Western Civilization II / Unit 18 WC2 1732 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Sequencing the Cold War, 1946 to 1968
The idea
Twenty-two years and the order tells the story. Forty-six: the iron curtain named. Forty-seven: the Truman Doctrine. Forty-eight: the Marshall Plan, the Berlin blockade from June. Forty-nine: the blockade lifted in May, NATO in April, two Germanies, the Soviet bomb in August. Fifty: Korea in June. Fifty-three: Stalin dies, Korea's cease-fire. Fifty-five: the Warsaw Pact. Fifty-six: the secret speech, Suez, Hungary. Fifty-seven: Sputnik. Fifty-nine: Castro. Sixty-one: the Bay of Pigs in April, the Wall in August. Sixty-two: the missile crisis in October. Sixty-four: Khrushchev out, Tonkin. Sixty-eight: the Prague Spring crushed in August. The pattern: the lines were drawn by forty-nine, tested at Berlin, Hungary and Cuba, and frozen after sixty-two into a rivalry fought by proxy and in space. Practice by naming the year for each before checking.
In practice
Lines drawn by forty-nine; tested; frozen after sixty-two.
Where people slip
Dates on the witness where the anchor lacks them; the blockade's are corrected.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
- 1704Truman, Containment, the Iron Curtain, and Tito's Exception
- 1705Berlin Divided: Four Sectors, the Blockade, the Airlift
- 1706Two Germanies, NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and Korea
- 1707Khrushchev: The Secret Speech, the Thaw, Hungary 1956
- 1708Sputnik and the Wall, 1957 to 1961
- 1709Cuba: Bay of Pigs, Thirteen Days, the Hotline
- 1710Brezhnev, Stagnation, and the Prague Spring
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it