http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeK6spOIVro&NR=1 Death of a Nation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK30k2WTxY0http://youtube.com/watch?v=nCGNB47jJ0s&feature=related Wall Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmj_o1hjIbQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl3E-cwA6y8 Billy gets mad at the Soviets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhRu9yzlTRI Red Square
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR-A4QFHZBA Watch this one
http://www.school-for-champions.com/history/start_fire_lyrics.htm - Lyric's
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2786786059639293312 - Joel's Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbwEsu7z6Jw Explain this Cartoon
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1982reagan1.html Evil Empire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do0x-Egc6oA&feature=relatedhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=GEmlQJzw_w0&feature=relatedhttp://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/wellbeing/story/0,,2274010,00.html Ping Pong Diplomacy
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/krushchev-secret.html Krushchev
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKexf166TKk Cold War Videos made by AP Kids http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND4kDezFUk8&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB-0e7xEOSs&feature=relatedhttp://www.infoplease.com/spot/yugotimeline1.html Yugoslavia Time Line
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRzr1QU6K1o Nixon takes us off the Gold Standard
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/spytunnel.htm
Hungarian Revolt
Apollo goes to the moon
History Channel - Video's at the Top
BBC - Various Links
Cold War Museum Click on the Time Line for any event
National Archives Interesting questions
Khrushchev Video
Khrushchev visits the US
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2PUIQpAEAQ Iron Curtain
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/churchill-iron.asp Parts of Churchill's Speech
http://www.money-zine.com/Career-Development/Leadership-Skill/Former-Russian-Leaders/ Summary of the USSR Leaders
http://www.mbc.edu/faculty/gbowen/russianLeaders.htm Leaders of the USSR Pictures
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-Lk9m-Wqy0 Gorbachev Reflects
http://www.globalissues.org/article/126/the-kosovo-crisis Kosovo Crisis NATO in a negative view
http://www.nato.int/kosovo/history.htm Kosovo through NATO View
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/the-bosnia-crisis-serbs-croats-and-muslims-who-hates-who-and-why-tony-barber-in-zagreb-traces-the-ancient-roots-of-a-culture-clash-that-has-shattered-what-was-yugoslavia-into-warring-pieces-1539305.html Who is who in Serbia
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/a-cold-war-conundrum/source.htm Long but interesting piece on RYAN and the mind games played in the Cold War
http://quizlet.com/5166795/ap-euro-the-cold-war-and-nationalism-1945-2001-flash-cards/
10 comments:
The first link that I viewed was the one that said "watch this one", and it turned out to be "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel. I had always used to enjoy the song, but after learning about the Cold War in AP U.S. and in AP Euro this year, it's neat to make all of the historical connections, and the song is even more enjoyable when you have that background so you understand it. Also, I liked this particular video clip because of the images that matched up with the different people and events included in the lyrics. In addition, the fact that the events are listed in order by date has helped the song serve as a timeline for me to keep some of the key Cold War events straight.
Next, I shifted my attention to an article about the Apollo manned-missions, particularly Apollo 8. This was the first successful manned-mission to the moon, and it is incredible when you stop to think about how great a feat it was during that time. When technology was not advanced nearly as far as it is today and there had been several unsuccessful trials prior to the Apollo mission, it must have been extremely scary to be launched out of the atmosphere in a shuttle to explore a frontier that had never been pioneered before. One thing from the reading that stood out to me was that one of the purposes of the mission was actually to choose a potential landing spot for the later missions to the moon and another was to test theories about the moon's gravitational pull. Overall, I learned that there was more to this mission than just the trip to the moon and back.
Finally, I read the article about the spy tunnel, which I found very interesting. I was familiar with other acts of espionage during the Cold War, but had not heard about this one before. Some things that I found interesting about the spy tunnel were that it took over a year to complete and they weren't discovered during that time, that the plan first failed because of heavy rain damaging the cables, and that there was a Soviet spy by the name of George Blake who was actually commissioned to help work on the development of the tunnel, so it is speculated that he probably leaked the information to Soviet security agency. This was a very interesting read.
The first link I looked at was the video about the Iron Curtain. It focuses on how Winston Churchill’s speech changed the feelings between superpowers at the time. It led the United States to change from being wartime allies with the USSR to being vehemently opposed to everything soviet. The press went from portraying the three allies of the US, USSR, and Britain to portraying the communists as world-domination-bent crazy people. It wasn’t just one way though, the soviets did more than their fair share of discrimination. They said the Americans were greedy capitalists, looking to take over Europe. The most striking video they show is of Newsweek openly skewing the news. Then, a soviet movie is shown on the same meeting on the Elbe, skewing the event in favor of the soviets. It’s like there’s no true account of the events as they happened.
The second link I looked at was an eyewitness report on the spy tunnel in Germany built by the Americans and British. The tunnel was meant to give them information on what the Soviets were doing in Germany, for they had just moved a load of troops in. We weren’t sure whether or not they planned an invasion or just another troop moving thing, but either way we wanted to know about it. So, by pretending to build an airport near the border, a huge tunnel was built across the border right to a telephone line where we started tapping the phones. It worked, and for a while a lot of data was collected. However, the soviets used a code and so the information was useless until someone could figure it out. German workers found the line after heavy flooding and the soviets disabled the underground base soon afterward, although not after a lot of bickering. It turns out, there was probably a Soviet mole in on the whole thing, although the soviets may have faked ignorance to save the mole. It’s like just another crazy plan the American and British had to trick the Soviets, but it backfired. It really gives you an idea of how subterfuge and spies had played a large part in the Cold War.
The third link I looked at was one for the Apollo 8 trip that the US sent up. This was basically a panic response to what the Soviets did earlier with Sputnik. Apollo 8 was sent up in 1968, seven years after Kennedy called for a moon landing within the decade. The fact that the government was able to complete a project before a deadline is quite amazing in and of itself. NASA was created to take on the project and three astronauts were sent up. I had to remind myself a couple of times that this is not the first crew to land on the moon, they just circled it. The circling took an amazing amount of precision in calculations and timing, similar to the Mars rover landing. If the spaceship’s thrusters weren’t turned on at exactly the right time, they would be sent hurtling into space. The site contains the transcript of the people on board talking on live television from space. They talk about what the moon is like, and how lonely and vast it is. This trip was the one during which the famous picture of the earth on the horizon of the moon was taken. It was a research expedition to find out more before people were sent up to actually land on the moon. What amazes me is exactly how quickly this operation got underway. It only took 7 years to go from no space program or even the slightest want to go to space, and then just by igniting a little competition they’re getting ready to head to the moon.
The first link I looked at was the lyrics of Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire". I've heard the song, but I never really knew all the connections in the song because I had never known anything about the Cold War, since in regular U.S. History, we didn't really cover it. After looking at the lyrics, I continued to look at the historical background for all the lyrics because there were some things I still didn't know. I found the events that Billy Joel picked to be interesting because those were key events that stood out to him. I like the song because it gives you a sense of what it was like from 1949 to 1989. I enjoyed that I could make connections to the song now, so that it is more than a catchy song, but actually can mean something to me, as it did to people that actually understood that time period.
The next link I looked at was about the spy tunnel in Germany. I found it to be interesting because I knew about espionage in the Cold War, but I didn't know about many specific cases of espionage. This tunnel was built by the United States and Britain because they weren't sure what 30 divisions of the Red Army were doing in Germany and they were apprehensive about Soviet attack. I find it amazing that all the information that was received required 650 analysts and translators. But, what I find really interesting is that even when Soviet spy, George Blake informed the KGB about the plan, the KGB didn't tell their military because they didn't want to lose Blake's access as a spy. It's really interesting as to how espionage worked during the Cold War.
The last link I looked at was from the Cold War Museum about the Greek Civil War. I decided to look at this one purely on the fact that I'm Greek and was curious. But, I'm glad I clicked on it, for I honestly knew barely anything about this. So, basically I learned that once their leader Metaxas died, there was a struggle between the Communists, the EAM, and the nationalists, the EDES. First, the EDES received support from Britain, for they feared communist takeover. Churchill meant with Stalin, giving Stalin power in Romania, if Churchill received power in Greece. Once fighting between Britain and the EAM, the nationalists won and the communist party decreased. After elections, the communists started the DA, the Democratic Army of Greece. During the fighting, they received help from Yugoslavia and gained power in the northern part of Greece. Britain, worried, turned to the United States for help. Once the United States came in, the nationalists’ power increased. When the DA supported Stalin breaking his relations with Yugoslavian leader, Tito, Yugoslavia broke off their help to the DA. The nationalists beat the DA in the summer of 1949, leaving Greece in shambles. 80,000 people died and 700,000 people were homeless as a result of the civil war. By 1974, Greece was restored to a democracy and regained some balance.
The first link I looked at was the Apollo 8 one. Embarrassingly enough, I realized the other day in class that I actually don't really know that much about the US's first voyage to the moon. I picked up a lot of interesting facts about the voyage through the article; for example, the voyage was testing the idea that the spacecraft could use the moon's gravitational pull and the idea of how to ignite the engines so that the spacecraft launched correctly. The article also had a transcript of a live broadcast, and all I can say is that those men who were on that spaceship were pretty brave!
The second link I checked out was the "Evil Empire Speech." I honestly clicked the link because I had no idea what it was but it sounded interesting. It turned out to be a speech given by President Reagan about the evils of the totalitarianism present in the Soviet Union delivered in 1982. Looking at it from a AP Lang point of the view, the rhetoric in the speech was clearly meant to get a rise out the Soviet Union. Reagan's descriptions of the Soviets totally demean them and show that he has no intention of assuming a detente position. I am sure this speech angered many, and most likely increased the rhetorical escalation of the Cold War.
The final link I looked at was the Ping Pong politics one. I was aware that ping pong had played a role some Chinese-American diplomacy, but the article had a few other examples. It's funny to think that even in the case of delicate politics, people resort to playing a game that could raise or bruise egos.
The first link I looked into was the Apollo 8 mission. The beginning was full of things I had learned in the past such as Sputnik, Laika, and the Kennedy Space Program. But the actual journey of the Apollo 8 mission was all new information. It was interesting to read because when people talk about reaching the moon they'll talk about the Apollo 11 mission when we achieved touchdown. Yet the Apollo 8 mission was a large step for us as well and being able to actually circle the Moon and see Earth from the window must have been an amazing display.
I then looked at the Kosovo Crisis at a standpoint against NATO. My plan was to compare that link with the link from the NATO website. It was interesting to see both viewpoints but I think NATO's website just seemed more professional and more believable than Global Issues. I don't think it can be denied that NATO created collateral damage with their airstrikes but it's something that can't be stopped. Still the NATO website explained their constant work on creating a peaceful resolution while Milosevic was only creating more problems. The analogy of a hostage crisis doesn't seem to have too much ground here. NATO seemed to be doing the best they could at the time to help in this crisis. It is similar to our work in the Middle East now, collateral damage is done but we as the United States aren't working to eliminate thousands of Iranians. In war there will always be a loss of innocent life.
First I watched the photo montage from the Berlin Wall. It is always chilling to see the photos with the death strip and towers imprisoning those East German people. The music was quite fitting as well though there was a mysterious appearance of an Italian flag at the beginning. Then I saw the Billy Joel's We Didn't start the Fire. I have always loved this song and had previously done a bit of reading about it. It still gives me a strange feeling to know all of that stuff can happen in just 40 years, and that even more, good and bad will happen in the next 40. Finally I examined the link about Apollo 8. I have always been captivated by the Apollo program,after all we're talking about putting human beings on the moon, but I never took to time to properly learn about the missions beyond 11 and 13. I never understood the risk in establishing a lunar orbit, nor did I realize how many scouting missions NASA ran to get everything to work on #11.
First I watched the photo montage from the Berlin Wall. It is always chilling to see the photos with the death strip and towers imprisoning those East German people. The music was quite fitting as well though there was a mysterious appearance of an Italian flag at the beginning. Then I saw the Billy Joel's We Didn't start the Fire. I have always loved this song and had previously done a bit of reading about it. It still gives me a strange feeling to know all of that stuff can happen in just 40 years, and that even more, good and bad will happen in the next 40. Finally I examined the link about Apollo 8. I have always been captivated by the Apollo program,after all we're talking about putting human beings on the moon, but I never took to time to properly learn about the missions beyond 11 and 13. I never understood the risk in establishing a lunar orbit, nor did I realize how many scouting missions NASA ran to get everything to work on #11.
The first article I read was "The Russians Discover a Spy Tunnel in Berlin," an interesting piece of history which perhaps has little relevance to the AP exam but nevertheless helpful in characterizing the relations of the day. The Soviets and the Americans weren't exactly content to suspiciously watch each other across the ocean; as this article shows, they were actively infiltrating and spying and undermining to gain the upper hand. The story of the wiretapping network that American intelligence created in Berlin and the covert methods they used was interesting, but the manner in which the plot was uncovered was the best part. George Blake, a notorious Soviet spy, was the mole who leaked the information; although an Englishman, Blake was somehow turned during his captivity during the Korean War. Pretty intense stuff.
When despicable individuals like Slobadan Milosevic are involved in a clashes like the Kosovo Crisis, its all too easy to split the conflict into good guys and bad guys. Naturally, NATO easily took the former roll in my first impression of the Crisis, but after reading "The Kosovo Crisis" link, I wasn't so sure. Thanks to the article's metaphor of the hostage crisis and their specific information about the effects of NATO's bombing campaign, I now view their haphazard actions and the collateral damage they caused with more reservations. Pretty eye-opening stuff.
Lastly, I read the article on the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. This event is doubtless one of the most tragic episodes of the Cold War, and the two eyewitness accounts provided in the piece gave more flavor to the hope and heartbreak of the event, to the specific details of the rising as well as the brutal circumstances of its repression. A few things that stood out to me were that the protesters masqueraded as pro-Leninists even though many were anti-communist, that its participants legitimately believed that they could achieve their goal of freedom under Imre Nagy, and the amount of armed resistance that its Soviet oppressors encountered and subsequently massacred. Pretty sad stuff.
First I decided to go the link that showed Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech. I'm a long time admirer of Winston Churchill and his speeches. He had a way of talking that was so engaging. I decided to watch a Youtube video of him delivering the speech, and I really was able to get a feel for the speech. The second link I went to was on the Hungarian Revolt. I had to become very well read on the topic for when we had to do the timeline and Powerpoints on the countries we were assigned. It was amazing to actually be able to hear from a first hand account of what was happening. The Hungarian Revolt was such a passionate, history-changing event. It upsets me how they were so easily crushed. Robert D. Sefton Delmer showed his passion and dedication to his country just to be squashed by the Soviets. The third link I went to was a Youtube video on Khrushchev visiting America, which seemed to be quite an interesting event. The part about his airplane being too tall for steps in the U.S. always gets me where Khrushchev thinks it as a hilarious bit. It's amazing how much publicity was covered during it where 1 hour on television was dedicated to this event. There was so much tension, and a prime example of that was the mayor of LA and him. He was also very fascinated with supermarkets and cafeterias, which really interested me.
After reading “How Ping-Pong Changed the World” I found it to be interesting, but it only makes a slight reference to the Cold War. Michael White connected the match between Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukada and President Hu Jintao of China with the 31th World Table Tennis Championship. The good sportsmanship between the Chinese and American players, led to good diplomacy between the two nations. Nixon was able to enter Beijing and helped make china the superpower it is today.
I enjoyed reading the article on Apollo 8. I didn’t realize that in the first mission to the Moon, the spacecraft didn’t actually land. Instead it orbited the moon several times and gathered data for later moon visits. I always assumed that the US led the space race, but it seems that the Soviet Union was really the first to start it. I was surprised to learn that the government changed education to promote more science and math people.
It seems America would stop at nothing to gain Intel during the Cold War. To build an underground passage seems extreme. The fact that it was successful is even crazier than the idea. After three years it only met its destruction due to a mole. It seems odd that George Blake would be converted to communism after he was captured in the Korean War. If they offered me to my freedom in exchange for my service to them, I would except and then never talk to them again.
Post a Comment