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The Presidency and the Cold War
Directions:
Access the National Portrait Gallery’s website for the Cold War and get started on your journey.
http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/coldwar/coldwar.html
Answer the questions below as you watch the video clips, read the text, and analyze the photographs relating to
the Cold War. Pay attention to the included directions.
Franklin Roosevelt 1933 - 1945
1. Identify the three men in the photograph and the term applied to this trio of men.
Press Play on the Video
2. What “sowed the seeds of a Cold War that no one yet saw coming”? When did this event take place?
3. According to the video’s speaker, Brian Williams, what were Churchill, FDR, and Stalin doing at their
meeting?
4. In the decades since the meeting of the Big Three the world has come to agreement that __________
worked over the other Allies.
5. What was Stalin’s situation in Eastern Europe as it related to the decisions made by the Big Three?
Click the “Roosevelt’s Decision” link
6. Identify three concerns of FDR at the conference at Yalta when the Allied leaders met in February 1945.
7. According to the text, Stalin, at Yalta, was concerned about security and presumed Eastern Europe
would be part of the Soviet “Sphere of Influence”. (a) Define “sphere of influence” and (b) identify
another “sphere of influence” example discussed during the school year during a previous era.
8. What did Stalin’s failure to live up to his promise of free elections in Eastern Europe lead to for the
United States?
Picture: Josef Stalin, 1950
9. Why did Stalin feel that Russia’s only safety in a postwar world lay in a divided, weakened Germany
and the establishment of a Soviet “sphere of influence” in Eastern Europe?
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Harry Truman 1945 – 1953
Picture: Churchill, Truman, Stalin at Potsdam 1945
10. What World War I type punishment applied to Germany through the Treaty of Versailles did Stalin push
for at Potsdam to be applied to Germany again?
11. What additional concerns did Churchill and Truman have about Stalin at Potsdam?
Picture: Harry Truman, 1952
12. How did Truman attempt to pressure Stalin into reaffirm agreements made at Yalta?
13. Following WWII Truman set a course for a policy of “containment” that would do what? How did he
attempt to implement this policy of containment?
Press Play on the Video
14. To this day, what is considered the benchmark for aid?
15. According to Truman, what nurtures the seeds of totalitarianism?
16. After watching the video, define in your own words the goal of the Marshall Plan.
Press the arrow in the brown box pointing to the right.
Watch the video on the Berlin Blockade
17. In what part of Germany is the city of Berlin located?
18. What did the Soviets use to blockade Berlin in 1948?
19. How often were planes landing?
20. In what years did the blockade/airlift take place?
21. The city of Berlin became what type of icon?
22. “We come to Berlin, we American Presidents, because it’s our duty to __________________________”
23. After the video, single out in the picture to the left of the video at least two details that might be used to
identify the picture as relating to the Berlin crisis.
Click the “Truman’s Decision” link
24. What was the purpose of the Soviet blockade of Berlin?
25. For how long would Berlin remain the focus of Cold War tensions?
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Close the “Truman’s Decision” window and press the arrow in the brown box pointing to the right.
Picture: George Kennan, 1947
26. What game does George Kennan appear to be playing in the picture? How does that game possibly
relate to the Cold War?
27. What qualified Kennan to make suggestions on how to handle Soviet expansion?
28. Why did Kennan argue that America had to assume the role of a “great power”?
29. Who are the individuals in the other two pictures that are to the right of George Kennan? What role did
these men play in the Cold War?
Press the arrow in the brown box pointing to the right.
Picture: Harry Truman with his Advisors, 1950
30. In 1950, Communist North Korea invaded: _________________
31. What did Truman decide to do about the North Korean invasion?
Click the “Truman’s Decision” link
32. Where was Korea divided following World War II?
33. Why was the timing of the United Nations meeting fortuitous for the United States?
34. What did the U.N. official call the war in Korea?
35. How long was the Korean War and where was Korea divided after the conflict?
Close the “Truman’s Decision” window and examine the picture of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
36. Why was Julius Rosenberg arrested?
37. Based on the reading, was the couple guilty? Explain your answer.
Press the arrow in the brown box pointing to the right and then play the video
38. According to President Truman, what did the attack on South Korea make clear?
39. Where in Korea can one go today and still see a vestige of the Cold War?
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Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953 - 1961
Play the Video
40. Eisenhower believed freedom’s fight should be how long?
41. When he left office, what did Ike warn against in relation to the military industrial complex?
42. What did the downing of Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 plane force the American government to admit?
What reason did Eisenhower give for why these flights were necessary?
Picture: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958
43. What policy did Eisenhower turn to rather than try to match Soviet strengths in conventional arms?
44. What did the Eisenhower Doctrine give the president the authority to do?
Picture: Senator Joseph McCarthy, 1954
45. What did McCarthy claim to have in 1950?
46. With what did the term “McCarthyism” come to be synonymous?
47. Why was McCarthy censured by the Senate in 1954?
Press the arrow in the brown box pointing to the right and then examine John Foster Dulles, c. 1953
48. What was Dulles’ position in the government?
49. Dulles threatened to meet Soviet aggression with what? How, and where, did he actually fight
Communism?
Click the “Eisenhower’s Decision” link
50. What two concerns did Dwight D. Eisenhower have during the late 1950s?
51. How did the U-2 flights help to address the so-called “missile-gap”?
52. Even though the Soviets were finally able to shoot down a U-2 plane, the intelligence provided by the
flights allowed Eisenhower to avoid what during his presidency?
Press the arrow in the brown box pointing to the right and then examine Nikita Khrushchev, 1958
53. Give four reasons why Khrushchev was named Time magazine’s man of the year for 1957.
Press the arrow in the brown box pointing to the right and then play the video
54. What did Bert the Turtle know what to do when danger came near?
55. Since people do not have shells, what were students at school supposed to do?
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