w. 40

Here are videos pertaining to NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
NATO

 

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I showed parts of this film about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

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This film is about the 1968 Prague Spring

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I probably won't have time to show this video, but it has to do with the Solidarity movement in Poland in 1981. This was another movement intent on bringing reforms to a communist government -- this time in Poland. Moscow threatened with Warsaw Pact troops, which were mobilized and brought to the Polish border, but the government was able to control the situation by instituting martial law. Nonetheless, the movement, which started in the docks of Gdansk and was led by one of the workers, Lech Walesa, eventually did manage to bring enough pressure on the government to negotiate for change.

weeks 38 + 39

W. 39
On Tuesday we spent most of the time talking about the Berlin Wall, which went up when? . . . .
Yes, in 1961 -- NOT in the 1940s!

Here are films that we looked -- plus some we didn't have time for:

"Walled In" (it describes the physical make-up of the Berlin Wall as well as the border between East Germany and West Germany):

I cannot find online the exact other film I showed regarding the history of the Wall: "The fall of the Berlin Wall : from divided Germany to reunification," also by Deutsche Welle. But there are many YouTube clips that were used in that film. And there are many, many YouTube films on the Berlin Wall.

I also showed a short clip regarding the Chinese police attack on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, June 1989:

Here is a film of President John F. Kennedy's speech given in Berlin in the summer of 1963. Just below you have the text of his speech:

Remarks in the Rudolph Wilde Platz President John F. Kennedy West Berlin June 26, 1963

I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud to visit the Federal Republic with your distinguished Chancellor who for so many years has committed Germany to democracy and freedom and progress, and to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay, who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed.

     Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum." Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner."

     I appreciate my interpreter translating my German!

     There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.

     Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on behalf of my countrymen, who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance, the story of the last 18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin. While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together.

     What is true of this city is true of Germany--real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people. You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.

     Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.

     All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner.”

Here is a short film I did not have time to show. It is narrated by a journalist for The Economist, Thomas Hoepker, who lived in East Berlin during part of the Cold War: "Live Behind the Berlin Wall"

W. 38

We focused primarily on the Truman Doctrine (TD)  and the Marshall Plan (MP). We also did a little map quiz of parts of Europe during the Cold War. If this quiz didn't go particulalry well, I encourage you to work on strengthening your map IQ. There will likely be a new quiz coming up. :)

Sides and documents for the TD and MP are posted on Vklass. You will need these when you work on your assignment.

I noted that I forgot to talk in class about the Soviet response to the MP. I will bring that in next week.

There are many different videos and podcasts that discuss the Cold War, and the Marshall Plan in particular. Unfortunately, many do not have subtitles. Here's one video, which is part of a larger documentary on the Cold War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQHEMG6zt8I

There is a History of the Cold War podcast, which seems to be very fact-based, but I have not listened to that much of it. Naturally, a podcast has no subtitles. (Sometimes it is possible to find transcripts for podcasts, but not that often.) For the History of the Cold War podcast, you'll need to go to the early episodes to get to the material that we've been discussing.