The Early Cold War and Vietnam
American Foreign Policy 1945-1975
For High School Juniors and Seniors in American History/Geography Classes
4 Weeks
My primary objectives in my Cold War unit focused on getting students to understand history, not simply as a chain of inevitable events, but as a series of choices, which lead to other eventualities, which in turn, lead to other choices. This will begin to build a deeper understanding of history that goes beyond a surface level understanding of facts, and leads to a deeper understanding of history as a living subject in which living people took part. This will also, I hope, lead to it being more interesting to the students.
Also I hope to help students build skills in this class that will help them be successful in
History and Social Science classes in college, especially in finding and citing sources, and writing papers with strong arguments. In that light, I intend to assign a significant research paper in this unit, as well as several smaller writing projects to get students thinking about varying view points and decisions.
Rationale
This unit’s content helps build a critical understanding of events that are still having a significant effect on our world today. Furthermore, our emphasis on writing skills in this unit will prove instrumental in college and in the workplace. This unit teaches history from a multicultural viewpoint. Although discussing American actions in detail, this unit does not limit itself to reaching an American understanding, rather, it shows the choices and situations of many cultures and groups during the Cold War. Furthermore, this unit requires students to analyze multiple perspectives and force the students to take factbased stances on controversial issues and defend those. This unit covers Michigan HSCE
US History Standards 8.1 and 8.2 (except 8.1.3).
Standards, Goals, and Assesments *See Attached
Materials
America, Pathways to the Present Textbook
Laptop Computers for every student with internet access
MS Word
MS PowerPoint
Technology
This unit will incorporate use of Word Processing tools on a near daily basis, it will also include student and teacher use of PowerPoint presentations, YouTube videos, and

student research using computers online. It also aims to take advantage of the Moodle on-
Line Learning Environment.
Planning for Daily Instruction * See attached schedule and lessons
Annotated Bibliography
Cayton, Andrew; Perry, Elisabeth Israels; Winkler, Allan M, America, Pathways to the
Present , Prentice Hall, 1995.
This was the basal textbook for Pennfield High School US History. When I was given the outline of what I was teaching, I was not so much asked to cover sections of the state standards as I was chapters in the textbook. Based on that I relied on the textbook heavily to structure the segments I was covering. I also founded it to be a useful resource for students to gain some basic understandings of the ideas I would cover the next day.
Lamb, Thomas, Consultant .
While I did not teach this unit for Mr. Lamb, I taught large parts of it for him. I found him to be a useful resource to discuss his experiences with covering these topics and
“picking his brain” for any advice.
McCafferty, Michael, Consultant .
Mr. McCafferty is the teacher for whose class I taught this unit. His assistance proved invaluable in explaining to me school and district expectations, especially regarding the set up of my Moodle site. He also provided me with the Pennfield common assessment questions I also used to frame my teaching around. Furthermore, he also proved to be a fount of veteran knowledge on teaching the subject and helped me focus my teaching towards my assessments and learning goals.

8.1.1 Origins and Beginnings of
Cold War – Analyze the factors that contributed to the Cold War including
• differences in the civic, ideological and political values, and the economic and governmental institutions of the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
• diplomatic decisions made at the
Yalta and Potsdam Conferences
(1945)
• actions by both countries in the last years of and years following World
War II (e.g., the use of the atomic bomb, the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, North American
Treaty Alliance
(NATO), and Warsaw Pact) ( National
Geography Standard
13, p. 210)
8.1.2 Foreign Policy during the Cold
War
– Evaluate the origins, setbacks, and successes of the American policy of “containing” the Soviet Union, including
• the development of a U.S. national security establishment, composed of the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and the intelligence community (National
Geography Standard 13, p. 210)
• the armed struggle with
Communism, including the Korean confl ict
(National Geography Standard 13, p.
210)
• direct confl icts within specifi c world regions including Germany and Cuba
(National Geography
Standards 5 and 13; pp. 192 and 210)
• U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and the foreign and domestic consequences of the war
(e.g., relationship/confl icts with
U.S.S.R. and China, U.S. military policy and practices, responses of citizens and mass media) (National
Geography Standard 13, p. 210)
• indirect (or proxy) confrontations within specifi c world regions (e.g.,
Chile, Angola, Iran,
Guatemala) (National Geography
Standards 5 and 13; pp. 192 and 210)
• the arms race
(National Geography
Standards 13, p. 210)
8.2.1 Demographic Changes
– Use population data to produce and analyze maps that show the major changes in population distribution, spatial patterns and density, including the Baby Boom, new immigration, suburbanization, reverse migration of African Americans to the
South, and the fl ow of population to the “Sunbelt.” (National
Geography Standards 1,3, 5, 9, 10; p.
184, 188, 192, 201, 203)
8.2.2 Policy Concerning Domestic
Issues
– Analyze major domestic issues in the Post-World War II era and the policies designed to meet the challenges by
• describing issues challenging
Americans such as domestic anticommunism (McCarthyism), labor, poverty, health care, infrastructure, immigration, and the environment
(National Geography
Standards 9 and 14; pp. 201 and 212)
• evaluating policy decisions and legislative actions to meet these challenges (e.g., G.I. Bill of Rights
(1944), Taft-Hartley Act (1947),
Twenty-Second Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution (1951),
Federal Highways Act (1956), National
Why did the Cold War start?
Why did the U.S. fear communism?
Understanding differing viewpoints.
What were some outcomes of
“containment” policy?
Why did the U. S. undertake containment policy, what might have been some flaws or misunderstandings with it?
What factors motivated movement to the suburbs?
How might the new youth culture influence America in the future? (Making predictions)
How is the flow of persons to the Sunbelt relevant today?
(Making connections)
How do national moods, issues, crises, shape government policy?
(Asking questions, making connections?)
Quiz, short writing Unit Test, Possible
Research Paper
Assignment
Quiz, short writing Unit Test, Possible
Research Paper
Assignment
In-Class questions Unit Test, Possible
Research Paper
Assignment
In-Class
Reenactment of
McCarthyism
Unit Test, Possible
Research Paper
Assignment

8.2.3 Comparing Domestic Policies
– Focusing on causes, programs, and impacts, compare and contrast
Roosevelt’s New Deal initiatives,
Johnson’s Great Society programs, and Reagan’s market-based domestic policies. (National Geography
Standard 14, p. 212)
8.2.4 Domestic Confl icts and
Tensions – Using core democratic values, analyze and evaluate the competing perspectives and controversies among Americans generated by U.S. Supreme Court decisions (e.g., Roe v Wade, Gideon,
Miranda, Tinker, Hazelwood), the
Vietnam War (anti-war and counter-cultural movements), environmental movement, women’s rights movement, and the constitutional crisis generated by the
Watergate scandal. (National
Geography Standard 16, p. 216)
What do Johnson’s Great
Society programs do? How is that relevant today?
How did Americans react to the Vietnam War, and why?
How did that affect that generation’s attitudes towards government?
PowerPoint
Presentations
Unit Test, Possible
Research Paper
Assignment
Class Discussion Unit Test, Possible
Research Paper
Assignment