Unit 4: World War II and the Cold War (1945-1975)

Unit Overview: World War II and the Cold War

This unit covers the years 1936 to 1975. Key events/themes in this unit:

Post WWI Isolationism and Appeasement
Rise of Totalitarianism and Axis.
WWII
Creation of UN and Post-War Global Policies
The Iron Curtain and post-WWII Soviet supremacy
2nd Red Scare and the Contanment Policy
American society in the 1950's
The Korean and Vietnam Wars

Unit Essay: The Containment Policy

In order to get credit for this project you must write an essay on the following topic:

The Containment Policy

The official policy of the US towards communism throughout the Cold War was summed up in a policy called The Containment Policy. The idea of this policy was to prevent communism from spreading, and the US did this in a variety of ways on a variety of fronts. Using three specific examples of the US implementing this policy, write an essay of 600 words or more explaining whether or not the Containment Policy was a success or not. Helpful links:

The Marshall Plan

The Greek Civil War

NATO

The Chinese Civil War

Winston Churchill trying to pry under the "Iron Curtain" Stalin had thrown across Eastern Europe.

This is an easy essay to write: pick three of the following items and read the Wikipedia articles considering the goals of America and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and ask yourself, "Who won? US or USSR?" and this gives you the answer to the success/failure of containment for that particular example. Turn your three examples into your three body paras and make sure to discuss the success or failure of the Containment Policy throughout your essay.

Unit Videos:

The Century Part 5, Over the Edge (45:00)

The Century Part 6, Civilians at War (45:00)

The Century Part 7, Homefront (45:00)

Cold War: The Iron Curtain (46:24)

Cold War: Reds (46:19)

Cold War: The Korean War (46:19)

Vietnam, a Televised History Part 1 (59:50)

Vietnam, a Televised History Part 11 (55:41)

Unit Lectures:

Containment Policy Essay Class

Unit Primary Sources:

20th Century History Unit 4 Key Terms

For this project you must define the terms listed below and explain each term's significance to the unit/era being studied. Your definition should be 2-3 sentences long and may be copied and pasted from a source like Wikipedia, but the significance of the term must be in your own words and based on your own understanding. To fill out a term's significance, ask yourself, "Why is this item included in my study of this unit? Why is this term in a history book?" The answer to this question is your term's significance.

Unit 4 Key Terms:

League of Nations

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Iron Curtain

Chinese Civil War

Nazi Party

Lend-Lease Program

Truman Doctrine

Korean War

Isolationism

Export Control Act of 1940

Marshall Plan

McCarthyism

United Nations

Holocaust

NATO/Warsaw Pact

decolonization

Munich Conference of 1938

Manhattan Project

Juilus and Ethel Rosenberg

Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956

Below is an example of a key term done with the proper format:

William the Conqueror: William I (c. 1028[2] – 9 September 1087), also known as William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant), was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II. Before his conquest of England, he was known as William the Bastard because of the illegitimacy of his birth.To press his claim to the English crown, William invaded England in 1066, leading an army of Normans, Bretons, Flemings, and Frenchmen (from Paris andÎle-de-France) to victory over the English forces of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest.[3] (I copied and pasted this definition from Wikipedia)

Significance: William the Conqueror is significant because his conquest of England created the first nation state in Europe. His rearrangement of English feudal territories to give himself dramatically more power than the the barons and nobles around him caused him to be the most powerful monarch in Europe and eventually led to the rise of other nation states over the next few centuries. (These are my words based on my knowledge of English and European history.)