The Cold War Begins

This week we concluded our study of World War II with your take home final assessment. You were to write three journal entries over the course of the war utilizing our vocabulary words. You had the chance to be creative by assuming a particular identity and then selecting the events, experiences, and memories that were most important to your character. You also had a choice as to what vocabulary words you wanted to use to make sure your entries had solid historical content. Since this was a take home assignment you had access to your notes and text so high grades should be earned by all.

Our next unit is the Cold War…a decades-long battle between opposing theories of government: communism versus democracy. While it is called the Cold War as it was mainly waged on the battlefield of words, with enormous build-ups of military might that was never used in combat, violent conflict did flare in Korea and Vietnam. We started the unit with vocabulary unique to this time period, including containment, Truman Doctrine, Red Scare, and Senator McCarthy. You had the opportunity to write down the definitions in your notes and you had readings that helped you better understand their meaning. If you missed any of the words, make sure you take the time to look them up for your notes. We also looked at a video “The Seven Stages of the Cold War” and took notes. Ms. MacRoberts showed you how to take Cornell style notes where you make one column of notes based on the video and use a second column to enter questions or make supplementary notes based on the text and other readings. Developing your own effective style of note taking is essential as you go on in school and have larger quantities of reading to accomplish and more difficult texts.

We also looked at the Truman and Eisenhower Doctrines. A doctrine is a policy that acts as a guiding principle for an administration and is public knowledge so that all countries know what our priorities are and how we expect to act under certain circumstances. Truman was very clear that he intended to provide financial aid to any country threatened by communism and Eisenhower broadened that doctrine to include military aid as well.

After World War II Germany was divided into East and West Germany and the capital, Berlin, was also divided. When the communist leaders of East Germany felt threatened by the Marshall Plan, they closed off all land routes to West Berlin, which was surrounded by East German territory, in hopes of discouraging the western Allies and thus allowing the communists to take over the entire capital. The Allies responded with a massive airlift, aptly named the Berlin airlift, and for over 10 months they flew hundreds of flights a day, bringing in everything the West Berliners needed to survive, including tons of coal to heat their homes. On the lighter side, we read a newspaper account of the mini-parachutes made by school children in Massachusetts that were used to drop candy to the children of West Berlin.

This week you also had an open note quiz on the early stages of the Cold War. If you were absent keep in mind you have five days to make up your work.

Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences

Thank you to all who came on March 20. There is no reason why a student can’t be successful in this class if they do the work and take the many opportunities for added assistance.