COLD WAR TIMELINE PRESENTATION
The object of this assignment is for the class to present an extensive timeline of the
entire Cold War from its beginnings in the 1940’s to its conclusion in the 1980’s.
The class will be divided into 5 groups. Each group will be responsible for presenting a
timeline of a single decade of the Cold War. Each individual group member will be
responsible for researching and presenting 2 events on their group’s timeline. If there
are not enough members in your group to cover all 12 topics, select the topics that
appear at the top of the lists below. The presentation for each event must respond to
the following questions:
1. What actors were involved? (important individuals and institutions)
2. What happened and why? (In other words describe the event and its causes)
3. How did this event affect the dynamics of the Cold War? How would this event
have been viewed by the two superpowers?
Evaluation Criteria
Presentation 1
Presentation 2
Use of powerpoint
Referencing
-
/20
/20
/5
/5
Each individual presentation (2 per student) will be given a mark on 20. These marks
will be based on the following criteria:

Detailed use of information on your topic. You must present and explain the
most important facts, giving a clear and thorough picture of your subject.

Shows understanding of the topic and material being presented. Ie: You show
expertise and knowledge of the subject.
There will also be a mark on 5 for the effective use of Powerpoint. Higher marks will
be given to those that follow the guidelines below:

KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT! Don’t just read from the slides…
use the images and text in your p-point as a starting point, and tell us what we
need to know (if you need notes, bring cue-cards, so you don’t have to turn
your back on us). Practice what you are going to say, and make sure you
understand what you are talking about.

USE LOTS OF IMAGES AND VISUALS! Your powerpoint should include
photos of key players and events. Use these photos to illustrate your points.
Good images will get people’s attention. You may use video, but only short
extracts – it should not replace your own presentation.

KEEP THE ON-SCREEN TEXT TO A MINIMUM! You may include facts,
statistics, titles, etc. in your presentation, but don’t put big blocks of text in your
powerpoint – if people are listening to you, they won’t read, and if they read,
they won’t be listening to you. Again, the p-point is there to BACK YOU UP
while you teach us.
There is also a mark on 5 for referencing. Full marks will be given to presentations that
use more than one source per presentation and that format their source list perfectly.
IMPORTANT NOTE: All powerpoint files must be submitted by no later than the
day before the group presents. Technical excuses on the day of the
presentation will not be accepted. If you are not ready to present on the
scheduled day you will receive a zero. To avoid technical problems always ‘save
as’ Powerpoint 97-2003 Presentation. In order to save your work a memory stick
is required for this unit.
List of Topics
1940’s
 Potsdam & Yalta
conferences
 The bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki
 Berlin blockade
 Coup d’état in
Czechoslovakia
 The Chinese Civil War
 The Marshall Plan
 The Founding of NATO
 The Igor Gouzenko Affair
 Beginnings of Soviet
Atomic Bomb project
 Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’
speech
 The First Indochina War
 The Greek Civil War
1950’s
 McCarthy & the witchhunt
 The Korean War
 Cuban Revolution
 Operation Ajax (Iran)
 Coup d’état in
Guatemala
 The Warsaw Pact
 The non-aligned
movement
 Egyptian Revolution
of 1952
 Hungarian Revolution
of 1956
 Suez Canal crisis
 Sputnik 1&2
 14 July Revolution in
Iraq
1960’s
 The Gulf of Tonkin
incident (Vietnam)
 The Bay of Pigs
Invasion (Cuba)
 The Cuban Missile
Crisis
 US occupation of the
Dominican Republic
 The Tet Offensive
(Vietnam)
 Prague Spring
 Construction of Berlin
Wall
 Brazilian coup d’état of
1964
 U2 incident
 Greek military junta
 Libyan d’état of 1969
 Six Day War (Israel &
Egypt)
1970’s
 Operation Menu (Cam)
 Publication of the
Pentagon papers
 Coup d’état in Chile
 The Soviet Afghan War
 The Cuban intervention in
Angola
 The Cambodian Genocide
 Argentina’s Dirty War
 Iranian Revolution
 Coup d’état in El Salvador
1979
 Charter 67
(Czechoslovakia)
 Nixon visits China
 SALT 1&2
1980’s
 The Sandinista-Contra War (Nicaragua)
 The Iran-Contra Affair
 Fall of the Berlin Wall
 Tiananmen Square protests (China)
 US invasion of Grenada
 Glasnost & Perestroika
 Romanian Revolution
 Velvet Revolution (Czechoslovakia)
 Chernobyl disaster
 Operation El Dorado Canyon (Libya)
 Polish Solidarity Movement
 Malta Summit