Classroom Connection: Beyond the Iron Curtain with Francis Gary Powers, Jr.

I have a collection of items from my time in the army during the Cold War.  A piece of the Berlin Wall, a copy of the flag orders required to travel from West Germany to West Berlin by vehicle.  A card used to report the location and identification of Soviet Military Liaison Mission vehicles.  I also have East German currency and other items from the DDR.  And I have a picture I took while in East Berlin, looking west toward the Brandenburg Gate, with two East German men (Perhaps Stasi or Russians, not certain) looking toward the west whilst smoking cigarettes.  It brings a tangible element to the period for my students.

Cross between making it relevant/gamification somewhat, by in most historically plausible manner and school appropriate ways making connections to references made in popular culture, games, movies, etc. (Examples may include, but are not limited to: Rocky III, Any 80s Action Movie, Golden Eye, Most to all Call of Duty Modern Warfare Games (especially Black Ops), again with a grain of salt at your discretion and own peril in relatable subject matter launch point for discussion; almost as if they are bringing remnants of prior knowledge or potentials for prior knowledge to the table to be used in class for how every you choose to cultivate it).

I have the students create documentaries on the Cold War (along with Decolonization and Globalization in the AP World History course) so a lot of the topics that Mr. Powers covered get researched and told in their own words. This is one of my favorite projects and the kids have fun doing it too.

Becca Horowitz I enjoyed the presentation by Francis Gary Powers Jr. It was fascinanting and different from other P.D. workshops I attended. I teach Big History so the scope of the course does not allow me to cover this period in depth, however, I am planning to create a lesson on this topic. Three years ago my husband and I visited South Korea and we went to the War Memorial of Korea. What I didn't know is that Colombia was the only Latin American country who sent troops and three frigates to support South Korea during the Korean War.

I posted a question to Mr. Powers about this topic but it was towards the end of the session. Would it be possible for him to answer why did Colombia send troops? 

I added some pictures and a video from the memorial.

 Becca Horowitz there are several YouTube videos of sites related to the Cold War. I visited the Plokstine missile base in Lithuania and there is a video in case teachers want to use it in their lessons. I think students would love to explore these sites as it will add more interest to study this period in history.

The video is here.

Laura Massa We sent your question to Gary Powers, and in his response, he pointed to Columbia's desire to solidify its alliance with the US. The Columbian government at the time was invested in preventing the rise of communism at home and wanted access to US military hardware to combat guerrillas in Columbia during La Violencia .

I (Bennett) am no expert here, but I'll add this: While Columbia sent just 5,000 troops and three ships, their contributions were not merely symbolic. The Batallón Colombia saw action in 1951, 52, and 153. In just 10 days in 1953, they lost hundreds of soldiers (114 killed, 141 wounded, and 38 missing in action--a 20% casualty rate at the Battle of Old Baldy, holding positions against overwhelming enemy numbers). The Battalion gained a reputation for bravery during the war,  and several individuals received medals and commendations. 

The conflict played a key role in how the Columbian armed forced developed in the second half of the century. The Columbian military gained American military tech and grew increasingly professionalized, with improvements in doctrine and organization.

If you're interested in Washington's perspective on the importance of Columbia, check out this Department of State document from 1950. 

Despite President Gomez's claims that he wanted to fight "communist tyranny", a more cynical reading of history might reference that his own rule was pretty authoritarian and he needed to cozy up to Washington to protect his own power.

(Lots of great full-color images available here.)

Bennett Sherry thank you for taking my question to Mr. Gary Powers. His explanation makes sense in the framework of the Cold War in Latin America. Even though I didn't know about Colombia's participation in the Korean War, as some Colombians told me, the connections with the U.S. have been an important force during later decades with Plan Colombia.

I appreciate the resources you shared with me and with the community, because if I am not mistaken, one of the attendees wrote a comment about Latin America. Thank you so much!

My entry point is "Winds of Change" by the Scorpions and the theory that it was a CIA propaganda tool.

I give students 15 minutes with the song, the story, and the question: does it matter if it was manufactured? That single question puts everything on the table. We get paranoia, psychological operations, mass media, the strange overlap of pop culture and geopolitics. Students who couldn't care less about the Berlin Wall are suddenly arguing about whether art can be propaganda and still be real.

What I love about this hook is that it front-loads all the things that make the Cold War fascinating before we ever get into it. The espionage, the competing ideologies playing out through music and film and sports, the way ordinary people lived inside a story they didn't know was being written for them .

And the CIA propaganda angle becomes a sourcing lesson when at the end of this activating activity we HAPPY SOURCE the song.

I love this hook! There's a fantastic podcast about the song that was released back in 2020: share.google/k2laMmHbKtavl25u7