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Students will examine three cornerstones of American foreign policy during the Cold War -- the Truman, Eisenhower & Nixon Doctrines.
In groups, the students will examine three cornerstones of American foreign policy during the Cold War – the Truman, Eisenhower & Nixon Doctrines. This exploration will involve primary source materials and critical analysis to determine the direction of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War.
Rationale (why are you doing this?) My students frequently have difficulty distinguishing between the Truman and Eisenhower doctrines, and how those doctrines helped to shape American foreign policy during the Cold War. This lesson will be a culminating activity in the early Cold War unit and will establish the foundation for our discussions of U.S. foreign policy during the 1960s and 1970s. The Nixon Doctrine will be introduced at this time to see how U.S. foreign policy changed in response to events (in this case, the Vietnam War).
Lesson Objectives - the student will
District, state, or national performance and knowledge standards/goals/skills met
War II? Did the spread of Communism justify U.S. government action in the Cold War era?
secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
Secondary materials (book, article, video documentary, etc.) needed
Fully describe the activity or assignment in detail. What will both the teacher and the students do? As homework the night before this lesson, have the students review Chapter 29 in their textbook, The American Nation, concentrating on the 1947 crisis in Greece and Turkey and the 1956 Suez Canal crisis. They also need to list the members of each of the following collective security organizations, as of 1950 and 1958: NATO, Baghdad Pact, Warsaw Pact, CENTO, SEATO. They should use their textbook and the internet to compile these lists. At the start of class, review the United States’ goals during the early Cold War. They should mention stopping the spread of communism, collective security, and nuclear superiority, among other goals. The discussion should then shift to how the United States advanced those goals through the Truman and Eisenhower Doctrines. Divide the class into groups of 3-4 students, with half of the groups assigned to read the Truman Doctrine and the other half assigned to read the Eisenhower Doctrine. Each student should complete a “Fact, Perspective, Narrative, Truth” sheet for their assigned document (see end of this lesson plan for a copy). They should also consider the following questions:
Once their analysis is completed, each group will join with a group that read the other document, pairing one Truman Doctrine group with one Eisenhower Doctrine group. Each original group will explain their doctrine to the other group, answering the questions above and keeping in mind the “Fact, Perspective . . .” analysis. Each blended group should then address the following questions:
Bring the class back together to debrief this activity. Refer to the essential question: How did American foreign policy change during the Cold War? Answer any remaining questions on the Truman and Eisenhower Doctrines. Read the Nixon Doctrine together as a class. Address the following questions:
Conclude by referring back to the essential question: How did American foreign policy change during the Cold War? Encourage the students to think about these questions:
Assessment: fully explain the assessment method in detail or create and attach a scoring guide Each student will bring a historic editorial cartoon or article to class the next day that addresses one of the three doctrines: Truman, Eisenhower or Nixon. They will share these articles/editorial cartoons with the class. The students will also be responsible for an essay on the test related to American foreign policy during the early Cold War. FACT, PERSPECTIVE, NARRATIVE, AND TRUTH “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.” – Daniel Patrick Moynihan FACT: Something that has really occurred or is actually the case; a truth known by actual observation or authentic testimony, as opposed to what is inferred, guessed, or hypothesized; a product of experience, as distinguished from the conclusions that may be based upon it. PERSPECTIVE: A particular attitude toward or way of thinking about something; an individual point of view. NARRATIVE: The story we tell or believe, in order to explain how a set of facts or events are connected to each other. TRUTH: The quality of being true; conformity with fact or reality; an obvious or accepted fact; the character of being, or disposition to be, true to a person, principle, cause. Truth is something each person creates for him/herself – an interpretation of facts based on his or her own perspective. Name of Source: ___________________________________________________________________ Date of Source: _______________________ Author: _____________________________________
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