Lesson by John P. Irish
Essay by Daniel Sargent, University of California, Berkeley
Grade Level: 7–12
Number of Class Periods: 2
Primary Era: 1945 to the Present
About This Lesson Plan Unit
Over the course of the two lessons, the students will analyze and assess primary source documents, including speeches, government documents, and images from 1946 to 1961. The objective is to have students recognize the origins of the Cold War conflict between the US and the USSR by analyzing key elements in the primary source materials. The students will examine, define, interpret, and organize the documents with the goal of answering the essential question: What fears led the United States into the Cold War? As an assessment, the students will engage in a small-group seminar to critically evaluate the origins of these US fears.
Lesson Plan Author: John P. Irish
Historical Background Essay by: Daniel Sargent, University of California, Berkeley
Additional Information About This Unit
Common Core State Standards
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.6: Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.7: Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.3: Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.8: Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author’s claims.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.9: Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.3: Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.8: Evaluate an author’s premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.9: Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
Essential Question
Essential Question
What fears led the United States into the Cold War?
Documents
Documents
Bernard M. Baruch, “The Baruch Plan,” June 14, 1946
Edwin Marcus, “Can He Block It?” ca. 1947
George Kennan, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” Foreign Affairs, July 1947
Herblock, “Fire!” June 17, 1949
“US Objectives and Programs for National Security,” NSC-68, April 1950
Joseph McCarthy, “Enemies from Within” Speech Delivered in Wheeling, West Virginia (1950) in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 81st Congress, Second Session, vol. 96, pt. 2
“Trouble on the Docks,” Fight the Red Menace: The Children’s Crusade against Communism Trading Cards, 1951
Judge Irving Kaufman’s Sentencing Statement in the Rosenberg Case, March 29, 1951
Sheet music cover from Irving Caesar, “Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag,” 1955
Photograph of a woman in bomb shelter which is stocked with food and other supplies; bunk bed in corner, September 9, 1961
Photograph of Alexei Kutzkov of Moscow by Howard Sochurek, February 1958, and Stephen Lapekas of Chicago by Stan Wayman, March 1958
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Radio and Television Address to the American People,” January 17, 1961