In my history class, I decided to mix things up and try something different this year when dealing with the Cold War. We decided to create a “TV Series” entitled “Cold War Episodes” in which we outlined the biggest issues and events that everyone should know about the Cold War. At some point, I’ll probably breakdown each of these into their own posts, but for today, I’m just going to outline them to see how we did in picking out the most pertinent Cold War issues. If you have other ones you would have included, please let us know. Thanks for the feedback.

Episode 1: The Iron Curtain is Coming 

A look at post-WWII Germany and Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech with set the tone.

Episode 2: Salvation from the Sky

A look at the Berlin Airlift and what it meant for the Cold War.

Episode 3: The Domino Theory

A look at how U.S. policymakers decided to stop communism at all costs, including fighting wars in Korea and Vietnam.

Episode 4: Mutual Assured Destruction

A look at how the arms race between the Soviet Union and the USSR changed the way people lived in the 1950s.

Episode 5: The Red Scare

A look at McCarthyism and the hysteria around the Cold War era.

Episode 6: Bay of Pigs

A look at the botched attempt to overthrow the Castro regime in Cuba.

Episode 7: The Space Race

A look at how desire to conquer space the earliest meant a lot for Cold War egos.

Episode 8: The Cuban Missile Crisis

A look at how the Kennedy administration stared down their Soviet counterparts, forcing them to remove their missiles from Cuba while the world breathed cautiously on the edge of nuclear war.