Cold War Paper 2: Leaders' Impact on the Course and Development of the Cold War

1. Cold War Paper 2

3. Leaders • Impact on course and development of the Cold War. • Pit Falls • Loses focus on the leaders. • Fix: Stick with specific policies and decisions. Use leaders name instead of country. • Analysis doesn’t go beyond capitalism vs. communism = increased tension. • Fix: Pick up on shifts in relationships or policies that create change in course of Cold war. • Ex: Khrushchev’s Peaceful Coexistence shifted the relationship between the USSR and China leading to the Sino-Soviet split. • Ex: The Marshall Plan and subsequent European Recovery Program under Truman reinforced the division between East and West and established points of confrontation for ideological influence. • Timeline • Fix: Be careful with Truman and Stalin—keep focus primarily post WWII.

4. Leaders: recommendations • Eisenhower • 1953-1961 • Rollback • New Look • Korean War Resolution • Guatemala • Suez Crisis • Taiwan Strait • Berlin Crisis • Khrushchev • 1953-1964 • Peaceful Coexistence • De-Stalinization • Summit Meetings • Hungarian Revolution • Suez Crisis • Berlin Crisis • Cuban Missile Crisis • Sino-Soviet Split • Mao • 1949-1976 • Support for Revolutionary movements • Rapprochement with US • Korean War • Taiwan Strait • Sino-Soviet Split

5. Leader Recommendations • Truman • 1945-1953 • Containment • Truman Doctrine • Marshall Plan/ERP • NSC 68 • Potsdam • Atom Bomb • Berlin Airlift • NATO • Korean War • Stalin • 1929-1953 • Security in Europe through satellite states • Expansion of communist ideology • Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam • Comecon/Cominform • Berlin Blockade • Czechoslovak coup • Soviet-Yugoslav split • Soviet atom bomb • Korean War

6. Impact on two leaders on the course and development of the Cold War • Evaluate • Discuss • Compare and contrast • Analyze • Examine • To what extent

8. Crises • Examination and comparison of causes, impact and significance • Crisis: the turning point in a series of events that leads to a dangerous situation in need of resolution. Events that had the potential to escalate tensions or even lead to general war between the superpowers. • General Pitfalls • Losing the details of the crisis/over generalizing • I think this is the root of some inaccuracies showing up with specific crises • EX: The Soviet Union put nuclear weapons in Cuba because of US weapons in Turkey • EX: Role of Soviet Union in Korea and use of “US” in Korea • Too basic in comparisons—sticking strictly to what happened and not why it happened.

9. How to choose • Consider short and long term causes • How do the causes reflect superpower relationships or policies? OR . .. • Does the impact set up a shift in superpower relationships or policies? • YOU NEED SOMETHING MORE THAN BOTH CREATE/SHOW TENSION

10. Specific Crises • Berlin Blockade • Invasion of South Korea by North Korea • First and Second Taiwan Strait Crises • Hungarian Revolution • Berlin Crisis • Cuban Missile Crisis • Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan • Able Archer Crisis

11. What Gregory likes • Hungarian Revolution and Cuban Missile Crisis • Why? Shift in leadership/Kennedy and Khrushchev • Hungarian Revolution and Taiwan Strait Crisis • Why? Khrushchev and Mao foreign policy • Berlin Crisis and Cuban Missile Crisis • Why? Khrushchev diverging from Peaceful Coexistence/Détente

12. Rivalry, mistrust, and accord

13. Origins of the Cold War: Perspectives • Orthodox: • Focused on Europe/ignores conflict in Asia. • Ethnocentric • Immediate historiographical perspective/reflective on mindset at the time. • Revisionist: • Considers historical trends like imperialism, providing insight in to motives continuity in policy. • Focused on the west—places less importance on role of leaders like Mao. • Doesn’t assess Soviet influence • Post Revisionist: • Benefit of hindsight • Accounts for clear differences in ideology • Broad/open to interpretation

14. To what extent did economic interests rather than ideology lead to the breakdown of the grand alliance between 1943 and 1949? • Compare and contrast the roles of the US and USSR in the origins of the Cold War. • Examine the effect of the US policy of containment on relations with the USSR and the PRC from 1949 to 1962. • To what extent was Khrushchev’s policy of peaceful-coexistence responsible for the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960’s? • Discuss the impact of the Brezhnev Doctrine on the course of the Cold War. • Evaluate the impact of Gorbachev’s policies on two countries between 1985 and 1989. • To what extent did the war in Afghanistan contribute to the decline of the Soviet Union.

15. Understand what the command term/question is askingand what it allows for scope. • BTSs should be argument points not topic sentences. • Needs to set up an argument. • Dig in to the how/why to support critical analysis • Connect everything back to prompt/thesis • Must address differing perspectives and one additional historical concept. • Use the language/terminology

17. Be explicit about how you are answering the prompt—use language from the prompt. • Avoid the narrative • Big Facts vs. Specific Details • Define your terms • Set up the timeline • When in doubt work in chronological order. • Read prompts carefully for appropriate timeline.