Cold+War+DBQ+Pr.+1

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 * Analyze the various viewpoints on the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War**

Document 1
//Source: // //Debra Jeans, born on October 7, 1963, was a graduate student at the University of Chicago in 1989. // Interviewer: What differences did you see between capitalism and communism? How did you perceive each of them?

"In communism I always saw it as a few powerful people at the top who lived well, but most common people in Russia didn’t live very well and were not very successful. Whereas with capitalism, even lower classes did generally well, and everyone had the opportunity to be successful. I don’t know, I’ve always seen Russia as this cold grey place." 
 * Document 2**

//Source: Franklyn Jeans, born on May 11, 1941, was a rancher, lawyer, and operated a water company in Reno, Nevada in 1989.// Interviewer: Do you think that my generation, including myself, views the world differently because we were born after the Cold War?

"Sure, you don’t live wondering everyday if the world will end. Oh and we also had air raid warnings, where in school we would sit under the desks and practice. Now what the hell would a little wooden desk do for me if the Soviets were gonna nuke us? People also built up bomb shelters. I remember we had this one neighbor down the street who tore up his whole back yard to build a concrete bunker. It seems funny now, but we thought there was a serious threat that the whole world would be annihilated any second. 

= =

**Document 3**
//Source: Aaron Gruen, born on October 9, 1963, was employed at a real estate development and investment firm in Chicago during 1989. // Interviewer: Do you remember the Vietnam War?

"I remember as a child being taken by my mother, your grandmother, in a station wagon to the University of California Berkley campus because that’s why my father taught. We were going to pick him up from work, and I remember that my father had been tear-gassed because he was escorting an older professor away from a student protest."

Document 4
//Source: Xinyu Dou, student at Syracuse University in 1989// Interviewer: Did anyone you know life change because of the cold war?

"Not really, China was pretty neutral during the time so it didn't affect my life at all, at least as I can see"

Document 5
//Source: Manqing Sun, student at Syracuse University in 1989// Interviewer: In what way did you understand the tensions between capitalism and communism?

"I came from a communist country, but all I know is that the two parties were really against each other"

Document 6
//Source: Sunny Shi, student in China in 1989// Interviewer: Do you remember learning at school or in the news about the Cold War and Vietnam War?

"We didn't call it the Cold War, but yes I did. I learned that the United States wanted to conquer the World and the Communist Party is defending people from the superpower that is the United States, and we also thought that during the Vietnam War the United States was invading Vietnam. "

Document 7
//Source: David Choi, born October 2nd, 1956, was a restaurant owner in Evanston, Illinois in 1989.

"I remember learning that the tensions between Russia, I think, and the U.S. were at its highest. I wasn’t really sure of capitalism, but I really remember, as a South Korean, we hated communism, mainly because of the Korean War and North Korea and China being communist nations. South Koreans generally showed anger to people of communist North Korea, China, and even Japan. To this day, there still are tensions between these countries, more specifically North Korea."//

Document 8
Source: Born November 27th, 1974, Ioanna Abel was a high school student at Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1989.

"I remember that we (students) were often told that the Communists were the “bad guys,” since America was against them. But honestly, it was only because we were Americans, and people from Germany or Russia probably thought Americans were bad and they weren't.1"

Document 9
Source: Gino Abel, born March 10th, 1970, was a student at Manhattan College in 1989.

"I remember that my parents used to think that this “Cold War” was always such a big deal, but I kind of knew in the back of my mind that nothing would happen. Communism was against the capitalism, right? Yea, I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t really interested much at the time. There were some people who just lived on with their lives, not caring too much about the tensions, but there were some real extremists and weird people out there, too. My mother told me that her parents, and her family in Italy had a hard time going about. The economy in Europe was terrible, considering it was right after WWII, as well as the many wars in effect. Many singers started songs about the Cold War, one particular is Prince. He sang the song called 1999, talking about people carrying bombs with them everywhere, as a joke. *I think you would have loved to have been in the States during the Cold War. (i think he's joking?..)

Document 10
Christine Heinlen born June 1956, was a 6th grade teacher in Illinois in 1989

"As a kid I didn’t understand politics and it wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned about it. I remember having bomb drills. Kids going under the desks. There were yellow signs in Manhattan that led to bomb shelters which were really basements of buildings. I didn’t understand it but family in Czechoslovakia. I knew they couldn’t come and see us. The communists didn’t let them come. As a young kid my aunt came but my uncle and the kids couldn’t come. She was amazed at all the stores because they had so much stuff. The soviets had drained and put more to weapons and very little to other things. It was a Gorilla warfare. What I do remember was every night the news would have a list of soldiers who died. Names scrolled on the TV. War protests were scary because I didn’t know what it was. There were racial protests too. "

**Document 11**
Chip Tompson, born 1964, worked at Northwestern Univ. Admissions in Illinois in 1989 - Been a teacher for 15 years at Stevenson High School and Spent teaching 1 year in China

"For days it felt as if people were trickling through. People were going at it with sludge hammers and axes. It was a living symbol of division. The wall had graffiti on the West side and gray on the East side. Saw them climbing and shattering it. People went into business selling the pieces. I had just arrived in China when it first started. [Soviet Union Fall] I was in the hotel room watching CNN breaking news, but it was cut off by the government. We saw it coming for a few weeks ahead of time. It was hard to get good information, stuff outside were strongly censored. We believed the Soviet Union based on government distributed all payment as same amount and it sounded rotten. In China it was kind of a sham and have equal distribution. People with power connected and got better things. There is always corruption. Capitalists were Lobbilists and communism there were bribery with officials to get whatever it may be.

When it ended, the image of soldiers were always negative like they kill innocent people. Military was a tool for messed up government policies. When I grew up, they were seen as bloodthirsty people. [Vietnam War]"

Document 12
Paul L, born 1954, working in Sara Lee in Illinois in 1989 "There was a constant threat of nucluer war and threats of nuclear devistation. People were building bomb shelters in backyard. At school, kids would run to the hall as if it was going to work.To me, the Cold War represented distrust of the Soviet Union and communism versus the free world. Once the wall came down, that threat was diminished. It was between a surpressive government versus an open government. For the Vietnam War, I was almost drafted. All the protests and payments of what had to be paid for was over freedom of speech or to protest the war. In Ken State, the National Guard, I think, killed 4 students who were protesting. Some friends went to fight and never came back. Movies showed communists as constant foes and they created a 'witch hunt' for communist sympathizers. If you didn't grow up in the Cold War, then the view would be different. The Cold war, we saw it in terms of the enemy, communist states and the Soviet Union. Today, they see the world on a more global level and there's no real fixed enemy."

Document 13
//Source: John Munger, Patent Attorney, 49 Years Old, Lincolnshire, IL, USA Reagan started this big thing called the "Star Wars Defense" to intercept missiles. We were worried about it [being attacked], but there was // always sort of a sense that we would be protected because of our military might and because we were the main superpower.

Document 14
//Source: Ted Killingsworth, Retired Patent Attorney, 87 Years Old, Rockford, IL, USA Before it [Berlin Wall], we were always worried about Russia sending bombs over or trying to nuke us or us trying to nuke them and President Reagan went over and told Gorbachev to take the wall down. After it came down, we really stopped worrying. It took away a lot of the scariness of Russia as a nuclear arms force. //

Document 15
//Source: Leslie Munger, Retired Business Executive, 51 Years Old, Lincolnshire, IL, USA// Now in you're lifetime we're all worried about the Middle East and about Iran and Iraq and Al Quaeda and all of the middle eastern terrorists bombing us. When I was growing up, we were worried about the Russians bombing us. We didn't really give a lot of thought about the Middle East, but the Russians were very scary. There was a nuclear arms race going on... There was always this big threat hanging out there because the Soviet Union's northeastern parts were really close to Alaska and people felt it wouldn't take much to reach the U.S. with nuclear weapons.

Document 16
//Source: Joy Sellstrom Kruyswyk, employee benefits lawyer, 50 years old, Long Grove, IL// When I was a kid, the USSR was the major threat to the US in the news and in school. It seemed like the US and the USSR were the only powers in the world, and it was communism versus capitalism.

Document 17
//Source: Matt Kruyswyk, 47 years old, Long Grove, IL// Growing up in Holland, I had a much more balanced view of the Cold War...Whereas in America or the USSR people generally thought that their way was best, i was taught to believe that there were flaws in both systems of government and that neither was necessarily better.

Document 18
//Source: Marilyn Benande, 83 years old, Grayslake, IL// //I've always watched the news, and when the USSR fell I remember it was a huge deal. Everywhere I looked, the headline was about the Soviet Union.//

Document 19
//Source: Tim May, Working as an accountant in London, UK in 1989, going to school in Portsmouth, UK in 1968

"I remember waking up on 20th August 1968 to find on the news that, as Dubcek had made things more democratic in the USSR, Russia had invaded Czechoslovakia to maintain their power, and i remember believing, as well as the rest of the nation for about two weeks, that this was the beginning of World War Three. We had more reason to believe that the beginning of WW3 was upon us, as Air-fighter planes from the US were taking base in the UK, preparing to invade Eastern Europe should we have to, in order to get the Russians out of Czechoslovakia."

"I felt when the Berlin Wall was torn down that is was all slightly staged, as it became obvious about three to four days before, when the guards of East Germany at the Berlin Wall were withdrawn, so we felt that the tearing down of the wall was not such a quick and spontaneous event."

"As a youth, we were brought up to believe that Communism was bad and dishonest, and communications, which had improved during the 60's, meant that the western world could more adequately witness what was happening, although as the Russians were so secretive, even with the communications we had, we genuinely felt that the Third World War could indeed break out."//

Document 20
//Source: Michelle Mizock, 44 years old, Glenview, IL

"We were always taught that Communism was based off of decisions made by the government, and where the people had no say. As for Capitalism, we were taught that everyone has an equal chance to do well in life." //

Document 21
//Source: Murray Mizock, 44 years old, Skokie, IL

"From what we saw on t.v. and in the movies, was that the bad guys were always the Russians and Cubans while the good guys were always the Americans or the British. The classical example being most of the early James Bond films. As for what we read, we read plenty of literature from ex-soviet prisoners that were held at the camps within the Soviet Union. They were usually documents that told of how everyday life was bad behind the Soviet lines."//

**Document 22**
//Source: Marina Presman, born on April 15, 1968, was studying in college in the Ukraine in 1989//

"Do I see the world differently from you? Obviously. One of the major differences is that I see the world as a "good-guy versus bad-guy" world, while you see the "gray areas" that I sometimes overlook."

**Document 23**
//Source: Rudolph Zlatokrylov, born on September 8, 1934, worked as a boss of the technician center in a mechanical observatory in Kharkiv, the Ukraine in 1989//

"[In reference to the fall of the Berlin Wall] We didn't live in Germany, but the symbolism was universal. When the wall went down...it felt like we were finally freed from our 'prison' ".


 * Document 24**

//Source: Eugene Presman, born April 14, 1967, was studying in college in the Ukraine in 1989//

"[In school] we were taught that there existed enemy countries abroad, with America as their leader. We were also taught that they living conditions in those countries were terrible because of the [greediness of] capitalists and imperialists...However, I believe that our views on the world differ only on the basis of age; there is no difference whether or not you were born before or after the war."

Document 25
//Source: Lee Rosenbaum, born February 7 1961, System test engineer in 1989//

"I believed the people in Communist nations were oppressed and did not have the freedoms that we had. When I had to register for the draft, I put “Conscientious Objector” on it in order to not be drafted. My mom said we would move to Canada if I got drafted. The impact on pop culture was that the spy movies like James Bond always had the Russians as the enemy, like the KGB. I learned about the Cuban Missile Crisis while in school."

Document 26
//Source: Joan Rosenbaum, born April 18 1964, Worked at Allstate in 1989//

"I was at home watching the news when I first found out about the wall coming down. We were always taught in school that Communism was something to be feared and hated. I believed the Vietnam War was a war America should not be involved in. I know a lot of soldiers came back from the war with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Many movies portrayed communists as terrible people. They were always the enemy."

Document 27
//Source:// Sheri Rosenbaum, born January 4, 1963, Worked as a Marketing Communications Manager in 1989

"I don't remember the exact location I was when the wall came down. However do remember a lot of media coverage of people jumping and tearing down the wall. There was a lot of excitement and celebrations. I believed that Communism does not believe in "the American Dream" and individuals being successful (capitalism). In a communist society, the government controls everything from what the media says/prints to supply/demand of product, etc. I think the times are very different. News is immediate with the internet. You also have more eastern European kids in your school and working in your local stores than when I was growing up. You have more exposure to different eastern European cultures."

Document 28
//Source:// Roseanne Barrett, age 61, Dean of Admissions Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

"He (Regan) clearly had a huge impact. When you heard his speeches, you couldn't help but feel uplifted. He had a great admiration for our country. I liked his straight forward nature, and the way he flat out said 'Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall now.' And when The Wall fell, I felt a surge of happiness and hope that must have spread across the world."

//Source:// Ann Maine, age 30, Graduate student at UVM, lived in Rochester, New York

"I worked in a lab with mostly foreigners. There were Canadians, Europeans, and Chinese. And I remember when The Wall came down and the news about how the East Germans were still discriminated against the Jews came to the U.S., Brian O'Connell, an Irishman, told me how naive Americans were about the severity of communism in Europe. And how much more was going on than what we saw. The Chinese didn't speak about it."

Document 30
//Source:// Gordon Wood, age 31, pediatrician, lived in Rochester, New York

Sorry... i think i posted over what you wrote, if you can find it in the history, that would be good...

Document 34
Jimmy Wang, 10/20/62, PhD student at University of Michigan in 1989

" We were taught that capitalism allowed the rich to take advantage of the poor. Back then, we were a socialist state but our goal was communism. We were told that communism was a sort of heaven on earth. In a communist state, everyone would have everything they needed spiritually and materialistically since everything would belong to the people. However, a fter the violent demonstrations in Tiananmen Square people realized Communism was a dictatorship. After the Berlin Wall fell, I was happy, because it signified the fall of communism, we were all glad that the source [of communism] had been stopped.

Document 35
Sarah Wang, 08/02/64, electrical engineer, Wuhan, China 1989

" When Mao Zedong first became chairman, the people thought he had truly created a classless society. At first, he really did improve conditions for the working class, especially factory workers. Mao Zedong established laws to give them more rights and liberated the working class from the control of factory owners who often mistreated them. People looked upon business owners and welathy merchants as criminals and treated farmers and workers with the utmost respect for their hard work. He changed the entire class system, by eliminating capitalism there was no more distinction between classes based on position or wealth. In this way he gained the trust of the people. Soon, every home had a picture of Mao Zedong in their living room. He became a hero in the eyes of the Chinese people and that is why no one questioned him."

Document 36
Joy Zhao, 06/01/51, high school teacher, Shanghai, China 1989

" I was 16 when I was forced to go to Zhen Xi province to work in one of the government owned farms Mao had created. The conditions were terrible. We worked 12 to 15 hours a day and were not exempt from work even in illness. Each day we had to get up very early to plant rice and weed the leech-infested paddies; it was backbreaking labor. The only thing we had to eat was the rice we grew, no meat or vegetables. In the winter they let us return to our families but not because they cared about us, only because rice plants did not grow in the winter. I was detained at the farm for 5 years before I was allowed to go home for good. "

**Document 37 **
//Hsinjin Edwin Yang, born May 27, 1954, a Chem student at Massachusetts, 1989

Of the Cold War, I mostly just remember the events of the Berlin Wall. Prior, I was quite oblivious to its nuances, with little fuss made over such things in Taiwan. //

**Document 38 **
//Hwei-mei Yang, born April 5, 1957, a Physics student in Taiwan, 1970s//

In Taiwan we heard mostly of China and their conniving and furtive ways. We paid little attention to the Cold War, but felt sure that America would win, viewing Russian communism with hostility. It is in part for this that we felt quite comfortable in pursuing our graduate studies in the States.

**Document 39 **
//Chung-Liang Tsai-Ling, born March 15, 1934, tool shop owner, 1970s//

// Our media was centered chiefly around anti-Communist propaganda and returning to China to reclaim our rightful empire. Otherwise, we bore no direct affiliation in the Cold War. //

// **Document 40** //

Source: Frank Martini, Born July 17, 1957, Medical student at Loyola Medical School

The Cold War hugely influenced pop culture. Early Rock N' Roll songs were protest songs to the Vietnam war. Plus great movies like Dr. Strangelove were created. There were also the hippies with the sex and drugs in the streets, and their make love not war posters. Plus there were the draft dodgers and the huge surge of college applicants. You see in that day not a lot of people attended colleges, however when the Vietnam was was going on, if you were in college you were exempt from the draft.


 * Document 41**

//Source:// Dan Martini, Born October 6th, 1975, High School student The Cold War gave me an interest in news. Before the wall fell i was not interested in news at all. After the wall fell I wanted to learn why and how so I started reading the paper and watching the news.

Document 42

Source: Peter Silverman, Born Dec. 4, 1961

"The movies during this time showed the Russians as evil or the villains like in Rocky." " In school we were taught that we couldn't deal with the Russians, they were evil and had spies set up everywhere including the US."

Document 43

Source: Jeanne Sylvester, Born Aug. 22, 1962

"When we were growing up everyone felt like the Soviets were the bad guys, now everyone thinks that the Middle Easterners are evil." "I watched the Berlin wall fall on t.v. I stayed up all night to watch. It had a lot of meaning for me because I was in East Germany that year and saw how depressing it was compared to the Western side."

Document 44

Source: Mrs. Kalmers (resource center teacher)

"I was in the USSR at the time, we thought that the Americans were evil and spies just like it was the opposite in the US."

"The Cold War didn't effect Russian pop culture because pop culture was banned."

Document 45
Source: Toby Walanka DOB: 1951 store clerk, mother of two, born in the USA

"Subways had designated bomb drop areas"

"Every generation views the world differently, but I believe your generation was drastically changed from our anti-war culture... Everyone knew about the Vietnam war and that had a major effect on my life, but The Berlin WAll fall had no effect on me... I remember the possibility of them dropping a bomb on us and we hearing a siren and need to get to a shelter"

Document 46
Paul Walanka DOB: 1948 consultant, father of two, born in the USA

"It made me join the army"

"I didn't know much, but I did know about the political and economic tensions between the Soviet Union, China, and NATO... I started supporting the [vietnam] war and when I found out that it was going no where I started rejecting it... The cold war led to rock bands, artist, demonstrations, and the counter culture that really represented me"

Document 47
Andy Greenawalt DOB: 1961 businessmen, father of three, born in USA"

"The cold war affected my life by making me scared of a attack"

"Our high schools had bomb shelters and we were taught to not like Russians. We didn't know how but they could destroy us, and we could destroy them. They were different because they were communist and we were capitalist... 'make love/peace, not war' hippies were created in a way, people spoke out against the government... Your generation doesn't see the dangers out in the real world and feels secure."

Document 48
Alla Vinnik. Chicago Illinois, Recent immigrant living in an immigrant-town apartment. Recently a computer programmer, now unemployed.

"America is its own place and people live their own lives. America lives its own life and it doesn’t care about what happens in Europe just like now it doesn’t care about what happens in Africa or Asia. Yeah it might have been on the news, but when you’re so far away, it doesn’t really affect you."

Document 49
Michael Vinnik. Chicago Illinois, Recent immigrant living in an immigrant-town apartment. Computer programmer.

"We were in a really grimy neighborhood and it was my job to get us out of that immigrant town and what happened back in Russia and Belarus didn’t matter as much, all the people I cared about where here. We were lucky enough to leave before the chaos and that was all we really cared about."

Document 50
Oleg Bulakh. Minsk, Belarus, Taxi Cab Driver.

"The fall [of the Soviet Bloc] was a huge mess, an economic and political crisis. Black markets and businesses became common. Those who had money got richer through illegal methods, and when capitalism was firmly established the illegal rich men became honest business men. Inflation and bad economy followed. It wasn't good for the normal guy like me. Many of us were afraid of a war breaking out."

Document 51
Charlie Yu, Management information system Consultant in Chicago, 1989

"I'm really happy that it ended. I'm glad the US and USSR are no longer enemies. We don't need to spend all that money on stockpiling war materials."

Document 52
Jerry Franklin, Counselor at Stevenson High School, 1989

"I felt that the world was safer and people could get along. I grew up doing air raid drills."

Document 53
Yan Li, International Sales Specialist in Chicago, 1989

"I was very excited because I always wondered what a non-divided Europe would be like."

Document 54
Somanath Dev, Pharmaceutical Chemist PHD, Born in Bangladesh (East Pakistan) 1957

"At the time, Bangladesh had recently gained independence through the Bangladesh Liberation War. Many Bangladeshis at the time despised communism since East Pakistan at the time was communist. After the Bangladesh gained their independence, they removed the communist party (Communist Party of East Pakistan) and instated a democratic party (Bangladesh Awami League)."

Document 55
George A. Peterson, Computer Engineer, Neighbor

"I remember I was watching the Fall of the Berlin Wall on TV. It was the major headline in every newspaper across the nation. I was fortunate enough to preserve a piece of the wall since one of our family friends was in Germany at the time."

Document 56
Rahul Datta, Kolkata, India, Accountant at Vijaya Bank (India), Born 1963

"I was not aware of the Fall of Berlin until many years later because I had lived in a remote village for the majority of my life. Thus, the majority of the people in our village lacked knowledge of anything outside the country because there was no media for information to travel."

Document 57
Lori Filerman, Teacher in Chicago, born 1963

" During the cold war, anit-communist thoughts were poured into our heads via new anti-communist films."

Document 58
Allan Kahn, Lawyer, born 1933

" Being born after the cold war does impact a person... i don't know how.... it just does!"

Document 59
Fern Kahn, secretary, born 1937

" Seeing the Berlin Wall crumble had no affect on me, or where i lived (California). It was in every newspaper and tv channel, but no one where i was seemed to care."

Document 60
Daniel Sinnaduray, 11-08-46, business executive, Chicago,IL "I was in Sri Lanka the majority of the Cold War and my life was not really affected in anyway and after it ended, my life did not change either."

**Document 61**
Ishani Sinnaduray, 1-12-58, house wife, Chicago, IL "During the Vietnam War, I remember that many people died, and the majority of Sri Lankans did not agree with the war in the first place."

**Document 62**
Scott Ogg, 9-17-66, graduate student, Boston, MA "I was at swim practice when the 'Miracle on Ice" occured and I just remember all my teamates huddling around the television and feeling an immense amount of patriotism. It fellt really good and it was very symbolic."

**Document 63**
Joanne Duhn 9-20-59, department store manager Chicago, IL

"The Cold war didn't affect me very much. I didn't care much for the news and it seemed quite foolish to worry about war."

**Document 64**
Tom Duhn 12-15-55, Naval Officier Chicago, IL

"The fall of the wall ended many fears within the Navy. I was one of the go to people in case of a nuclear strike. I commanded one of our submarines."

**Document 65**
Dave Tucker 6-12-54 Chicago, IL

"The Vietnam changed my life forever. From my neighborhood, 15 kids were drafted and only 7 came back. One was my neighbor and I'll miss him forever. I couldn't not blame the US government for his death. Now i look back at whole thing and see how futile the Cold War was."