Classwork: Origins of Cold War - pgs 331-332

1. Read Source 32. What reasons did the Soviet Union give for cutting off West Berlin?
     The Soviet Union said that they suspended air traffic into Berlin because of alleged technical difficulties. And for the disrupt electrical power from Soviet power plants, they said it was due to a shortage of coal. And barge traffic also stopped trains, cars, etc. from entering W. Berlin.

2. Why do you think the USA did not believe these were genuine reasons?
     The US knew that the Soviets did not like their presence their and all they want to do with Germany is influence their views of communism onto it. The US also knew that the Soviets feared a recovering Germany and that of they do, they might try to invade USSR again.

3. How do Sources 33-35 differ in their interpretation of the blockade?
      Source 33 says that the attack on the US air base in Berlin didn't achieve anything on either side; USSr had not gained control of Berlin with this attack and the West has no guarantees that land communications would be cut again. Source 34 is suggesting that all the fault goes to the USSR and that the US was forced to yield due to the Soviets. On the other hand, in Source 35 President Truman is saying the US will continue to fight against communism and that the blockade was just a test of their ability and their will to resist, which completely contradicts what the previous sources were suggesting.

4. Which do you think is the most useful source for a historian studying the Berlin Blockade?
         I think that the most useful source to use, when studying the Berlin Blockade, an outside neutral source when it is not biased towards one side. A source from England or another powerful neutral will be the most useful since they are not on any side and only think and do what's best and since they are not as biased as maybe a source from either a Soviet or US politician/historian, it will be that more accurate in ensuring truthful information.

5. Which source do you think gives the most reliable view of the blockade?
       I think that Source 33 is the most reliable because it is not favoring one side over the over. In Source 33, it is saying how neither side gained any advantage with the attack on a US air base. An unbiased neutral source is more effective in receiving the most reliable view on the blockade.

Classwork: Origins of Cold War - pgs 325-330

pg. 325:
3.Write your own definition of the term 'Cold War' as it might appear in a historical dictionary.
      The Cold War was a war between the two then-superpowers, USA and USSR that lasted from 194-19. This war started as a result of extreme differences between the the world's leading superpowers. One of the major difference was the view on communism. Unlike most wars, a cold war is fought without the use of direct warfare. A Cold War is mainly fought and created by propaganda where either side could be right according to their own personal views.

pg. 327:
2. Look at Source 22. Which of these freedoms do you think the Soviet Union would also believe in?Which would it think unimportant?
     I think that the Soviets would agree in any of these "American Freedoms." With Freedom of Speech, the Soviets are not going to allow people to speak up for their beliefs because they believe in communism and with communism, everybody is equal and all think/believe in the same thing so there is no need for Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Worship  are almost the same. With the country being communist, the government will not allow being to openly worship their religion, unless it is approved by the government or its what everybody else believes in. Freedom of Want ties in with the "equal" concept that is associated with communism. You are not allowed to want anything "better" than your neighbor because everyone is equal and they all have equal wants. I feel that Freedom of Fear has to deal with the Soviet government and how the might inflict fear in their citizens if they don't do thing their way. A Communist country, to me, seems like  country that would regulate everything their citizens do. I also think that all of these "freedoms" are important in some way and it is hard to say that one is more unimportant than the other because in someway, they do affect us citizens living in the United States.

pg. 329
2. Which of the problems shown in Source 26 do you think would be the most urgent for Marshall Aid to tackle? Explain your choice.
         I think that the debt in Europe is most important and is most urgent for the Marshall Aid to tackle because debt is the main problem where all others fall apart from. Poverty, lack of food, poor economies start from high debt. Poverty only occurs when there are no jobs for people to have and no food to each. Also, economies of certain countries suffer a lot in the country is in high debt and with a dead economy, the country is not able to start businesses (which give people jobs) or repair industries.

3. Explain how events in both Greece and Czechoslovakia affected American policy in Europe.
         After Britain was not able to hold Greece from falling to the Soviets, the only to prevent the spread of communism was to intervine and help out England by giving money and troops. Czechoslovakia had already fallen into communism after it was invaded by the Soviets. It had already accept communism but it had gotten much worse. These two events together caused America to change its policy on foreign affairs in order to contain the spread of communism.

pg. 330
2. Do Sources 27-29 support or criticize Marshall Aid?
        Sources 27- 29 criticizes the Marshall Aid because its showing how the Marshall Aid is taking tax-payers money and giving it to the other parts of the world that need help. Almost all of the cartoons are showing how they are not benefitting the economic standing. In Source 27, you can see how the tax-payer is really struggling when the cartoonist depicted the citizen wearing dirty clothes.


3. Do you think the sources give a fair impression of Marshall Aid? Explain your answer.
       I think that the sources did give a fair impression of the Marshall Aid to an extent. On one hand, the government is basically taking tax-payers' money and giving it to any country in the world that needed it. This means that the you are losing money to help another country that has almost not relevance to us citizens as a whole. On the contrary, the US is helping another country from falling into communism and in the process, we are spreading our values and ideas around the world.

Focus Task: 

How did the USA react to Soviet expansion?
You are an adviser to Stalin. Write a briefing paper on the USA's plans for Europe. Your report should mention:
• President Truman's plans for Europe
• the methods being used by Truman to
resist the spread of Communism
• whether you think the USSR should be
worried.

We, the United States, are very displeased with what USSR has done in Eastern Europe. In response to the actions taken, the Unites States is prepared to send money, equipment and advice to any country which was, in the American view, threatened by a Communist take-over. President Truman also is ready to give $17 billion to rebuild Europe's prosperity so those European countries will be able to prepare to fight against the spread of communism. The USSR should be worried because the United States is willing to put everything on the line to stop the spread of communism from taking over all of Europe.

Origins of Cold War: Potsdam Conference

Source 13:

This war is not as in the past; whoever

occupies a territory also imposes on it his

own social system. Everyone imposes his

own system asfar as his army has power to

do so. It cannot be otherwise.

Source 14: 

"Poland has borders with the Soviet Union

which is not the case with Great Britain or

the USA. I do not know whether a truly

representative government has been

established in Greece. The Soviet Union was

not consulted when this government was

being formed, nor did it claim the right to

interfere because it realizes how important

Greece is to the security of Great Britain."

1. Read Source 13. At Yalta, Churchill and Roosevelt had agreed with Stalin that eastern Europe would be a Soviet 'sphere of influence'. Do you think Source 13 is what they had in mind?


           I think that Churchill and Roosevelt agreed with Stalin before they had the chance to find out what specifically Stalin had in mind with his "sphere of influence."Stalin probably told Churchill and Roosevelt part of what he originally wanted but left out an important part of it. Stalin knew that if he told Churchill and Roosevelt his origins plans, then they might not have agreed to Stalin's plan and how eastern Europe would be Soviet's "sphere of influence."

2. Would they agree with Stalin's views expressed in Sources 13 and 14? Explain your answer.


           No, they would not agree with Stalin's views expressed in Sources 13 and 14 because the Soviets are trying to establish Communist government into the countries in which it occupies. In Source 13, Stalin says how any country who possess another country, has the right to influence its own idea and morals onto that country and establish the country their way. USA and Britain are both anti-communist so they will probably not agree with what Stalin because he is doing something that neither of them believe in. Stalin, in source 14, tries to justify his actions by saying that he only occupied Poland because he's afraid that Germany will invade Russia again and that Britain occupied Greece for the same security reasons.

3. Explain how each of the three developments described in the text might affect relationships at Potsdam.
   
           With the Soviets invading Poland, USA having a new strong anti-communist leader and the Allies testing out an atomic bond, tensions will arise at Potsdam. The Soviets have done something in which both England and USA do not approve of. In addition, President Roosevelt had dies and his VP, Harry S. Truman took the presidency. President Truman was a lot anti-communist than Roosevelt and did not fully trust Stalin based on past actions. President Truman will need to learn to cope with working with the other two world powers. After President Truman's inauguration, he informed Stalin that he successfully tested out an atomic bomb in a desert site. This action will make Stalin nervous and make him fear the US even more now that they were able to successfully test the atomic bond. With the combination of all three events, there will definitely be disagreement between the three world powers.

Focus Task: Origins of Cold War

Please check googele docs

Focus Task: Optimists and Pessimists

Given the events of 1968, it is possible to take either an optimistic or a pessimistic view of race relations in the United States in the late 1960s.

1. Start by working through pages 376-383 looking for evidence to support the optimistic view that great progress has been made.

• Africans Americans  had officially been given the right to vote early in the century.
• In December 1956, the Supreme Court declared Montgomery's bus laws to be illegal. This meant that all other such bus services were illegal and by implication that all segregation of public services was illegal, which thus forced the buses to be unsegregated.
• In February 1960 in Nashville, Tennessee, 500 students organised sit-ins in restaurants, libraries and churches. Their college expelled them, but then backed down when 400 teachers threatened to resign. The students were attacked and abused, but eventually Mayor Ben West was convinced by their actions. By May 1960 the town had been desegregated.
• In Greensboro, North Carolina, SNCCstudents began a campaign to end segregation of restaurants in the town in 1960. Within a week, 400 black and white students were organizing sit-ins at lunch counters in the town.
• The NAACP organized courses for African Americans in voting procedures and how to register to vote, thus encouraging them to vote.
• In May 1963, President Kennedy intervened with the crisis in Alabama and pressured Governor George Wallace to force the police to release all the protesters and to give more jobs to black Americans and allow them to be promoted. As a result, Birmingham was desegregated.
• President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which made it illegal for local governments to discriminate in areas such as housing and employment.

2. Now work through the same pages and look for evidence to support the pessimistic view that the United Stats remained racially divided.

• Black Americans faced official and legal discrimination in areas such as employment and education. In the south, white teachers earned 30 per cent more than black teachers.
• Police officers  failed to stop attacks on black people and they also frequently took part in them. White juries almost always acquitted whites accused of killing blacks.
• The best universities were closed to blacks. In 1958, a black teacher called Clemson King was committed to a mental asylum for applying to the University of Mississippi.
• In September 1963 a Ku Klux Klan bomb killed four black children in a Birmingham church.
• In April 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. organized a march on Birmingham, Alabama. Six years after the Montgomery decision, this city had still not desegregated. Its police force was notoriously racist and had links to the Ku Klux Klan
• King Jr. organized a march in Selma, Alabama where 600 African Americans were brutally attacked.
• Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a hired killer in 1968 which then ended an era of for the civil rights movement.

3. Now decide whether you think there were more reasons for optimism or more reasons more pessimism.
      I believe that there were more reasons for optimism then pessimism because although most of the attempts were insignificant, they were just a small stepping stone to the overall goal of equal rights. In almost every march, protest, etc, there have always been more people against than for the cause, but as time progressed, the Civil Rights Movement started to gain more followers and those marches and protestors become more and more effective.

Japanese Internment

Task: Imagine you are a journalist in the USA in 1942. You have just found out about the internment of the Japanese. Explain:
     a. How you could write a very controversial article, and what you could put in it?
     b. Why you probably won't do it?

Article: The United States has been pulled into the war by the attack on Pearl Harbor from the Japanese. Even though those Japs are five-feet tall, and weigh less than 100 lb, they are brutal, killing machines that have no soul. They deliberately took out half of the US fleet in one attack. An attack that big could have only been done by a person who has no care for anything else besides themselves. The Japanese think of themselves as the best and everyone else inferier to them. In order to perserve and protect our American values, rights and people, we must prevent any inside Japanese help is to bring all the Japanese-Americans into internment, away from the California Coast line, so they are not able to help or have contact with the Japanese whatsoever. The Japanese-Americans need to be keep from society and have no contact with any other people besides themselves. If we carry out this procedure accordingly, the United States has a better chance of winning this war and perserving what is sacred to us like our land, our people and our values.

a. You could write a very controversial article by being completely biased and only viewing one side of a possible solution to the problem. In this article I have created above, I have only stated the bad potential things that the Japanese-Americans might do. I also completely stereotyped the Japanese by saying that they are all five-feet tall and weigh less than 100 lb. I also said they were heartless, killing machines that have no soul. In addition, I also stated how the only way we could win the war was to isolated a certain type of people and take them away from there home to a place in the middle of nowhere with no outside communications. Not only is this a hugh violation to their civil rights but it also shows how the United States has overreacted to the situation concerning the many Japanese-Americans living on the west coast.

b. I probably would not write or publish this article because it is demeaning to the integrity of the Japanese-Americans. We do not know that the Japanese-Americans are plotting against us with their native land. Most people that emigrate from their native country to the US usually leave because they do not like the way their government is running their country or because they do not have the same opportunities they would have had if they were living in America. Furthermore, it is also very racist for the United States to narrow down their ethnic groups to just one in particular. At the time, the US not only had Japanese emigrants residing, but also German and Italians Americans as well. In conclusion, I would not publish this article because it a complete violation to civil rights of the Japanese Americans as well as it is also very demeaning/

Cause of an Economic Boom in the 1920s

2. One historian has said: "Without the new automobile industry, the prosperity of the 1920s would scarcely have been possible." Explain whether you agree or disagree with this statement. Support your explanation by referring to the sources and information on pages 219-223.

     I disagree with this historian's statement to an extent where even though with the new automobile industry was extremely productive and a big contributor to the boom, it wasn't the only industry that helped shape the prosperous decade. There were also other industries such as telephones, radios, vacuum cleaners and washing machine that also contributed to the prosperity of the 1920s. the mass-production of these products made ir more cheaper for people to buy, thus benefitting the economy and boom. I also believe that it was a state of mind that contributed to the boom of the 1920s, not the new automobile industry. Without an initiative or motive to use all the resources and materials we had, we wouldn't even have had a prosperous decade. Someone, somewhere you have had to think of using these resources first; these sort of accomplishments just don't on its own.