APEH: CH. 28 COLD WAR WESTERN WORLD, 1945-1973
Reading QUESTIONS
1. What was the Cold War? What were the major turning points in its development through 1970?
2. Discuss how the balance of power moved from Europe to the United States and the Soviet Union
between 1945 and 1970.
3. Discuss the events that divided the world into two heavily armed camps capable of obliterating one
another with nuclear weapons carried by intercontinental missile systems.
4. Trace the development and history of the U.S. and NATO policy of “containment of Communism”
from Truman’s presidency through Vietnam.
5. What were the major political developments in the history of the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1970?
How did Soviet policies affect the history of Eastern Europe?
6. Compare and contrast Stalin’s policies with those of Khrushchev’s.
7. What were the major developments in domestic politics in Western Europe and how were they
expressed in France, West Germany, and Great Britain? What efforts toward unity were made by
Western European states? How did the policies of the United States affect those efforts?
8. Compare and contrast the political, social, and economic histories of Eastern Europe and Western
Europe.
9. Discuss the major social changes affecting the status, expectations, and ambitions of women that
occurred in Western society form 1945 to 1970.
10. On balance, was the decade of the 1960s “constructive” or “destructive” or both? Discuss with
examples.
MAP EXERCISES
1. The New European Alliance Systems in the 1950s and 1960s. MAP 28.1. In the event of an attack
from the Warsaw Pact, which NATO state or states would be initially the most vulnerable? Which nations
were not members of either alliance? Why not? Would the geographical positions of the neutrals play any roll in the strategic plans of either NATO or the Warsaw Pact? Page 873 (OLD 818)
2. Decolonization in Africa. MAP 28.2. During which decade did most of the African states gain
independence? Why in that decade? What impact did World War II and what impact did the Cold War
have upon the process of African decolonization? Page 877 (OLD 822)
3. Decolonization in the Middle East. MAP 28.3. Is there any relationship between the date of
independence of the Middle Eastern states and the region’s oil reserves? Which nations gained their
independence after World War I and which after World War II? Did the Cold War have any significance
in the timing of Middle Eastern decolonization? Page 879 (OLD 824)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR THE PRIMARY SOURCES (BOXED DOCUMENTS)
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1. Opposing Viewpoints: “Who Start the Cold War, Page 869, Questions in Box
2. “The Cuban Missile Crisis From Khrushchev’s Perspective”: What was the Cuban Missile Crisis? How does Khrushchev's account differ from America's version? From his perspective, can it be argued that he was correct in his claim? What did each side “lose” and what did each side “win” in the Cuban Missile Crisis? Was the resolution of the crisis an obvious highpoint in Khrushchev’s career in 1962 or was it merely a later rationalization? (page 875)
3. “Franz Fanon and the Wretched of the Earth”: What does this document tell you about the some of the fundamental characteristics of European colonial regimes? Is the boy’s explanation for killing his schoolmate convincing? Why or why not? What broader forces, perhaps unleashed or liberated by World War Two, could possibly have contributed to the uprisings and crimes the colonized committed against the colonizers in the post-war world? (page 878)
4. “Khrushchev Denounces Stalin”: According to Khrushchev, what were Stalin’s crimes? How did the history of the Russian Communist Party and the development of the Soviet totalitarian state enable Stalin to commit these crimes against Russians? What purposes, political and historical, do you think Khrushchev intended his denunciation of Stalin to serve? Was Khrushchev speaking only to Soviet Communist Party members or was he also addressing his remarks to a wider audience? If so, who and where? (page 883)
5. “Soviet Repression in Eastern Europe: Hungary, 1956”: Based on this selection, what was Soviet policy in the 1950s toward its Eastern European satellite states? How did the Soviets justify intervening in Hungary in 1956? Compare this policy to Soviet policy in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s. What accounts for the difference? What impact did this change of policy have on Eastern Europe in the late 1980s? (page 885)
6. “Burden of Guilt”. Page 888, Questions in box.
7. “The Voice of the Women’s Liberation Movement”: What factors or values do you think inform Simone de Beauvoir’s implicit call for a new history of women? Has history usually been the history of men? If so, why? What does she mean when she refers to “the Other”? Why is the author outraged by the neglect of women in the historical consciousness or comprehension of westerners? How does de Beauvoir employ and capitalize on the psychological and sociological discoveries characteristic of Western Civilization between 1850 and 1950? (page 895)
Identifications:
2. Truman Doctrine
3. Marshall Plan
4. “containment”
5. Berlin blockade
6. NATO and COMECON
7. Korean War
10. CENTO and SEATO
11. Nikita Khrushchev
13. Berlin Wall
14. Bay of Pigsand the Cuban Missile Crisis
15. domino theory
16. Vietnam War
17. détente
22. Six-Day War
27. Stalinization and destalinization
28. Hungarian uprising
29. “Prague Spring”
31. Charles de Gaulle’s Fifth Republic
32. West Germany’s “economic miracle”
34. Great Britain’s welfare state
35. European Coal and Steel Community
36. EEC/Common Market
39. the “consumer society”
43. Jackson Pollock and Abstract Expressionism
46. existentialism and Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus
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