So the main thing I think I learned from this week's session was that there was a long time - three years or so - between Churchill's Iron Curtain speech and the actual political division of Germany after the Berlin crisis of 1949.
I am also struck by the importance of the Marshal Plan as a breaking point between the Soviets and the West.
Here's an episode from the Cold War series that examines the Marshall Plan and its effect:
Next week
We are going to examine the Vietnam War next week. Here is the Cold War series episode for you to watch:
The question I'd like us all to think about is whether or not the US actually lost in Vietnam? This is not a trick question. You might like to do some web research. Here's a link I found that contains some relevant debate:
I had a quick look on the web for The Road to Serfdom and found the following PDF links. This is the Reader’s Digest condensed version of April 1945: Hayek1. This seems to be the full version:
Hayek2.
Saturday, 9 January 2016
Week 1- Origins of The Cold War
Welcome to our course blog!
Please use this resource to post your ideas and comments on your learning journey through this course.
This week we examined the origins of the Cold War.
The whole of the classic BBC documentary series 'Cold War' is available on You Tube. Here is the first episode: