Teaching the Cold War as a Global War

Recently, the AP World Twitter chat looked at resources for teaching the Cold War as a global war. We considered images, video clips, podcasts,  and even lesson ideas.

1. On Top of the World has a terrific podcast in which the hosts discuss Odd Arne Wested's book called "The Cold War: A Global History." They offer some great ideas for teaching the Cold War through a more global lens. 
2. The Atomic Heritage Foundation has a summary of proxy wars in Africa during the Cold War. They include the Congo Crisis, the Ogaden War, the Angolan War, and the Namibian War for Independence.
3. AP World teacher Eric Beckman has a Cold War lesson in which students look at several Cold War events from around the world, place them on a map, annotate them, and put them on a thermometer to show how hot the event was.
4. Three videos provide clips that work well with the global nature of the Cold War.   
• PBS Freedom Now examines decolonization in Asia and Africa and the impact of the Cold War on that process. You can stream the video here.
• CNN's series on the Cold War has a good section called "Backyard" that offers insight into the U.S. relationship with Latin Ameria.
• Basil Davidson's video series on African history for decolonization includes sections about Nkrumah and Kenyatta,. Davidson even interviews Mugabe
5. Odd Arne Wested's Book, "The Cold War: A Global History," won the Bancroft Prize and reviews the major hotspots around the world including Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
6. Al Jazeera has an excellent essay, Between East and West: The Cold War's legacy in Africa. 
7. Bram Hubbell suggested looking at the early Cold War as a war of words. He demonstrates this with Stalin’s Soviet Victory speech, Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech, Truman’s Marshall Plan speech, and Ho Chi Minh's  Declaration of Vietnamese, which you can find here. 
8. Images like posters and cartoons help students see the global nature of the Cold War. Angela Lee tweeted a great site for posters showing China and the USSR during the Cold War. For example, the image on the left shows the earlier friendship between China and USSR and the image on the right shows the Korean War from the Chinese perspective.