World War II-Cold War

World War II

• students should study the war from the American perspective, which means they learn that the war was extremely unpopular domestically before 1941. (HSS Framework, 401)
• Students understand the debate between isolationists and interventionists in the United States as well as the effect of the Nazi–Soviet pact and then the breaking of it on American public opinion. However, the bombing of Pearl Harbor instantly turned the tide of American opinion about war. (HSS Framework, 401)
• World War II was a watershed event for the nation, especially for California. (P. 401)  By the end of the war, California would be the nation’s fastest-growing state, and the experience of war would transform the state demographically, economically, socially, and politically. (HSS Framework, 402)
• Students learn about the roles and sacrifices of American soldiers during the war, including the contributions of the Tuskegee Airmen, the 442nd Regimental Combat team, women and gay people in military service, the Navajo Code Talkers, and the important role of Filipino soldiers in the war effort. (HSS Framework, 402) [important topics: Executive Order 8802, 1943 Zoot Suit Riots, Executive Order 9066, HSS Framework, 405)
• At home, World War II had many long-lasting effects on the nation. Industrial demands fueled by wartime needs contributed to ending the Depression and set a model for an expanded governmental role in regulating the economy after the war. Students can consider this question in order to identify cause-and-effect changes for ordinary people on the home front: How did World War II serve to advance movements for equality at home and abroad? Wartime factory work created new and higher-paying job opportunities for women, African Americans, and other minorities; the opening up of the wage-labor force to women and minorities helped them to raise their expectations for what they should be able to achieve. Unlike World War I, many women remained in the workforce after demobilization. (HSS Framework, 404)
• Meanwhile, immigration continued, especially to California, which depended on agricultural labor provided by immigrants, particularly Mexicans, who came through the Bracero Program. (HSS Framework, 404)

Cold War Foreign Policy

• Students can learn about change over time by deconstructing the intent of Containment; the goal of containing the threat of further Soviet influence in the world broke from earlier precedents that advocated spreading American ideals of open markets and self-determination all over the world. As part of their study of the policy of Containment, students examine the Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe, the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, and the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military alliance, and the competition for allies within the developing world. (HSS Framework, 407-408)
• They also learn about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948. (HSS Framework, 408)
• Students examine the nuclear arms race and buildup, Berlin blockade and airlift, United Nations’ intervention in Korea, Eisenhower’s conclusion of the Korean War, and his administration’s defense policies based on nuclear deterrence and the threat of massive retaliation, including the CIA-assisted coup in Iran as part of early Cold War history. (HSS Framework, 408)
• Although teachers may wish to cover the Vietnam War in this Cold War foreign policy unit, the approach suggested in this framework is to return to the escalation of the war at the end of the civil rights movement (where there is narrative and a lesson suggestion). Students will have more background for understanding the domestic side of the war at this point. Nevertheless, the escalation of the Vietnam War and secret bombings of Laos and Cambodia proved to be the culmination of Cold War strategies and ultimately caused Americans to question the underlying assumptions of the Cold War era and protest against American policies abroad. (HSS Framework, 408-409)

Cold War Domestic Affairs

•  The domestic political response to the international spread of communism involved government investigations, new laws, trials, and values. Students learn about the investigations of domestic communism at the federal and state levels and about the spy trials of the period. (HSS Framework, 410) [Red Scare, Lavender Scare, Smith Act, McCarthyism]
• Another way to address the question How did the Cold War affect ordinary Americans? is to have students consider how Cold War spending and ideology shaped people’s daily lives. (HSS Framework, 411) [GI Bill of Rights, Baby Boom, Suburbanization, Red Lining, Feminine Mystique]

19702-1980s

• Two questions can guide students’ investigations of the war in Vietnam: How was the war in Vietnam similar to and different from other Cold War struggles? How did the war in Vietnam affect movements for equality at home? After escalation of the war following the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and Resolution, along with Johnson’s re-election in 1964, the U.S. military embarked on an air and ground war that aimed to eliminate the communist threat from South Vietnam. Hundreds of thousands of American service members volunteered and were drafted to fight in the war, which government and military leaders portrayed as an extension of broader Cold War struggles. (HSS Framework, 422)
• Americans started to call into question the principles on which the war was fought. By the time of the Tet Offensive and My Lai Massacre in early 1968, American public opinion had turned against the war effort. (HSS Framework, 422)
• Moreover, when it became clear that American minorities were fighting and dying disproportionate to their representation in the country, many radicalized rights groups loudly protested the war on the grounds that, to them, it represented one more form of oppression—of minorities at home—and abroad. (HSS Framework, 423)
• Students may discuss the continuing issue of unchecked presidential power. Are the president and his staff above the law? (HSS Framework, 427) 
• Students may look at the consequences of the end of the Cold War with a thematic, topical, or geographic approach. (HSS Framework, 428) During Reagan’s first term in office, Cold War policies toward Latin America and the Soviet Union intensified: conflicts in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Panama, for example, demonstrated Reagan’s willingness to send American support to anti-communists all over the Western Hemisphere. Likewise, his commitment to Star Wars, or the Strategic Defense Initiative, resulted in an escalated arms race. (HSS Framework, 427) An ongoing struggle in Afghanistan depleted the Soviets of many of their financial and military resources, and by the mid-1980s the Soviet Union adopted policies of Perestroika and Glasnost, which ultimately led to its dissolution. (HSS Framework, 428)