A History Blueprint Cold War Unit - Updates in Historiography
Notes about the changing nature of Cold War historiography and how it affects teaching the Cold War. World Studies already has this - does US History?
Nuclear Matters Handbook - Department of Defense NMHB 2020 [Revised]
Lessons on Star Wars, SDI, the Cuban Missile Crisis should all include some reference to the status of the US nuclear arsenal at it stands today, and the continuously updated plans by various agencies to survive a nuclear attack
Everything You Think You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union Is Wrong
Article attempts to explain why the collapse of the Soviet Union was such a surprise to the West, from Foreign Policy magazine.
Metallica - Enter sandman (live in Moscow 1991) HD - YouTube
This is what is looks like when communism falls. Mikhail Gorbachev asked Metallica, AC/DC the Black Crowes to perform in the Soviet Union and perhaps as 1.5 million fans crammed into the Tushino airfield to rock in one of the largest concerts of all time. Although official estimates put the crowd at somewhere around 800,000, the seething sea of human emotion is awe inspiring.
John Paul II : The New Yorker
More for teachers than students, this article explains the role of John Paul II in the end of the Cold War. All too often, survey courses ignore the deep catalog of developments, people and events that together drive history. Perhaps a spot lesson on the role of an individual, or perhaps an insight into the internecine machinations of both sides of the Cold War. Was the US behind the election of a Polish Pope? Was the May, 1981 assassination attempt ordered by the Soviets?
HERB: Resources for Teachers | The C.I.A. Advises Nicaraguans How to Sabotage the Sandinista Government
The C.I.A. airdropped thousands of these 15-page illustrated manuals telling "Nicaraguans who love their country and cherish freedom" how they could sabotage the Sandinista-led government. The leftist Sandinistas had overthrown a military dictatorship in 1979; the U.S. supported rightwing Contras in their efforts to remove the Sandinistas from power. A Contra fighter in Honduras, where the C.I.A. based its anti-Sandinista efforts, gave a copy of the manual to a reporter in 1984.
BBC NEWS | Europe | How a blunder finished off the Wall
Yet another item to add the the "Fact is stranger than fiction file" - the opening of the Berlin Wall at the end of the Cold War was sparked by a mis- statement at a press conference. This BBC article includes video of the press conference itself and interviews with the Sec of State and Mikhail Gorbachev.
The U.S.S.R. and U.S. Came Closer to Nuclear War Than We Thought
This article explains how declassified documents show how US and NATO military exercises in late 1983 were seen by Soviets as prelude to a preemptive strike against the Soviet Union. THough the Cuban Missile crisis is commonly taught to students as the closest the world came to nuclear war, this episode in 1983 shows different
While historians have previously noted the high risk of an accidental nuclear war during this period, the new documents make even clearer how the world's
rival superpowers found themselves blindly edging toward the brink of nuclear war through suspicion, belligerent posturing and blind miscalculation.