3 Decade War

By the 1960s, our war tired world

was once again put into shock

Attacked by the Red Scare

We were put into fear

by this Communist, Soviet block

They had strong hopes to control the world

They secluded themselves and blocked off Berlin

Nobody knew how to react

life was insane

only praying they would see the east side again

But we did not attack them

President Kennedy acted with dignity and pride

He let the Cold War play out

kept the U.S. to himself

He was never persuaded by the Soviet Side

By 1989, the Communist flame had finally burnt out

The Wall was down and Russia was Russia again

Berlin was Berlin again

Three decades that did not help a thing

Is what the Cold War was all about

Cuban Missile Crisis

In the summer of 1962, the Soviet Union started shipping missiles to Cuba in order to progress on their goal of world domination. Sounds kind of rediculous, but the U.S.S.R. had already taken control of Eastern Europe and were moving on to the other side of the Atlantic. I believe the Cuban Missile Crisis was put in place by the Soviets to put the world into chaos.

President John F. Kennedy was in power and he had very difficult choices to make. Either let the Soviet Union do what they wanted to do, or get the missiles removed by any means. He couldn't act to hastily however for it could of led to a world holocaust. (Longman 1999) That fall, Kennedy announced to the world that the U.S.S.R. had put bases in Cuba to initiate nuclear strike capability against the western hemisphere of the world. The Soviets were outraged with Kennedy's remarks and vowed that they weren't true. Several days later, photos were released of missile silos in Cuba and the Soviets were caught "red handed." As days went by, agreements between the two countries were hard to come by and threats kept coming up. By October 30, Kennedy believed that if a resolution was not found, then the Soviets would strike from Cuba. He was most likely right in this observation even though it can't be proven because why else would Soviet Russia place nuclear missiles on Cuba.

Kennedy was already planning an armed invasion of Cuba after October 30 hoping the Soviets would back down before anything actually took place. Finally, after the Soviets learned of America's impending strike, they backed down and ordered the destruction of Cuban missile sites. (Blight 2002) After this Soviet failure, the U.S.S.R. lost not only prestige, but millions of dollars in a crisis that did not get them anywhere. Nikita Khrushchev was the premier of the Soviet Union at the time and he made all the calls for the communist country. I believe his goal from the beginning was to cause panic in the world so he could gain more control and power because other countries were afraid since he had missile outposts as far away as Cuba. I also think Kennedy retaliated in the right manner and didn't do anything too seriously and didn't make any rash moves. Kennedy also saw Khrushchev's blatant bluff when he ensured the U.S. that he did not place missiles on Cuba.

In 1997 however, tapes were released of Kennedy speaking with his cabinet members releasing information that there were U.S. nuclear missile bases in Turkey, only 100 miles away from the Soviet border at the time. This gives us the new facts that the U.S.S.R. actually had more of a reason to place their missile bases in Cuba. This just reassures my opinion that the Cold War was all about threats and who had the bigger weapons. When one country would do something such as make a treaty like N.A.T.O., the other side would come back with their own such as the Warsaw pact. The Cuban Missile Crisis was just another example for the red scare and how much fear the world lived in.

Allison, Graham, and Philip Zelikow, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, 2d ed. (Longman 1999).

Blight, James G., et al., Cuba on the Brink: Castro, the Missile Crisis, and the Soviet Collapse, rev. ed. (2002).

Dobbs, Michael, One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War (2008).

Annotated Bibliographies

Hopkinson, Christina. The Usborne History of ‘The Twentieth Century’, ed. Jane Chisholm. Tusla: EDC Publishing, 1993. Selected readings.

This book was well written and described a lot of valuable information about the U.S. and it's connection to Europe and wars fought around the world. It covered several topics such as the Vietnam War, World War II, and several more. Obviously, the part I was looking into was the information on Stalin and the Cold War. This was an informational book and it gave tons of information focusing on communism and relting it to democracy and how they differ.

This is very reliable information that would help any highschool or even college student in need of information on Europe and the Cold War. It was one of the best sources I had because it gave me so much valuable information that taught me a lot about communism and the Cold War. This source is not biased just open and displaying information instead of giving their opinion on it.

This information taught me a lot about communism and the Berlin Wall is all about communism so I could fit it right in. It was very helpful, but the information on the other sites I found was a little bit more in depth yet simplified at the same time. This book seemed like it was a little harder for someone like me to read, but the information was still useful.

"Berlin Wall." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2008. Grolier Online. 4 Nov. 2008 http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=00315.


This article displayed information only on the Berlin Wall about when it was put up, and each event until it was taken down. It gives useful information about the amount of people that lost their lives, all the key factors in putting it up, and people that had to do with the construction of the Berlin Wall. The information is very well written and easily understood so anybody could understand what the Berlin Wall was and how it affected the rest of the world.


This is a great source for if you are only researching information about the Berlin Wall. It only focuses on the Berlin Wall so if one is looking for information about communism and other things, then this wouldn't be the right sight for you. I liked this sight however because the Berlin Wall is my main topic and it helped me a lot while trying to understand what Berlin was about.

This information gave me a lot of information because it made me realize that East Berlin was cut off from the rest of the world for more that forty years. That is half a persons life so it really makes me understand how big of a deal the Berlin Wall was during the 20th century. This was a great site because it only focused on one thing instead of a wide variety.


Croan, Melvin. "communism." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2008. Grolier Online. 6 Nov. 2008 http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0068842.

This article gives the reader great insight into what communism is and how it affects the whole world and gives very detailed definitions on everything. The article is fairly advanced and difficult to read yet gives a ton of information about communism and all the countries that follow the political views of communism.

I thought this article was very useful for understanding communism and how it is different from American Democracy. It was a very long article and some parts were hard to comprehend making it a little bit tougher to integrate it into my topic. Yet I still found it very helpful teaching me the basics about communism and how it affects everything and everyone under it's rule. This article was not biased either, just objective to explain communism and it was a little harder than my other sources.

I could easily connect this information with my subject because communism was the essence of the Soviet Union and what they were trying to do by building the Berlin Wall. The information helped me a lot with understanding about what the government was and how different it is than America's.

"Warsaw Treaty Organization." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2008. Grolier Online. 16 Nov. 2008 http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0307099.

This article summarizes what the Warsaw treaty was. It explains how it was created in order to counter the N.A.T.O. treaty back in the 60's. It goes step by step explaining how the W.T.O. worked and what it meant. This article is fairly intricate because there is so much to go over because so many different countries signed this treaty which went against the rest of the world at the time.

This article was fairly helpful, it would have been helpful if I was studying the treaties that were signed during the Cold War, but since my topic was the Berlin Wall, the information wasn't crucial for my subject. The information was reliable since all of Grolier's information is straight out of books and read over. The article is not biased either and is just meant to tell about the Warsaw treaty.

This information does not apply directly to my subject, but it does suffice for gaining a little extra knowledge about the world in the 20th century. This article doesn't really make me feel that differently because it just shows even more how flawed peoples minds were when communism was trying to take over the world.

Hilderbrand, Robert C. "North Atlantic Treaty Organization." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2008. Grolier Online. 15 Nov. 2008 http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0210872.

This article was just like the one about the Warsaw Pact except this showed the other side, or the British side. This article just explains how Britain created a treaty so they could get the non-communist side of Europe to go against the Soviets. This article gives a good overview of the N.A.T.O. treaty and gives a detailed description of it. This is another article that is written fairly advanced but filled with great information and details on the treaty.

I thought this source was just as good as the one about the Warsaw treaty, it just explained the other side of it. It is fairly useful and just like the other one, but since it isn't directly related to my subject so it's not as useful as I would have liked it to be. It's also a pretty difficult article to read with intricate words and just informational and non-biased so it's not exactly entertaining to read. This source is just meant to inform the reader of what the N.A.T.O. treaty was and what it was meant to do.

This fits into my research just like the source on the Warsaw Treaty did; it just gives me more insight on how people acted in the past century and how people did things based on fear instead of what was right.

Lih, Lars T. "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2008. Grolier Online. 4 Dec. 2008 .

This is a great article in understanding the U.S.S.R. and the writer writes it simply so anybody can understand what they're saying. It is a very long article yet everything is put simply even though the concept of the Soviet Union is a hard subject to understand and all of their tactics such as the Berlin Wall. It also includes all of the important leaders and important events within the 70 year rule of the Soviets.

I thought this was a great article and the most easy to read out of the six. It also a very useful article because the information relates directly to my topic because the whole reason the Cold War started was because of the U.S.S.R. The information is also very exact and reliable and there's tons of it. This is not a biased article because it just gives information describing everything you would want to know about the Soviet Union.

This source was very helpful to my ideas and subject because it really made me understand everything I wanted to know about the U.S.S.R. and their tactics in order to take land and convert it into communism. I could tie this whole article right into my topic because the U.S.S.R. is what built the Berlin Wall in the first place in order to seclude Berlin from the rest of the world. Altogether, I thought this was the best article because it was put simply and gave me so much information on my topic.

Letter to BBC

BBC Complaints,
PO Box 1922
Glasgow
G2 3WT

To Whom It Concern:

As an American, I read your internet news now and then just to be updated about activities around the world. I read a story of the Berlin Wall artwork that is supposed to be re-furbished around the next few months. Unfortunately, there was only a few sentences explaining what was going on when I think something so big deserves a little more acclaim. It is implausible to think that something so big goes so unnoticed for a world news company.

Even though the Berlin Wall fell almost twenty years ago, does not mean it no longer effects. I just think there should be more hype and news surrounding the repainting of the Wall Artworks that have been degenerating over the years. This is a big deal and I think you should cover more of what is happening in Germany. I hope to read more about what is going on in Berlin within the next few months on your BBC News website.


Sincerely




David
High school Student

Graphing it Out

I deciphered a graph showing the relaionship between the year and the amount of nuclear weapons the U.S. and U.S.S.R. produced from the year 1945 and 2002. Obviously the Soviet Union didn't exist by 2000 so this graph shows how the amount of nuclear weapons decreased when the U.S.S.R. turned into Russia. This graph tells so much about the harsh times our world was in. As the Cold War went on, nuclear weapons increased dramaticly right after World War II until the mid 1960s right after the Cuban Missle Crisis occured. After the 60s the amount of nuclear weapons decreased slowly until 2002 and now Russia only contains a nominal amount of weapons for communism is out of the way. In this graph, you can really tell how fear was a large part in both countries, one country would go up with their amount in nuclear weapons, and the other country would follow. This is very valid information because it is the data that has been collected over decades and put into one report. This graph can help people understand how serious the Cold War was because even though there really wasn't too much fighting, there was a lot of threats and buildup of very serious weapons.
We can learn a lot from graphs like these because they tell us so much about our history and the way our governments acted out. We can fix our mistakes and act differently if something like this ever happens again.

NRDC's Nuclear Program,"Figure of US and USSR/Russian Nuclear Stockpile, 1945-2002",
11.22.02, <http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/nudb/datainx.asp>

Berlin Wall Artwork

The city of Berlin is constituting the rebirth of the Berlin Wall's most cherished artwork. After half of the wall was taken down in 1989, artists from around the world were commissioned to place events and stories of what had happened while the wall was up.
Now, in 2008, these artworks are very hard to make out from all of the vandalism and weather which have been destroying the works for the last 19 years. This article explains how the city is repainting and restoring these artworks in order to keep their history alive. I think this is a great idea, because if they didn't preserve these works, a predominant piece of German and socialist history may be lost forever. It's also important that we keep our history because we learn from it and will remind us what communism caused. These artworks are supposed to be redone by 2009 in the double decade anniversary of the wall falling. They hope to get the same artists who painted the originals to repaint the old ones unless if they are passed away or unable to contact. This restoration is great idea once it's complete because it will also show the youth of their history and roots.

BBC News, 10/20/2009,

Movie Review

Have you ever thought about what it was like for people living on the east side of the Berlin Wall, and how apart yet so exlusive to themselves they were. I watched the film "Good bye Lenin!" for a film relating to my topic of communism. This is a flm made in Germany and it was directed by Wolfgang Becker and has well known German actor Daniel Bruhl. It has also been nominated for a golden globe and has recieved several European awards and nominations. This film is a fictional, comedy, drama, yet based on true events which was eastern Berlin communism.

This film was very well made, as I was watching it I felt as if I was being taught more and more about my subject. The writer who was also the director really knew what he was talking about when he made this film. The film was full of very valid information yet contained a very strong and emotional storyline.

I really loved this film because of it's storyline and the information it presented about eastern socialists in Berlin during the fall of communism in Germany. The whole story is what really touched me though, it was about a family living in hard times and the strong socialist mother has a heart attack before communism falls. She goes into a coma for eight months as the Berlin Wall falls along with the U.S.S.R. and when she wakes up, she can't be excited for the risk of another heart attack. So the son keeps the knowledge of the new Germany from her as she recovers. This film is very good and well done and teaches us that time is always moving as the world moves, and we can't stop things from happening such as and end and rebirth of a nation or it's government.

Reflection

Before studying the Cold War, I was not aware of how comprehensive it was. Now I feel fairly knowledgeable on the subject even though some things I'm still not aware of some things and all the key factors dealing with the Cold War and how it was resolved. I have found lots of information about Stalin and have learned how to find different information from different resources. I had to ponder over which resources were reliable ones and which ones presented the best information. I have learned a lot so far with in information and also finding information, I feel like I know a lot about communism and how our country tries to deal with it.

I also feel as though I was alive when it was occurring even though I was born the year the Berlin Wall came down. I feel like communism has a huge effect still on us today especially in a country where the economy is burning up in flames and communism country China is thriving. I also feel like I know much more about our history, the Cold War is a piece of American history and world history that school has never really covered and now I feel like I can update my friends on this missing piece.

I am still wondering about the people and the citizens of Berlin and the people who had to go through with communism in their native land. I know that thousands of people were killed trying to cross the was just to be out of communism control. I want to find personal stories and learn more about the people in those days. I would also like to know how the U.S.S.R. brought food into Berlin since the whole east part of the city was cut off. The people is the big issue though because I do not think I could live being completely cut off from the rest of the world. Berlin in the sixties through eighties was like North Korea today and I want to know how they felt and how bad that desire was to get out and see the rest of the world.

All of these are things that I have learned and wish to learn about the Berlin Wall and the Cold War. It is a big topic in our history and I feel like I must know more about it and also communism. I find everything so far very interesting and hope it gets better from here.

Questions

I have always wondered about the leader of the Soviet Union known as Joseph Stalin and what kind of person he was. I feel like I know nothing of him and just consider him a bad person since I know nothing good came out of the Soviet Union and it seemed all he caused was turmoil and discomfort.

"Joseph Stalin was born poor on December 21st 1879 in Gori, Georgia. His father was a shoemaker who died during Joseph’s childhood. Joseph’s mother was a religious woman and knew that the only future hope for her son was for him to become a priest."(Hopkinson) Becoming a priest was a convential occupation at the time that could help a person get out of poverty. Stalin was also very bright at a young age being able to write and speak very well which influenced him to join Russian socialist parties. Soon, Stalin was exiled from Russia into Serbia until he escaped and joined another socialist party led by Vladimir Lenin who gave Stalin a high rank. As World War I continued during this time, Russia was going under and in need of help and supplies, so Lenin stepped up along with Stalin. Soon, Stalin was getting higher and higher in power and had his men get rid of his once friends until he was in control of all of the U.S.S.R. "Stalin forced 'his' people to set up collective farms that were owned by the government. 5 million farmers were exiled because they were too wealthy, objected, or refused to farm collectively."(Simkin) Even though Stalin might of felt like he was doing good for his country, he was actually making it worse.

The Communist sense is that everyone helps everyone and there's no different economic standings. Raised as a poor peasant, Stalin must have hated the rich and desired all to be equal. Communism appeals to this and a desire for wealth and control pushed him to power. "Stalin did much to help Russia and the world in WWII but killed millions in pursuit of his ideas and dictatorship. To his calloused heart, "A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.""(Simmonds)

Hopkinson, Christina. The Usborne History of ‘The Twentieth Century’, ed. Jane Chisholm. Tusla: EDC Publishing, 1993. Selected readings.

Simkin, John. “Joseph Stalin” Spartacus Educational. Accessed October 9, 2003

Simmonds, George W. “Joseph Stalin” Scholastic. Accessed October 9, 2003

Takin' Down Surveys

In my survey, I the main question I asked was if communism has or is affecting your life in any way today. I really didn't know what to expect from the students at Roaring Fork and I expected older individuals to say yes on the topic since they were alive during the Cold War and Berlin Wall. Apparantely, I had the wrong allusion about some people, because the younger crowd said that communism does affect them today and I agree since China, an evergrowing country; is communist.

I actually found out a lot from this survey, I thought I was going to get very enthusiastic responses from my peers. It turned out I got better answers from the younger crowd and more banal responses from the older crowd. Race and gender was not a factor for this survey, mainly just age because people have new thoughts from the old. Altogether, I learned a lot about the students around me and what I thought as a more mature and optomistic crowd. I was shocked about how optomistic the younger crowd is and how they care about what's going on and learning from our history. I asked a question about communism and recieved totally different answers than I expected which I thought was very interesting and mind changing.

Website Review

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/coldwar.htm
This website is the epitome of easy. This website was created by Chris Trueman in 2000 and is updated every year and he made this site very easy to use. The creator made this site very amiable and user friendly, it's laid out so that each link takes you to a different area of the topic. This site is not very visually appealing yet it's very helpful in the sense of information. All the information is dead on accurate because it gets information from sources of all different sorts. The information is also reliable because the site is sponsored by the search engine, Ask.com. This site really brings easy to a new meaning because there are so many simple links making it easy to navigate your way through whatever you are looking for.

Now from Then

Today the Berlin Wall is known as a downpoint in our world's history and in the Soviet rule of Easter Europe. As far as the actual wall itself? It was all destroyed besides a few artistic sections that were spared. It was a dark symbol to the German people so tearing it down added great comfort to the people whos lives were so torn apart and terminated by it. The Red Army saw it as a tangible representation of their power over the Eastern part of Europe and it showed their dominance over the people.

Today, the Berlin Wall is still remembered just as the people that built it. Just as the wall has been destroyed, so has communism for the most part in Eastern Europe. The Cold War showed us that Democracy still deserves the acclaim it gets. The Soviet Union struggled throughout the whole 20th century with it's government going though the Russian Revolution in 1917 then the cold war starting in 1946. It has showed our present world that separation is not the key when trying to gain a country and it's respect. The Berlin Wall only caused misery and anger against the Soviet Union which might be a reaon why it no longer exists. People learn from their history and mistakes which may be why we'll never see something like the Cold War or Berlin Wall again.

The Cold War

In 1946 after World War II Europe was filled with a war of political ideals between democratic countries in the West and the Communist countries in the East. Even though the Soviet Union was allies with Great Britain and the United States during the war, the Soviets had felt as if they had done most of the fighting during the war. As distrust grew between the two sides, the Soviet Union began to create communist government in all of it's countries in eastern Europe and even dividing Germany into two sides. Soon the whole eastern side was separated from the West knowing as what we call, "The Iron Curtain." Since Germany was split up right down the middle, Stalin(Soviet Leader) wanted to cut of the transport from East Berlin to the West in order to gain control of all of Berlin. He thought that since one side needed the other to survive, he could cut one side off to gain control. However, this idea did not work for West Berlin had goods flown in which proved to put Stalin's plan to shame.

In 1949, the Western European countries created what is known as the N.A.T.O. which was a treaty that if the Soviets attacked any of the Countries on the treaty, than the other countries would help to go against the Soviets.

Why the Berlin Wall?

I am studying the Berlin Wall because European History has always interested me and especially more recent subjects, recent meaning post World War II. I also wanted to learn about a subject I know nothing about such as this one considering the topics that surround it such as the Cold War and Bay of Pigs are so important in World history and American history.

Also, after visiting Germany though we never went to Berlin, I've been almost obsessed and amazed by their culture and history. It is covered in facts and history before and after WWII and it is a subject I am very interested in.