10.9 Cold War
Historical Context: During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had joined
forces to fight against the Germans. When the war was over, however, and the Nazis were defeated, the leaders of the United States and Soviet Union regarded each other as something less
than allies. This animosity caused by competing political philosophies would lead to a nearly
half-century of conflict called the Cold War.
Directions: Read each source and complete the 6Cs.
Prompt: Based on your understanding of the documents, describe the relationship between the
United States and the Soviet Union. How did this relationship impact the rest of the world?
1
Map: Europe After WWII
Source: Mc Dougal Littell, a division of Houghton Mifflin Company.
Document-Based Questions: World History and World Geography.
USA: Mc Dougal Littel, 2004. 118.
2
Excerpt: “Iron Curtain Speech”
Source: Excerpt from Winston Churchill, “Iron
Curtain” speech, March 5, 1946.
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the
Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across
the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern
Europe.... All these famous cities and the populations around them lie in the Soviet sphere
and all are subject in one form or another, not
only to Soviet influence but to a very high and
increasing measure of control from Moscow.
33 Map:
Military Alliances in Europe
Source: Mc Dougal Littell, a division of Houghton Mifflin Company.
Document-Based Questions: World History and World Geography.
USA: Mc Dougal Littel, 2004. 121.
4
Political Cartoon: “The Iron Curtain
Descends on Czechoslovakia”
Source: “The Iron Curtain Descends on
Czechoslovakia,” 1948. Tom Little,
Nashville Tennessean.
4
5
Excerpt: President Harry S. Truman, Speech to Congress, 1947
Source: President Harry S. Truman, speech to Congress, March 12, 1947.
One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free instructions... free elections... and freedom from political oppression. The second way of
life is based upon the will of the minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies
upon terror and oppression... fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms. I
believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free people... resisting attempted subjection [control] by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
Works Cited:
Mc Dougal Littell, a division of Houghton Mifflin Company. Document-Based Questions: World History and World Geography. USA: Mc Dougal Littell, 2004. 117-122.