Brisbane Boys' College Library: Year 12: Term 2 (IA3): Cold War

Possible Topics to Choose Relating to the Cold War and Impact on a Particular Country

Some suggested topics:

Germany (might include Berlin Airlift / Blockade, 1949, division between West and East Germany, Marshall plan in West Germany), Berlin Wall 1961
Korean Peninsula (Korean War and beyond)
USA - ‘McCarthyism’
USA – role of the CIA
USSR – role of the KGB
Hungary Crisis 1956
Czech Crisis 1968
Cuba (Cuban Missile Crisis, also maybe focus on Fidel Castro, or Che Guevera)
USA (Reagan)
USSR (Gorbachev – ‘Glasnost’ and ‘Perestroika’)
Soviet Union (aka USSR) The break-up of the USSR and ‘finish’ of Communism there - 1989-1991
Yugoslavia (including leadership of Tito)
The Cold War in Australia (including the Petrov Affair, and attempt to ban the Communist Party)
Historiography of the Cold War – should apply to all topics
The Cold War in Central and South America e.g. Chile
The Suez Crisis (Egypt, Israel, UK, France, USA, USSR)
China and the Cold War
Iran and the Cold War
Afghanistan (Soviet invasion)

This list is not exhaustive; you may suggest a different topic if your teacher approves.

Vietnam has been excluded from these suggestions, as it is our external exam topic, and will be studied in detail after completion of the IA3.

Useful Websites

COLD WAR CONFLICTS (GENERAL)

BBC: Cold War

History learning site UK: What Was the Cold War?

The Cold War Museum

United Kingdom Government National Archive

Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy: The Cold War

Wilson Centre Origins of the Cold War Documents
This collection of primary source documents discusses international relations during World War II and the years shortly after.

CHINA
Washington State Uni: Modern China

George Washington Uni: China and the United States - From Hostility to Engagement

China's Role During the Cold War

BERLIN BLOCKADE, 1949
Cold War Museum
Scroll down to 'Berlin Blockade' and 'Berlin Airlift'

The Cold War Museum: Berlin Blockade

Harry S. Trueman Library: Berlin Blockade

John D. Clare.net: Berlin Blockade

About.com: Berlin Blockade

Military History: The Berlin Blockade

KOREAN WAR, 1950-1953
John D. Clare.net: Korean War

Naval History & Heritage: Korean War

Infoplease: Korean War

Spartacus: Korean War

ThinkQuest: Korean War-The Forgotten War

Global Security: Korean War

US Army Military History: Korean War

BBC: The Korean War - An Overview

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, 1962
Guide to Russia.com: Cuban Missile Crisis

ThinkQuest: Cuban Missile Crisis

BBC History: JFK & the Cuban Missile Crisis

History and Politics Out Loud: Cuban Missile Crisis

George Washington Uni: The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962

Cuban Missile Crisis: Primary Sources

Naval Historical Center: Cuban Missile Crisis

Global Security.org: Cuban Missile Crisis

SPACE RACE
National Air and Space Museum: Space Race

The Space Race

NASA: Sputnik and the Dawn of the Space Race

Vibration Data: Cold War and the Space Race Era

Cuba

Video: Overview of the Cold War

Zoter0 - Online Referencing Tool

Zotero can be set to the same Harvard AGPS (Australia) style that CiteAce uses, called 'Melbourne Polytechnic - Harvard'. Please read the instructions carefully.

Any issues - see your Library Staff

Possible Key Questions and Sub-Questions

Germany
Key Question: Why could it be said that Germany was the epicentre for all the tensions between democracy and communism, especially during the early period of the Cold War era? Look at this website.

Hypothesis: Germany became the epicentre of post-war heightened tensions between the US and USSR which intensified into the Cold War, and also the symbolic site of its conclusion many decades later in 1991 as the Berlin Wall fell.

Sub-questions:

1. What was the Berlin Blockade / Airlift of 1949, and why was it important in poisoning the relationship between the US and Sovet Union?

2. How was the division of Germany achieved, and what were its long-term consequences for the Cold War?

3. What was the Marshall Plan (1948), how did it impact Germany, and why and how did it affect US-Soviet relations in the Cold War? Look at this website and also this website.

4. Why was the Berlin Wall built in 1961, and what impact did it have on the Cold War?

The Korean War
Key Question: In what ways was the Korean War a significant conflict in the Cold War and a prototype for many modern international conflicts involving the super powers?

Sub-questions:

Why and how was it a conflict of ideologies (Communism vs Capitalism)
How did the Korean War mark a shift in the focal point in the development of international tensions? (from Europe: Berlin, East Germany, annexation of Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania + Moldova - to East Asia)
Why and how was the Korean War one of the first ‘proxy’ wars – ie. A major war fought between the United States and a Soviet communist-supported enemy. A proxy war occurs when one or more opposing powers instigates a war and then uses third parties to fight on their behalf.
How was the Korean War a prototype for US-involved wars in the last 70 years? See HERE.
What is the continuing legacy of this war in today’s world? (North and South Korea – the Cold War has never ended for North Korea).

Possible Hypothesis and Signposting:

The Korean War demonstrated a significant shift and intensification of Cold War tensions which had enormous consequences and a profound and enduring impact on international relations. Where previously the Cold War conflicts had been totally focussed on Europe, the Korean War demonstrated that the battle over ideological differences had spread to Asia and inevitably to the world stage; it began the policy of ‘proxy wars’ in a third country that was to become a feature of other Cold War conflicts; and its effects continue to be felt 70 years later.

Cuba

Hypothesis: Fidel Castro used his powerful Communist-brotherhood connections to deftly manipulate the opportunities afforded him, and to provoke and defy the United States.

ONESearch

The ENTIRE collection of resources provided by the BBC Birtles Library can be searched on ONE single, powerful search platform, which retrieves print books, eBooks, database articles and websites. Click HERE for assistance.

Oliver Library Catalogue

Oliver Library Catalogue

Look here for books, eBooks,

DVDs and websites.

McCarthyism

McCarthyism and the Red Scare
Accessed via History Reference Centre database.

Ebook: McCarthyism and the Communist Threat
Provides an absorbing overview of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his anti-Communist "witch hunts" of the 1950s. Also explores the ways in which the McCarthy era shaped the trajectory of American politics and culture for decades to come.

Historiography

Towards a Post-Cold War Historiography (A Reply to David Joravsky)
Kojevnikov, Alexei, from the journal The Russian Review, 1 July 1998, Vol.57(3), pp.455-459. Accessed via History Reference Centre database.
Cold War Historiography at the Crossroads
From the journal 'Cold War History', Volume 14, 2014 - Issue 4, pp. 685-703, by Federico Romero, of the Department of History and Civilisation, European University Institute, Florence, Italy. Accessed via JSTOR database.
A New Historiography of the Cold War
From European History Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 4, pp. 657-664, 2011, by Sari Autio-Sarasmo. Accessed by History Reference Centre database.

Primary Source Documents

Wilson Center Digital Archive : excellent range of primary documents - use the search box to find your topic

The Avalon Project, Yale Law School : primary documents from the Cold War

CIA : Assessing the Soviet threat

Library of Congress : Revelations from the Russian Archives_Cold War. Documents translated into English and accessed via the Library of Congress

Office of The Historian, United State Government : Cold War years

British National Archives : The Cold War

John F Kennedy Museum : Cold War documents

History.Com - videos of speeches from the Cold War

Museum of Australian Democracy : The Petrov Affair

Korean War : Australian Government

Berlin Wall

Occupation and the Emergence of Two States (1945-1961) : German History in Documents and Images

Czech Crisis

CIA intelligence report - documented on 28 Oct 1986 'POLITICS IN THE SOVIET POLITBURO AND THE CZECH CRISIS'

Prague Spring Archive - Texas University

Speech by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev November 1968, as justification to Prague Spring - Fordham University

Note: In 1981, Yale Law reviewed the Brezhnev Doctrine - Law and Use of Force by States

Cold War studies (Transcript of Conversation between Brezhnev and Dubcek, 13 August 1968) - Harvard University

The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia - Michigan University

Crisis in Czechoslovakia - (includes translated documents, images, video & audio) Michigan State University

Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia - Wilson Centre Digital Archive

Czechoslovakia 1968 - includes CIA reports documenting the build-up to and Soviet Invasion

The Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.)

Look through the History databases above under 'Central Intelligence Agency' or 'C.I.A.'. There are many sources here!

C.I.A. (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency)
Accessed via Gale E-books database. By Judson Knight, at https://go.gale.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=61book02.
Central Intelligence Agency C.I.A.
Accessed via Modern History database. By Combs, Cindy C., and Martin W. Slann. 2007. By Infobase publishers. https://online.infobase.com/HRC/Browse/Product/3
Central Intelligence Agency
Accessed via Modern World History database. By Combs, Cindy C., and Martin W. Slann. “Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 2007. https://online.infobase.com/HRC/Browse/Product/3
Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.)
Accessed via Gale E-books database. By Hugh Wilford,
Professor of History, California State University, Long Beach USA, at
Establishment of the C.I.A. and its vital role in the Cold War era
PhD. thesis submitted for approval.
Central Intelligence Agency
Accessed via JSTOR database. Very long document with lots of information!
C.I.A. Primary Source: Remarks at the cornerstone-laying for the CIA Building at Langley, Virginia, November 3 1959
C.I.A. Primary Source: Remarks to top personnel at the CIA March 7 1969
Accessed via History Reference Centre
C.I.A. Primary Source: Remarks to Agency employees August 16, 1978

Useful Databases

Britannica Online This link opens in a new window
Gale World History in Context This link opens in a new window
History Reference Center This link opens in a new window
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Gale Academic Onefile This link opens in a new window
Gale Ebooks This link opens in a new window
Password: gift. This database is on trial until May 31, until end of corona virus shutdown. Look on the left-hand side for the different collections of ebooks and choose what you want.

eBooks from the Library Catalogue

The Cold War
Includes Cuban Missile Crisis, Arms Race, Spies / Espionage, Secret Service, Berlin and Propaganda.
Cold War Leaders
Includes Soviet Union and Chinese leaders Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Gorbachev and Mao Zedong.
The rise and fall of Détente
A survey of the evolution of American foreign policy during a key period in recent history, the era of superpower détente and global transformation in the 1960s and 1970s. Examines the reasons that led to the rise of détente, explores the highlights of the era’s reduced East-West tensions, and explains the causes of détente’s demise.
Daughters of the KGB
Discusses the KGB's 'daughter' organisations through which Moscow terrorised the satellite states grabbed by Stalin during and after the Second World War. Staffed by Moscow-trained nationals closely monitored by KGB 'ambassadors', Poland's UB, the Czech StB, the Hungarian AVH, Romania's Securitate, Bulgaria's KDS and the ultra-Stalinist Stasi of the German Democratic Republic all repressed democratic movements in their respective countries for forty years.
Equal security; Europe and the SALT process, 1967-1976
Superpower detente during the Nixon-Ford Administration led to the formation of an East-West regime aimed at conflict control and systemic stability. 'Equal Security' was the proclaimed goal. By institutionalizing bipolarity, however, the bilateral US-SU Strategic Arms Limitation Talks actually threatened Western European security, for global security and Alliance security were ultimately incompatible.
Spy agencies, intelligence operations, and the people behind them
This compelling volume examines the models intelligence agencies around the world have used both in the past and present, notable individuals, and the intelligence priorities of the Middle East and East Asia.
The A to Z of NATO and Other International Security Organizations
Covers the Atlantic Alliance's origins, structure and organization, including a broader Euro-Atlantic security architecture (e.g., North Atlantic Consultative Council, Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, NATO-Russia Charter; NATO-Ukraine Charter, and NATO-Mediterranean Dialogue Partners).
A Failed Empire
Western interpretations of the Cold War have erred by exaggerating either the Kremlin's pragmatism or its aggressiveness, argues Vladislav Zubok. Explaining the interests, aspirations, illusions, fears, and misperceptions of the Kremlin leaders and Soviet elites, Zubok offers a Soviet perspective on the greatest standoff of the twentieth century.
Moscow Rules: Secret police, spies, sleepers and assassins by Douglas Boyd
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin installed secret police services in all the satellite countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Trained by his NKVD, a predecessor of the KGB officers of the Polish UB, the Czech StB, the Hungarian AVO, Romania's Securitate, Bulgaria's KDS, Albania's Sigurimi and the Stasi of the German Democratic Republic spied on and ruthlessly repressed their fellow citizens on the Soviet model. When the resultant hatred exploded in uprisings they were put down by brutality, bloodshed and Soviet tanks. What was at first not so obvious was that these state terror organisations were also designed for military and commercial espionage in the West, to conceal the real case officers in Moscow. Specially trained operatives undertook 'wet jobs', including assassination of anti-Soviet figures. Perhaps the most menacing were the sleepers who settled in the West, married and had children while waiting to strike against their host countries.
Khrushchev
Explores the innovative theme of Khrushchev as reformer, arguing that the 'bumbling' nature of those reforms only partly reflected Khrushchev's uncertainty about how to act. Swain provides a cogent account of Khrushchev's political career and of his wider role in Soviet and world politics.

Cover Art Access to History for the IB Diploma: the Cold War: Superpower Tensions and Rivalries Second Edition

Another Ebook

Access to History for the IB Diploma: the Cold War: Superpower Tensions and Rivalries Second Edition

How to Write In-Text References for Humanities

How to write in-text references for Humanities

Referencing Hints

Hints for In-Text and End-Text Referencing

Soviets in Afghanistan

SOVIET WAR IN AFGHANISTAN, 1979-1988
New World Encyclopedia: Soviet-Afghan War

Guide to Russia.com: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

BBC News: Timeline - Soviet War in Afghanistan

The Soviet War in Afghanistan - History or Harbinger of Future War?

George Washington University: Afghanistan - Lessons From the Last War
Note where it says 'Jump to Documents' - this will take you to valuable primary source material.

Afghanistan: Anatomy of a Soviet Failure
Primary source, accessed via JSTOR database.

Berlin

Berlin: The Flashpoint of the Cold War

Year 12: Term 2 (IA3): Cold War

Term 2 IA3: Cold War