Welcome back to my blog and in this instalment we will be talking about a very interesting topic which is the Cold War between the nuclear powers of Russia and the USA and some other events that ultimately point to one question. The inquiry question for this unit was “ How was the world on the brink”?

The final project for this unit was to write an essay that would answer the inquiry question above. Before we get there let’s talk about some of the other activities that we did that unit. We started this unit off with a very impactful movie called “13 Days”. This movie is a realistic re-creation of the thirteen days when the world was in suspense about what the nuclear powers of Russia and the USA would do. A lot of people know or have heard of the Cold War between Russia and the USA. The definition of a Cold War is a war where there is no active combat between the two countries. This was the case for these two countries. The movie 13 Days was a movie that covered the 13 days where the world was the closest to nuclear warfare. This movie was set from the point of view of the Americans which made the Russians seem like they were evil enemy. This is not the best way I thought the movie would have been set because if you don’t get both sides of the story then you can’t understand the event fully.

The next part of the unit was learning about the positives that came out of WWII. These are organizations  such as the United Nations and NATO. The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization that is tasked to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international co-operation and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. The North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries. The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.

As part of this reflection for this unit I had to research and write a small little informational piece about a social  change topic from the 1960’s. I decided to choose the topic of women’s rights and the women’s rights movement that happened at this time. I personally realized the connection between the world on the brink and the topic I chose, woman’s rights. The first connection that I made between the two were that they both happened to take place in the same time period. The second connection that I made is that they both were major changes in the world that altered cultures and people’s perspectives of the world. These two events seriously changed the landscape of how politics is conducted today.

Here is my paragraph, feel free to read it.

World on the brink social justice paragraph

Now let’s talk about the final piece of this unit. This was the essay which was an interesting process for me. If you know me then you would understand that I am a person that likes to follow the steps for certain things such as essays. This was a new experience for me when Ms. Willemse  had us write this essay and not follow certain steps in order.  We started with the thesis and this was no cup of tea for me because by the time I was done I had come up with 10 different iterations of a thesis. Next was the introduction part of the essay and this took another 5 tries to achieve where I wanted to be. Next in an uncomfortable change of events, we were told that we had to write the conclusion before the body paragraphs.  This was extremely hard for me because I was used to writing an essay in order and not skipping to the conclusion. This was another adventure, but this time I learned my lesson and got the approval on the first try.

Now let’s talk about my argument for the essay and the answer to the inquiry question for this unit. Let’s revisit what the inquiry question is for this unit. The question is “How was the world on the brink?” This is in reference to the Cold War that we talked about earlier in this blog post. My essay topic was surrounding the Marshal Plan and how it prevented the world from nuclear war. My final thesis for this essay is “The Americans devised the Marshal Plan not just to gain allies in Europe but to make a constant reminder of their presence.” My argument for this is that the Americans saw an opportunity to create economic wellness for themselves and the countries that needed aid after World War Two but they were starting to have worrisome thoughts about Russia and what they were doing. By having allies surrounding Russia it gives easy access to missiles if they needed to use them. This put a burden on Russia and enhanced the American presence in the Soviet Union.

I would love for you to read my essay

Here: The Marshal Plan essay 2