End of Cold War Readings

This packet contains info on Berlin Wall, Solidarity, and the end of the Soviet Union

Also here are two fling the teacher quizzes!

External Factors Fling the Teacher

Internal Factors Fling the Teacher

Berlin Wall Cartoon and Article

International A Wall Divides Berlin

“Today the endangered frontier of freedom runs through divided Berlin.” President Kennedy, on July 22, 1961, three weeks before the Berlin Wall was erected.  A grim convoy of tanks and troops wound through eastern Berlin in the predawn hours of August 13, 1961. 

By sunrise, East German soldiers had stretched barbed wire across the city, cutting off the Communist sector from the capitalist. The wire was soon replaced by a network of concrete walls and electrified fences, guarded by armed men, dogs, and minefields, a 30-mile-long barrier separating German from German. Churchill’s Iron Curtain metaphor had become reality. Ostensibly built to keep out saboteurs and subversives, the Berlin Wall was in fact meant to keep East Germans in. Since 1949, 2.5 million had fled the economic hardships and political repression of Germany’s Communist half, creating labor shortages and a “brain drain” of professionals and skilled workers. West Berlin, an island of democracy and capitalism in the midst of East Germany, was the principal escape route. (Since thousands of eastern Berliners worked in western Berlin before the wall was built, defectors could usually evade detection.) 

Through the years, the Soviets had periodically demanded that all Berlin be made a “free city,” with both Western and Soviet occupation troops withdrawn, but the Western powers, fearing a total Communist takeover, had refused. In June 1961, Khrushchev threatened to use nuclear weapons if the “Berlin question” was not swiftly resolved. When heightening tension accelerated the stampede of illegal immigrants, 30,000 East Germans defected in July, Communist authorities decided to stem the flow by force. The wall was their solution. Henceforth, travel eastward would be subject to tight restrictions and travel westward, banned. 

Though crowds of angry West Berliners confronted the wall builders (only to be dispersed with tear gas and water cannons) and the United States sent in extra troops as a symbolic gesture, fear of retaliation ruled out more forceful measures: A trade embargo against East Berlin was considered, but the Communists vowed to blockade West Berlin in response. Eventually, the East Germans encircled all of West Berlin with a fence topped by watchtowers. Travel restrictions for Westerners eased somewhat in the 1980s, but the wall, and all it stood for, remained intact for nearly three decades.

For more, we will be watching this documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vexnmi5M5fg

Venn Diagram

HERE IS THE VENN DIAGRAM

Czechoslovakia and Poland

Here is the learning goal, scale, and student tracker for this UNIT.

Here are the reading on Czechoslovakia and Poland. Remember, you have understand:

   1) Why there was opposition to Soviet control in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968

2) Compare/Contrast the events in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

This unit we will focus on the INTERNAL TENSIONS as well as the EXTERNAL TENSIONS of the Cold War in our understanding of the Fall of the Soviet Union

Vocab

Define the following terms using: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/coldwar.htm

Hungarian Revolution, Prague Spring, Nikita Khrushchev, Berlin Wall, East Germany,

West Germany, Solidarity, Soviet-Afghan War, Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika, Glasnost

Monday 4/6/15

Read this website:

http://johndclare.net/cold_war13.htm

Answer these questions:

1. Why did Western leaders think that the Cold War was going to thaw after Khrushchev came into power?

2. How did Khrushchev actually increase tension?

3. What was happening in the United States that was also causing tension?

4. Analyze source E (politcal cartoon). What is the message of the cartoon?

5. Write a brief summary of the page

Due Tomorrow, thanks

Vietnam Reading Questions II

Today you will be answering a series of questions based on these READINGS. They are in order based on the reading. Please read and do not skip around.


1) How did the Vietcong frustrate the American troops?
2) What was the problem with Agent Orange and Napalm?  How did it affect the civilian population?
3) The United States (see page 86) suffered way less deaths than the North Vietnamese and Vietcong.  Why did this not matter?  Why did more and more civilians support the NLF and NVA?
4) People often say the War in Vietnam was lost at home (the United States) why?
5) What was My Lai?
6) Look at the tunnels where the Vietcong often stayed during the war (photo). How did this help the Vietcong?
7) Why did the United States withdrawl from Vietnam?
8) What role did protests play?
9) What was Vietnamization?
10) Do the Spidergram (graphic organizer) on the last page.

Thanks!

TURN  IN THE WORK TO THE SUBSTITUTE