This document provides an overview for a multi-lesson unit on the Cold War for high school students. Lesson 1 focuses on the Truman Doctrine and has students research and present on its impact. Lesson 2 examines new communist regimes in Asia and has students write persuasive letters. Lesson 3 analyzes the role of geography in US containment policy and has students identify countries at risk of communist influence. Students use online resources and tools like Google Slides, Hangouts, and interactive maps for research, collaboration, and presenting their work.

1. Patrick Liner
Mini-Lesson Assignment
Information Fluency and Inquiry
U.S. History: The Cold War
Mini-Lesson 1: Truman Doctrine
Use of Technology Lesson 1
Ethical Use of Technology Lesson1
Georgia Performance Standard: SSUSH20-A
SSUSH20 The student will analyze the domestic and international impact of the Cold War on the
United States.
a. Describe the creation of the Marshall Plan, U.S. commitment to Europe, the Truman Doctrine,
and the origins and implications of the containment policy.
ISTE Standards for Students: Standards 2 & 4: Communication and Collaboration, Critical
Thinking and Problem Solving
Guiding Question: What was the Truman Doctrine and how was it seen as a threat by
Communist regimes around the world?
Overview of Lesson: Students will work in groups for this lesson. Students will use the List.ly
Truman Doctrine resource list and group research to complete this assignment. When
researching as a group on their own devices, students will focus on locating information

2. efficiently and evaluating information efficiently. These elements will be addressed by focusing
on the key concepts of the lesson and guiding questions. Students will evaluate the information
efficiently by evaluating the quality of the source of information. Students should evaluate
sources for bias and accuracy. Students should aim to use as many primary sources as possible
in this assignment. Students will use the information from the Truman Doctrine resource list and
their own research to create a presentation addressing elements listed below. During this
presentation, student groups will use Google Hangout to provide instant
feedback/questions/counter-arguments to the presenting group. Before students can provide
feedback to their peers, the class will review our digital etiquette ethics. This review will remind
students of the appropriate form of providing feedback to their classmates. This will help
students create focused questions and feedback during the presentations. Students will review
these digital ethics by using the live binders information hyper linked below this overview.
Digital Ethics Livebinder
http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/2010758?tabid=96396556-3848-fad1-fb49-345e7986e9fc
Truman Doctrine List.ly: http://list.ly/list/1BaD-truman-doctrine
List.ly Annotations
Resource 1: Primary documents that include the American perspective and the Communist
regime perspective of the Truman Doctrine. Resource includes letters and communications with
American policy makers and Soviet Union spokesman and Soviet newspapers
Resource 2: Oxford University Press resource describing the consequences of the Truman
Doctrine.

3. Resource 3: History channel clip of President Harry Truman delivering the Truman Doctrine to a
special session before Congress.
Resource 4: Introduction to the Truman Doctrine. A basic overview of what the Truman
Doctrine is and why it was created.
Assessment: Students will work in groups of 3-4. Each group will create a Google Slides
presentation using the guiding question from this assignment as the theme for their assessment.
A Google Slides presentation will allow students to contribute information inside and outside of
the classroom. The students will include the following information in their Google presentation.
Slides 1-2: What is the Truman Doctrine?
Slides 3-5: What affect did the Truman Doctrine have on Communist regimes around the world?
How do you think the Communist regimes viewed the Truman Doctrine?
Slide 6: What role did the Truman doctrine play in future military conflicts with the United
States?
Slide 7-10: Do you believe there was a better alternative than the Truman Doctrine for the United
States? If so, provide your alternative plan to the Truman Doctrine. If you believe the Truman
Doctrine was the best plan for the United States, explain why.
As groups present their Google Slides presentations, the student groups watching the
presentations will open a Google Hangout for each presentation. During the presentation, the
student groups will use their devices to post questions and counter arguments on their group’s
Google Hangout. At the conclusion of each presentation, The Google Hangout posts will be

4. projected onto the board. The presenting group will address the questions and arguments from
their peers.
At the conclusion of all presentations, students will write a reflection. This reflection will serve
as an additional assessment for this assignment. In the reflection, students will address the
following:
1. What is the Truman Doctrine?
2. Do you believe the Truman Doctrine beneficial for the United States, why or why not?
3. Do you believe the Truman doctrine led the United States to additional military conflict
that could have been avoided?
4. If your group wrote an alternative plan, do you still believe that plan is the best option for
the United States. If not, which plan from your peers did you believe presented the best
option for the United States?
5. Did you find the immediate feedback from your peers difficult?
6. What questions/information from your peer’s feedback did you learn the most from?
Mini-Lesson 2: New Communist Regimes in Asia
Georgia Performance Standard: SSUSH20-B
SSUSH20 The student will analyze the domestic and international impact of the Cold War on the
United States.
b. Explain the impact of the new communist regime in China and the outbreak of the Korean
War and how these events contributed to the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy

5. ISTE Standards for Students: Standard 1 & 3: Creativity and Innovation, Research and
Information Fluency
Guiding Question: What role did the new Communist regimes of North Vietnam and North
Korea have on the United States and the world? How would have a democratic North Vietnam
and North Korea stabilized the region and helped the United States?
Overview of Lesson: Students will use the New Communist Regimes in Asia Pinterest list
created for this assignment. Students will review the resources from the resources list. Students
will then use their own devices to find at least 2 more additional resources involving the spread
of Communism in North Korea and North Vietnam. Once students have reviewed the resources
provided and added their own, student will write two U.S. Foreign Policy letters to the leaders of
North Korea and North Vietnam in 1950. The letters will include persuasive arguments for the
benefits of a pro-democratic government within their countries. The aim of this assignment is to
create a persuasive argument against Communism for these two countries and explain why they
should implement a democratic government. When researching individually on their own
devices, students will focus on locating information efficiently and evaluating information
efficiently.
Pinterest Board New Communist Regimes in Asia: https://www.pinterest.com/patrickliner/new-
communist-regimes-in-asia/
Pinterest Board New Communist Regimes in Asia Annotations
Ho Chi Minh: North Vietnam Leader: This resource provides introductory information om Ho
Chi Minh and the rise of Communism in North Vietnam.

6. What Caused the Vietnam War?: This resource explains the history of North Vietnam from the
1920’2 leading up to the Vietnam War. This includes the rise of communism in North Korea.
American Experience: Vietnam Online: This resource includes primary resources including
correspondence from President’s Eisenhower and Kennedy to South Vietnamese leaders
promising military and economic support in the event of a North Vietnamese invasion.
The Domino Theory: This resource outlines the United States foreign policy at the time of the
expansion of communism in Asia.
The US and Containment: This resource was created by Washington State University and
explains the United States containment policy and the role that policy played in Asia.
U.S. Foreign Policy Assistance Program: This resource outlines the foreign assistance provided
to South Vietnam from 1950-1967.
The Strange History of North Korea’s Communist: This resource contains a BBC article about
the rise to power of Kim-Ill Sung to power in North Korea and the movement of North Korea to
a Communist country.
NBER: This resource outlines the foreign assistance given to South Korea from the United
States. This report also shows the economic growth of South Korea during this from pre-Korean
war to post-Korean war.
Assessment: In this assessment, students will write letters to the leaders Kim Ill-Sung (North
Korea circa 1948) and Ho Chi Minh (North Vietnam circa 1945). The goal of these letters is to
present logical reasoning to these leaders that Communism for their countries is a poor choice. In
these letters, students must explain to these leaders the effect Communist rule will have on the

7. region, United States, and the entire world. In this letter, students must identify pro-Democratic
allies in the region and explain the support that can be provided under a democratic
government. Please include military, economic, and medical aide that can be provided in these
regions. Students should research and use the resources provided in the Pinterest list to create
persuasive letters that show the U.S. aide provided to other countries in the region, including
South Korea and South Vietnam. Students should be persuasive in their letters. The student’s
goal would be to explain to these leaders the negative aspects of Communism in the region and
the overall negative effect communism would present for their country.
Rubric for Assessment
Mini-Lesson 3: U.S. Containment
Use of Technology Lesson 2
Georgia Performance Standards: SSUSH20-E
SSUSH20 The student will analyze the domestic and international impact of the Cold War on the

8. United States.
e. Explain the role of geography on the U.S. containment policy, the Korean War, the Bay of
Pigs, the Cuban missile crisis, and the Vietnam War.
ISTE Standards for Students: Standard 1, 2, & 4: Creativity and Innovation, Communication and
Collaboration, and Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
Guiding Question: What role did geography have on the U.S. containment policy? What
characteristics made countries more likely to fall to Communist regimes?
Overview of the Lesson: Students will use the resources from the Scoop.it list below to
understand the U.S. containment policy during the Cold War. Students will also use the
information in the Scoop.it list to understand the characteristics of Communist countries and
their economic systems. This information will help students understand what made countries
susceptible to Communist rule. Once students have reviewed the resources from the Scoop.it
list, they will begin to formulate a list of characteristics they believe lead countries to fall to
Communist rule during the Cold War. These characteristics should focus on economic status
and infrastructure post-World War Two. Once students have developed the characteristics for at-
risk countries, they will create a report and interactive map identifying 5 at-risk countries that
could potentially fall under Communist control post-1950. The interactive map will be created
using the web tool MapFab. MapFab works in conjunction with Google Maps and allows
students to add features and text to global maps. A link to MapFab is provided below. Students
will also write a report identifying why they believe these countries are at-risk for Communist
expansion. Students will complete this additional research independently using their own
devices. Students should focus on locating information efficiently. This can be achieved by

9. focusing on the information in the Scoop.it list and focusing on the guided question above.
Students should also focus on evaluating information efficiently. This mini-lesson requires
students to research and evaluate economic standing around the world during the Cold War.
While searching for additional information, students should evaluate the source of the
information and confirm that the sources they are using to evaluate economic information are
credible sources and not individuals skewing numbers to fit a predetermined agenda or
viewpoint. Once students have completed their maps and reports, students will then be put into
groups in order to collaborate and compare their reports and maps. The guiding idea behind this
collaboration is to see the commonalities and differences between the students reports and maps.
Are their countries that appear on multiple reports? If so, why did multiple students feel that
these countries were at risk? At the conclusion of collaboration, we will discuss and evaluate as
a class the outcome of the at-risk countries identified by the students.
MapFab: http://www.mapfab.com/editor/new
Scoop.it U.S. Containment Policy list (Annotations included in the headings):
http://www.scoop.it/t/u-s-containment-policy/curate?onb=1&loader=1
Assessment: For this assignment, students will create a report of the Communist situation around
the world from 1950-1975. In this report students will include a map of Communist countries
around the world and countries that students believe could fall under Communist leadership. In
order to identify which countries are susceptible to Communist rule, students have to identify the
characteristics of the countries that began practicing Communism after 1950. In this report,
identify at least 5 countries around the world that students believe are susceptible to Communist
rule. Students must explain the characteristics for why they believe those countries may be

10. targets for Communist superpowers. While explaining the characteristics, students must include
the role of geography and economics in their explanation.