Dean of the School of Humanities at the
University of California, Irvine; Professor Robert G. Moeller, Faculty Director of the UCI California History-Social Science Project, who provides ongoing intellectual leadership in all areas touching on historical research, interpretation, and teacher professional development; Dr. Manuel Gómez, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, who provided funding and has been a steadfast supporter of our work; and the leadership of the Santa Ana Partnership, including Dr. Juan Lara, Director of the UCI Center for Educational
Partnerships; Dr. Sara Lundquist, Vice-President of Student Services at Santa Ana College; Lilia Tanakeyowma, Director of the Office of School and Community Partnerships and Associate Dean of Student Development at Santa Ana College; and Dr. Lewis Bratcher,
Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education at the Santa Ana Unified School District.
PERMISSIONS
The materials included in this booklet are original works of authorship, works for which copyright permission has expired, works reprinted with permission, or works that we believe are within the fair use protection of the copyright laws. This is an educational and non-commercial publication designed specifically for high school History-Social Science classes, and is distributed to teachers without charge.
Book design by Susan Reese
1750
1760
1770
1780
1790
1800
1810
1820
1830
1840
1850
1860
1870
“These units in US History demonstrate to students that history matters to the past, present, and future. They expose students to the tools of the historians’ trade, helping them develop their own sense of what happened and why.
Through these units, young historians have a chance to explore the connections among the many regions, groups, and ideas that have shaped the history of the
United States. The units are carefully calibrated with the California State
Content Standards for US eleventh grade history in order to make these dynamic, engaging lessons meaningful to the real needs and interests of teachers and students in California schools.” 1880
—Vicki L. Ruiz, Professor of History and Chicano-Latino Studies,
The University of California, Irvine
1890
1900
1910
1920
CONTENT STANDARDS COVERED
1930
Skills
1940
1. Chronological and Spatial thinking
1950
2. Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View
1960
3. Historical Interpretation:
1970
Content standards
1980
11.7.8. Analyze the effect of massive aid given to Western Europe under the
Marshall Plan to rebuild itself after the war and the importance of a rebuilt Europe to the U.S. economy.
1990
2000
2010
2020
2030
11.8. Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of post-World
War II America
11.9. Students analyze U.S. foreign policy since World War II.
Page 11 Image: Temporary basement fallout shelter, circa 1957.
Source: Michael Barson and Steven Heller, Red Scared, p. 134
BARENTS
SEA
ICELAND
FINLAND
NORWAY
NORTH
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
SWEDEN
SCOTLAND
SCOTLAND
IRELAND
NORTH
SEA
DENMARK
DENMARK
GREAT
GREAT
BRITAIN
BRITAIN
ENGLAND
ENGLAND
WALES
WALES
CELTIC
SEA
NETHERNETHERLANDS
LANDS
BALTIC
SEA
EAST
GERMANY
BELGIUM
WEST
LUXEMBURG GERMANY
SOVIET UNION
POLAND
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
HUNGARY
SWITZERLAND AUSTRIA
ROMANIA
FRANCE
ITALY
YUGOSLAVIA
SPAIN
CORSICA
ADRIATIC
BULGARIA
SEA
ALBANIA
SARDINIA
PORTUGAL
GREECE
SICILY
TUNISIA
MOROCCO
ALGERIA
BLACK
SEA
TURKEY
CASPIAN
SEA
AEGEAN
SEA
SYRIA
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
LEBANON
ISRAEL
IRAQ
IRAN
JORDAN
LIBYA
EGYPT
Page 22 Image
RED
SEA
SAUDI
ARABIA
PERSIAN
GULF
Page 25 Image: Advertisement for kitchen appliances, 1950s.
Page 26 Image: Life magazine cover, 1953. The caption on the cover reads, “Family Buys ‘Best
$15,000 House’”
Page 26 Image: A 1950s Family
Source: Thomas Hine, Populuxe (New York: Knopf, 1986), title page.
Page 28 Image: Viktor Govorkov, “Who Receives the National Income?” 1950. The worker on the left is an American. The worker on the right is a Soviet.
Source: Victoria E. Bonnell, Iconography of Power (LA and Berkeley: UC Press, 1997), figure 6.6
Page 28 Image: Ivan Semenov, “The Goal of Capitalism is Always the Same,” 1953.
Source: Victoria E. Bonnell, Iconography of Power (LA and Berkeley: UC Press, 1997), figure 6.15.
Page 29 Image: Nikolai Charukhin, “I am a man. Racism—shame of America” 1969.
Source: Aulich & Sylvestrova, Signs of the Times: Political Posters in Central and Eastern Europe 1945-1995 (NY: St. Martin’s, 1999),
p. 197.
Page 30 Image: Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during the
Kitchen Debate, 1959.
Source: Thomas Hine, Populuxe (New York: Knopf, 1986), p. 131
Page 36 Image: Cover of Is This Tomorrow, a color comic book published by the Catechetical
Guild Educational Society of St. Paul, MN
Source: Michael Barson and Steven Heller, Red Scared, p. 157