Major Concepts:

Suggested lesson/activities:

1. Explain to students that the years following the end of the Second World War had two different meanings to the ordinary American. At the same time that the right-handed "Joltin' Joe" DiMaggio and the left-handed Ted Williams were becoming legends in the New York Yankees/Boston Red Sox baseball rivalry, movie stars and screenwriters were being blackballed from work and citizens Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed as atomic spies, reflecting the diplomatic and military rivalry between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The average citizen was busy enjoying economic prosperity and the wonders of modern technology while being warned to watch out for the seemingly omnipresent Communist threat.

2. Point out that the first two lessons of the unit take a closer look at these two characteristics of the period, and that, although students will study them separately, they should keep both in mind and realize that both phenomena were occurring at the same time.

3. Tell the students that the next few activities are designed to enable them to answer the following three questions:
   1. Why did the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union develop?

   2. How and in what ways did the Cold War become a national political issue?

   3. What was the containment strategy and why was it adopted instead of the alternatives (peaceful coexistence or all-out nuclear war)?

4. Divide the class into seven equal study groups and distribute two "Analysis of Superpower National Interests 1946-1950" resource sheets to each student. Have the groups complete the chart to show a broad view of the national interests of the United States and Soviet Union in the four categories.

5. Distribute two copies of the "Superpower Interests as Factors in Key Cold War Events" resource sheets. Assign each group to investigate one of the seven events. Each group uses the completed sheet from Activity 4 and additional information retrieved from group investigation in other resources to complete the row on the chart for its event. Duplicate the responses for the other six groups.

6. As a collaborative group, complete the tasks identified in the handout "Persuasive Essay: U.S. Cold War Policy Rationale." This activity could also be presented as a debate activity with three different position groups.

7. Complete a document-based question (DBQ) "Origins of the Cold War" as a closure for the lesson.