Short video clip from North Korea, circa 1946-1950 and featuring then Prime Minister Kim Il-sung, father of the recently deceased Kim Jong-il.
Visit www.mediarichlearning.com for more video resources on the Korean War and the Cold War.
Draft of the Charter 77 Declaration, a political manifesto calling on the Czech communist government to abide by the Helsinki Final Act and other human rights agreements it was party to. First published on January 6, 1977, among the first signatories was the playwright-turned political dissident, Václav Havel.
More information on Charter 77 in our program “The Cold War” at www.mediarichlearning.com.
Chapter 9 of our educational documentary, “The Cold War,” details Detente, the period of relative calm during the conflict during the 1970s. The clip chronicles Nixon’s opening to China and the rise of various dissident movements within the Soviet bloc. Of note, is the Charter 77 initiative within Czechoslovakia, led by Václav Havel, who died earlier today.
Visit www.mediarichlearning.com for additional resources on “The Cold War,” including teacher’s guides and classroom activities.
circa December 1950 Universal Newsreel excerpt featuring President Truman’s statements regarding the entry in the Korean War by Chinese forces.
For more resources on the Cold War and Korean War, visit www.mediarichlearning.com.
Did Cancer Kill FDR?
In 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt died suddenly of a massive brain hemorrhage, just months after beginning his fourth term in office. FDR’s doctor, Howard G. Bruenn M.D., likened the fatal attack to a “bolt of lightening.”
This account of the demise of America’s 32nd president has been accepted by the vast majority of historians and the public for more than 60 years. However, a new book, “FDR’s Deadly Secret” offers a different scenario. The authors, journalist Eric Fettman and Neurologist Steven Lomazow suggest FDR was suffering from a brain tumor that his physicians deliberately withheld the information from the public. While the evidence they present is convincing, they never uncovered the “smoking gun.” Nevertheless, their research provides fodder for several discussion themes suitable for high school history classrooms.
1) Presidential Health: Privacy vs. the Public Right to Know.
The American public was kept in the dark when Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke. Only those within JFK’s inner circle knew he suffered from Addison’s disease. Some critics suggest Reagan’s physicians concealed his mental decline during his second term. The Health Information Privacy Act (HIPA) guarantees the privacy of health concerns for all Americans. Should the nation’s top executives enjoy the same guarantee? Or, does the public’s right to know outweigh the private right to privacy?
2) Seek the Primary Source.
In this golden age of easy—and often dubious—information, its critically important that students seek the primary source. The aforementioned authors arrived at their conclusion—that FDR’s suffered from a tumor located on the right side of his brain—based, in part, on some blue ribbon detective work. They uncovered newsreel footage of FDR’s post-Yalta speech to Congress and the printed speech of the same. In the film, the normally eloquent FDR seems confused and frequently stumbles on his words. Comparing the film to the speech draft, they concluded that the President could not see the left side of the page. Brilliant!
3) What if?
The authors suggest that if knowledge of FDR’s cancer was widespread he could not have run for reelection in 1944. Republican Thomas Dewey or some Democrat other than Harry Truman would have become President in 1945 and the entire post-war/Cold War history might have taken a different course. So? What if…? I’m not familiar with the 1944 Republican platform, but let’s follow the hypothetical trail. IF Dewey had been elected in 1944 and reelected in 1948 would the Cold War have emerged as it did under Truman’s guidance? Who would the Presidential candidates have been in 1952? Ike? Earl Warren? What would the 1950s have looked like? If Warren had become President, we almost certainly would NOT have had the Brown v. Board of Education decision. And so on, and so on.
“America in the 20th Century” from mediarichlearning.com
The history of the Cold War, from the developing animosity between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. from the end of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall, is highlighted in this top-notch program….Chapters are designed to be viewed separately to support a concept. This highly recommended standards-based program may be used to introduce, extend, and summarize concepts in middle school and high school.
—School Library Journal (December 2009)
Go home, freedom
—Laurie Pritchett,
Chief of Police, Albany, GA
during the 1962 Albany Movement protests
To fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress. Therefore, I shall resign the presidency, effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour, in this office.
—President Richard Nixon
August 9, 1974
We have reached a moment when we are ready to debate resolutions…calling for the impeachment of Richard M. Nixon…
—Representative Peter Rodino,
Chairman, House Judiciary Committee on Impeachments
July 24, 1974
Vietnminh
The Việt Minh or “League for the Independence of Vietnam” was a national liberation movement founded in South China on May 19, 1941. Led by Ho Chi Minh, the Việt Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from France and later to oppose the Japanese occupation.
USS Maddox
The USS Maddox was one of two American warships involved in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964.
Viet Cong
Việt cộng is a pejorative term for “Vietnamese communist”. The word appears in Saigon newspapers beginning in 1956. American soldiers referred to the Vietcong as Victor Charlie or VC. “Victor” and “Charlie” are both letters in the NATO phonetic alphabet. “Charlie” referred to communist forces in general, both Vietcong and PAVN.
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a military campaign during the Vietnam War that began on January 31, 1968. Forces of the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam, or Viet Cong, and the People’s Army of Vietnam, or North Vietnamese army, fought against the forces of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), the United States, and their allies. The purpose of the offensive was to strike military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam and to spark a general uprising among the population that would then topple the Saigon government, thus ending the war in a single blow.
The initial attacks stunned allied forces, but most were quickly contained and beaten back, inflicting massive casualties on communist forces. Of the 80,000 enemy fighters who participated in the Tet Offensive, as many as 50,000 were killed.
Although Tet was undeniably a military defeat for Communist forces, they emerged with a decisive psychological victory. The American public, who had been led to believe that the enemy was on the verge of defeat, alleged a “credibility gap” on the part of President Johnson and his military advisors. Support for the war effort, already waning, collapsed.
Vietnamization
Vietnamization is the term given to the Nixon administration’s policy of rearming and rebuilding South Vietnam’s armed forces in order to allow the withdrawal of American ground troops.
