The Cold War Divides: Latin America

Goals & Objectives In small groups students will identify the political leaders that America and the Soviet Union supported in their competition for influence in Nicaragua, Iran, Cuba, and Afghanistan with 100% accuracy. Students will understand how the goals of the Truman Doctrine were carried out in practice during the Cold War. California State Content Standard 10.9.2 Analyze the causes of the Cold War, with the free world on one side and Soviet client states on the other, including competition for influence in such places as Egypt, the Congo, Vietnam, and Chile. 10.9.3 Understand the importance of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, which established the pattern for Americas postwar policy of supplying economic and military aid to prevent the spread of Communism and the resulting economic and political competition in arenas such as Southeast Asia (i.e., the Korean War, Vietnam War), Cuba, and Africa. Lesson Introduction (Anticipatory Set) (5 minutes) The instructor will read aloud a short excerpt from a newspaper article about the recent death of Socialist Venezualan President Hugo Chavez. The article points out the distrust between the late Venezuelan President and the United States and quotes Chavez as stating that the United States was trying to disrupt the functioning of his government. The class will then participate in a discussion in which the instructor asks them if they think the United States government currently tries to undermine sovereign foreign democratically elected governments. After a short discussion, the teacher will explain that todays lesson will shine some light on the topic and reveal that the U.S. government has indeed used covert tactics to overthrow unaggressive democratically elected governments in the past. Vocabulary (Content Language Development) Third World, Nonaligned Nations, Fidel Castro, Anastasio Somoza, Daniel Ortega, C.I.A., Cuban Missile Crisis, Contras, Sandistas, Jacobo Arbenz, Salvadore Allende, Dirty War, Banana Republic, Che Guevara, Socialism. Content Delivery (Lecture, Inquiry, Reading, Discussion and Debate, DBQ, Concept Formation, Simulation, Problem-Based Learning)

(20 minutes) LECTURE The teacher will lecture on strategies the U.S. and U.S.S.R. used to gain influence among the nonaligned nations. The lecture will also touch on the Cold War in Latin America using the examples of the Cuban Revolution, the Bay of Pigs invasion, and the Cuban Missile crisis, and the Civil Wars in Nicaragua and Guatemala and American interference with the presidency of Salvador Allende in Chile. The teacher will periodically make use of questioning strategies to make sure the students have comprehended the lecture and lead them to make connections in the content. Student Engagement & Critical Thinking (Student Activities) (20 minutes) COMMUNICATION: Journal Entry I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way. The Truman Doctrine. Anti-Americanism may indeed have grown fiercer than it was during the cold war. It is a common phenomenon that when the angels fail to deliver, the demons become more fearsome. Ian Buruma The teacher explains that anti-American sentiments around the world became more common in response to American policies during the Cold War. The teacher then explains that the two quotes provided above are related and asks the students to write in their journals what they think the second quote means. Who are the angels that Buruma speaks of and what did they fail to deliver? DISCUSSION The teacher will review the students responses to the quotations presented in the student engagement activity and lead a class discussion to discuss whether the students think the Americans lived up to the values of the Truman doctrine and whether the Soviets lived up to the values of utopian Socialism. The teacher will ask the students for justification for their answers. ORGANIZATION: Graphic Organizer Students fill out a graphic organizer tracing the development of America-Cuban relations during the Cold War. Demonstrated Learning (Formative & Summative Assessments)

Graphic Organizer, Journal Entry, Questioning Strategies, Exit Slip Lesson Closure (5 minutes) EXIT SLIP: The lesson will close with an exit slip activity in which the students will write their answer to the following questions. How was the Chiquita Banana Company complicit in the overthrow of the Guatemalan and Chilean governments? Explain how Cold War competitions for influence affected developing nations in Latin America? Accommodations for English Learners, Struggling Readers and Students with Special Needs For the group activity English Learners will be grouped both heterogeneously and homogeneously. English Learners at the most basic level will be pared with other English Learners who share the same first language so they will be able to help each other with concepts they cannot yet understand or enunciate clearly in English. However, because the small groups will consist of four students, English learners can also be grouped with students who are more proficient in English. This type of heterogeneous grouping will allow the English learners to learn from the oral English conventions of the more English proficient students during the group work. Struggling readers receive accommodation for the reading homework they were assigned before this lesson. Struggling readers receive, along with the rest of the class, a handout of questions related to the reading that the students are expected to find the answers to while they read. The questions are divided into sections so that struggling readers know what they are supposed to know from each section. This helps the metacognition of struggling readers by reminding them to check to see if they have understood the important information from each section of the textbook.

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What Came After