DBQ+Cold+War+Pr.+7

**Document 1**
Source: Evanne Newman; born Febuary 19, 1942; Occupation: Teacher; Morton Grove, IL "I leared most about the Cold War in High School... I remember I was very shocked when the Soviet Union fell. It affected sports, for one, and I didn't expect communism to just end. We just weren't used to not having another superpower."

**Document 2**
Source: Jack Newman; born August 22, 1963; Occupation: Financial Advisor; Hoffman Estates IL "It was a period where the United States and the Soviet Union were sort of afraid of each other...It really didn't affect my life much either way, even though I certainly heard about it on the news...I don't think communism is a very powerful force in the world today, other than maybe in China. It probably wouldn't affect your genertion."

**Document 3**
Helen Ho, 12-20-1959, system programer, Chicago IL "I was excited for Germany to be reunited again. There was always so much conflict between the East and the West, but now they'd become one country. At school we learned to always be aware of our surroundings, to make sure nothing was going on. I believe that people now view the world differently because they are more trusting towards other people, and they believe that everyone is good."

**Document 4**
Paul Bucheit, 5-14-1947, teacher, Chicago IL "I had a feeling that the wall was going to fall and I didn't think that it was that big of a deal. During school we were taught to always be prepared at all times and if there was any bombing to hide in the subways, under desks, or duck by a wall. After the wall fell people said that capitalism was the best policy and not communism. I remember everyone was always scared and no one could trust anybody."

**Document 5**
Joyce Sullivan-DOB 11/14/59 Occupation: Secretary, Location: Highland Park, IL Q: What do you remember about the Vietnam War? A: " I was about thirteen and a junior high student. I remember my friend had P.O.W bracelets to remember those who were captured over there. My friend's brother was a P.O.W and I remember how hard it was for her and how patriotic she felt about America.

**Document 6**
Bill Sullivan: Occupation: Attorney, location: Chicago IL Q: What understanding did you have about the ideolgical differences between captialism and communism at the time? A: Well I simply thought of communism as bad and believed it to be a Russian and North Vietnam obsession. In my first year in college I remember talking with professors about mutual annihilation as a deterint to war between the two countries.

**Document 7**
Diane Geissler-DOB-08/13/1959 Occupation: Real Estate Agent with Koenig and Strey, Childhood Residense:Waukegan,Illinois Q: What was going on in your life when the wall fell, and what impact did it have on you? A: "In '89 I was a new mother living in a new state (Texas) and had a young daughter in the house who needed a lot of attention. I specifically remember watching the fall of the wall on T.V. but I really didnt feel the weight of what was happening while I watched it. Most of my attention at the time wasn't being placed on current events, but rather on my daughter. I will say though that when the wall fell I felt a greater sense of American security to an extent, or at least like all of America could kind of take a deep breath...."

**Document 8**
Grant Geissler-DOB-05/13/1959 Occupation: Pediatric Surgeon Childhood Residense: Joliet, Illinois Q: How did you view the Vietnam War growing up and what affects did it have on you? A: "I didn't understand the Vietnam War...Didn't understand why so many people were so against it and overall didn't really understand what we were doing there in the first place. I understood communism, but didn't quite understand what it had to do with us invading Vietnam. It also really frightened me, the idea that I could get a letter at 19 years old and be immediately uprooted from my life and shipped off to war was something I thought about a lot."

**Document 9**
Kelly Thut: Dob-6/5/59 Occupation: Gym Teacher, Location: Libertyville, Illinois, U.S.A. "I can't remember what I was doing the exact moment the wall came down, in all honesty, I had little knowledge about "the wall" in the first place. What I do remember were the events that followed it. I remember some speech that Reagan gave, about how we should be happy in our "victory" over communism or something like that. I had just turned thirty and your sister Lauren had been born only a couple weeks before so at least from my perspective, I had no idea we were even at war."

**Document 10**
Jeffrey Thut: DOB-10/9/59 Occupation: Attorney Location: Waukegan, Illinois, U.S.A. "What I remember the most about the cold war growing up were the characters. The guys that were portrayed in the news. I remember Khrushchev, the bald ugly banging his shoe on some desk at a peace conference. And, Brezhnev with his epic eyebrows. Being a kid in the sixties, it was easy to view them as the "bad guys."

**Document 11**
Myung Kim: DOB-04/17/65 Occupation: Graduate Student Location: Seoul, South Korea The Cold War was very hot, in my opinion. The Cold War affected our lives greatly. South Korea was constantly affected by the fear that was and still is North Korea. Because North Korea was communist, there was a constant "regional war", so to speak, that still goes on today. We were worried of possible Russian supplies being transported to North Korea to be used against us. We knew that the USSR and US had different ideologies. The Vietnam war was basically a culmination of that tension into war. South Korea had participated in the Vietnam War, and many soldiers and killed and wounded. Agent Orange and artillery injured many soldiers and suffered from psychological issues as well as many medical issues associated with Agent Orange. Pop culture was very much impacted. There were many Spy Movies, with topics such as KGB vs. CIA. In 1980, South Korea, along with the US, boycotted the Olympics at Moscow due to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. In 1984, the USSR boycotted the Olympic games in Los Angeles. However, the first Olympics to host both countries was the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. O the irony.

**Document 12**
Domyung Hyun: DOB-12/56 Occupation: Business Location: Seoul, South Korea The Cold War was pretty scary. One of my co workers' relatives was an engineer who tried to make the bombs that could destroy us. There were strange rumors of how one single one of the bombs could either 1. Sink Korea, 2. Detach South Korea from North Korea and become an island, or 3. render the country as a desolate wasteland. Because of the proximity of communism, directly to the north, the fear was real and there was the fear of the Russians and Chinese helping North Korea to invade South Korea, which was capitalist and democratic. One of the my older brothers was almost sent to the Vietnam War, but thankfully was not able to due to illness. We saw how the soldiers were when they returned, and it wasn't something I try to remember.

**Document 13**
Nicholas Gao: DOB - 10/28/60, Occupation: Graduate Student, Location: China You know when I was younger we didn't really have a choice of what we could buy. Instead we were given a certain amount fabric tickets, food tickets, and other kinds of tickets each month because the government decided how much of what we needed. As far as food tickets went, when I was in college I was given thirty of those each month, each worth five hundred grams of food, but it wasn't as if I could use those for whatever kinds of food I wanted. To begin with there was never that much of a variety of foods because supplies were always very limited. But out of the thirty tickets, only one could be used for rice and another for flour. Everything else was for corn. So I guess when I was younger rice and corn were considered the "good stuff" whereas now it's very common. The other thing I really feel now that I can look back at my year in China is that back then we had no real motivation to work. It wouldn't have mattered if we did a thousand times more work than our neighbor, we would still get a relatively equal amount of rations. If there were no benefits to farming more or working more, why would anyone want to do so?

**Document 14**
Joy Piao: DOB - 2/16/57, Occupation: Graduate Student, Location: China From elementary school until college I was taught that socialism was better than capitalism. We were taught that because we lived in a socialist society we had more benefits and that we were living better than people in capitalist countries. It was like we were brainwashed to believe that. Because we had no idea what life outside of China was like, we, for the most part, accepted what the government told us and were satisfied with living in a socialist country. School's taught us to listen but not think. I think that most people when I was younger also felt a sense of debt toward the government. You know here we have to pay taxes and we elect the government so in a sense the government works for us. But when I was in China, the government gave you everything. There was only one party so we couldn't control who was in it, but they gave us food and other basic necessities so it felt like we owed the government for their "kindness."

**Document 15**
Marilyn Frank: DOB- 8/27/47, Occupation: Social Worker, Location: Minneapolis One of the most significant events in my life was the shooting of President John F. Kennedy, 1963. I was working on my high school paper when we heard the news. We were devastated. JFK had been developing programs to help all Americans and he seemed to have been gaining an understanding of the futility of the Vietnam War. After the disastrous Cuba Bay of Pigs invasion, and with a concern with the Cuban missile crisis, JFK met with Khrushchev and was able to negotiate an agreement with the Russians over Cuba. I think the world might have been quite different had he lived and finished out his presidency. The assassination of his brother Robert Kennedy, who could have also made a note-able president and the assassination of Martin Luther King I believe were pivotal moments that had serious consequences for the US.

**Document 16**
Richard Frank: DOB-3/8/54, Occupation: Computer Systems Consultant, Location: Chicago When I turned 18, I was allowed to be drafted for the Vietnam War. This ended up being the last year of the military draft. Many of us went to a party and put money into a pool, and which ever person at the party got the lowest number would be given the money. When the announcement came on, my number was high enough that I was not drafted, but this one boy got number six. So, he got the money, but he then had to go to Vietnam. Many people were draft dodgers and fled to places such as Canada. Would I have been a draft dodger if I was selected? I am not completely sure, but I really did not try to think about it at the time.

**Document 17**
Name: Jay Lee, Birth Date: August 7, 1960, Occupation: Working for an Import and Export company, Location: Des Plaines, Illinois 1. He was four when the incident happened, but remembers that there were the communists helping the Viet Cong and was in Vietnam and helped the North Vietnamese win the war. Yes. He was born in Korea, and this affected him because only twenty years ago before his birth there was the splitting of Korea and the split and living in South Korea affected him. The conflict between the ideologies caused economic and social strain in South Korea which in turn affected the citizens.

**Document 18**
Helena Lee, Occupation: Worked at Trading Office, Date of Birth: October 17, 1965, Location: Illinois 7. She feels that the influence upon my perspective would not have changed very drastically because as she lived a mostly sheltered life she didn't really suffer from the effects of the Cold War. Furthermore, since she was an immigrant, she arrived in the US later in her life allowing for her possibly assume that the Cold War situation and effects were just part of the acclimatization to the United States area and the state of Illinois.

**Document 19**
Source: Magda Wisniewski, DOB 06/07/1970, Occupation: Student, Location: Prostki, Poland and New York City, NY. "At school they taught that capitalism leads to destruction of a country and that Lenin was a "good uncle" that loved children, I remember seeing all the pictures of Lenin with kids. We always thought that the West had all the goods and we were the ones that were behind in technology. Everything coming from the West was different because it was colorful. It was hard to understand why communism was better if our stores were empty all the time and they had everything in abundance. We were given ration books for each month. For example, 1 kilo of sugar, per family, per month or 1 pair of boots for the Winter. Even though you had to stand in line for days, there was no guarantee that you were going to get the merchandise."

**Document 20**
Dave Wilms, DOB 7-3-1952, Occupation: Student, Location: University of Indiana "It is always easier to fight people who don't look like you. When fighting the Civil War or even Vietnam, it was brothers fighting brothers. When America was fighting in the cold war, it was Capitalism vs. communism, nothing alike. This made it easier to fight because you were not fighting your own people."

**Document 21**
Danny Spungen DOB- 8-1-1961, Occupation: Teer Vering Company Location: Wilmette, IL "I understood the 'tensions' through business from the Cold War. Our family business had to deal with the Communistic 'ideals' all the time. It was hard to do business with the Communistic countries like Poland, Romania and Russia. On the surface they promoted an 'even playing field' and we had to deal with 'government trading offices' but there was a big 'black market' behind the scenes that we needed to have in Romania to survive. In those days (1977-1989) those behind-the-scenes 'secrete' ways of doing business would simply be called 'Capitalism' by today's standards."

**Document 22**
Source: Pam Dudovitz, Date of Birth: March 9, 1958, Occupation: Student, Location: Skokie, Illinios " I beleive that the way you have grown up is so much different from me. The school systems are much better and are willing to teach you more about what's going on in the world. There are so many things that you have learned and understand that I had never had the chance to learn because the Cold War was going on. The government was trying to hid things and make it so that we didn't know the truth."

**Document 23**
Source: Mark Dudovitz, Date of Birth: June 5, 1957, Occupation: Student, Location: Lincolnwood, Illinios " The Cold War was in the news all the time, but it wasn't precieved as a war. It was seen more as friction between two nations stuck in an economic battle. People felt the tension of any moment there could be an atomic bomb dropped on you. There were drills all the time and you could hear the syrons. People were much simpler during the time and were scared. They knew only what the government told them, which was highly censored. Media and education where totally different than how they are today. Basically, we were fed propaganda and we're aware of it. Our government was just trying to make us happy and unworried. While some of us tried to change that with the anti-war movement. The pop culture was the anti-war movement because people were dieing for no cause. Because of the economic battle, as I said before, eventually the Soviet Union began to fall and by the time the wall fell, it was only a symbolic fall. It had really began to end much earlier due to the debt of the Soviet Union."

**Document 24**
David Zhong, DOB 4/19/1958: Chinese Grad Student that came to the U.S. for graduate school "In China, they did a very stupid thing, they closed all the colleges, making students work in the farm or city. They didn't allow the farmers to farm what they wanted to. Everything was limited: food, salary; everything was so poor. In a lot of places, people were starving, especially in the countryside. In the city there were limits on everything, but in the country there wasn't even anything to buy. The government said they would rather have socialist grass rather than capitalist rice...You don't hate them until you see the outside. They told you the U.S. was terrible, but it was just propaganda."

**Document 25**
Ping Zhong, DOB 4/26/1959: Lab Teacher in China in 1989 about the Fall of the Berlin Wall "It didn't affect my life at all, it was so far away and I had no connections with it. I was happy though, that Germany reunited because then the people would be reunited. The Chinese people were content in general, but the government might not have been. I don't remember everything, but the government controlled everything. You couldn't talk freely. If you talked about the government, you'd go to jail."

**Document 26**
Source: Patrick Sheehan, DOB: October 27, 1952, Occupation: General Manager of Simple Green, Location: Chicago, Illinois "I knew they [Soviets] had nuclear weapons pointed at the United States, and wanted to ruin our way of life."

**Document 27**
Source: Susan Sheehan, DOB: August 18, 1953, Occupation: Vice President of Sales Morgan Stanley, Location: Chicago, Illinois "We would read about it [Cold War] and see it in the news, but did I feel it, no"

**Document 28**
Source: Leonid Nadel, DOB 6/5/1939, Occupation: Professor at a Scientific Institute, Location: Cheboksary, Soviet Union " People who would oppose communism and the Soviet government would be diagnosed as clinically insane. The mental institution they were put into was not only a prison, but also a torture center. They would give people medication so that in 2-3 months people would become insane, and in 2-3 years, they would die."

**Document 29**
Source: Alexander Nadel, DOB November 2, 1963, Occupation: None (Immigrated to America in 1989 as a political refugee from the Soviet Union), Location: Chicago, Illinois " In school there was a subject dedicated to how to react to if there was an atomic bomb exploded. Instead of "Duck and Cover", it was "Spark left, spark right, put on your gas mask, go to the bomb shelter". Tensions with capitalists were enormous. Soviets were not allowed to leave the Union. History was changed to say that communism is the best while the West is the worst place to live. We would rebel and risk our lives to turn on forbidden radio stations and find out how great it was in the West. It was forbidden to speak with outsiders. I once talked to this architector from America who came to the Soviet Union to check on how badly the Soviets were damaged from WWII. I talked with him for a good hour, and then he asked me if I needed a ride home. I refused quickly because the KGB is always on your a*s and if they find out you would ride in a car with a foreigner, you would immediately be put into jail and probably killed because they were scared that it would be leaked to the Soviets that the West was a lot better. Sure enough, 5 minutes after my conversation ended with the American, a man came up to me and said " it would be best for you and your family for you to stop talking to outsiders." It was the KGB."

**Document 30**
Paul Hantsbarger. DOB: Feb 7, 1928. Location: Des Moines, Iowa //l. Do you remember where you were when the Berlin Wall fell? When the Soviet Union fell?// I just remember hearing about it. President Reagan was in office. A couple of years earlier [your grandma and I were] visiting in Germany at the place where [your] Grandma’s sister and husband lived at that time. Ray [the husband] was working for Honeywell. We went to see the Berlin Wall, but had to park the car a few blocks away, because at that time Ray was under contract with the US government and Honeywell (controls for undersea surveillance) and Ray didn’t want Soviet Union to know he was in the area looking around. Soviet Union as [I remember] didn’t fall, but some of the countries left the USSR. Like the country of Ukraine and what ever other countries left the Soviet Union - this was in 1991 I think.

**Document 31**
Gary Hantsbarger. DOB: April 30, 1960. Location: Skokie, Illinois //2. What do you remember learning at school or in the news about the Cold War? In what way did you understand the tension between capitalism and communism?// Well, I don’t remember the term “Cold War” being used very often, but I certainly remember there was always worry of relations with the Soviet Union and some worried about nuclear war. You’d always hear in the news that they were aiding some country they were friendly with against a country we were friendly with. And as far as tension between Capitalism and Communism… what we were always taught was that capitalists were the good guys and communists were the bad guys. That’s what I always heard when I was young, although in my tweens and teens I learned that communism wasn’t all bad. It was different, not what I would want to live under, but it wasn’t simply evil either.

**Document 32**
Source: Roni Tavor, Born November 18 1921, Location: Israel, Occupation: Solider "I was in the Israeli army during the cold war. In the army we were worrying that the United States and Russia were going to have a nuclear war. Because of this, we were taught what to do if a nuclear bomb were to go off. We learned the effects it had on the body and how the earth would be covered in dust which would prevent the sun from shining through and that everything would be destroyed by radiation. There is no bomb shelter in Israel that could withstand a nuclear bomb. Also, we were scared of the tensions between the countries and we knew if one bomb went off then another would soon go off and so on. This could possibly lead to another genocide which we were worried about."

**Document 33**
Source: Isadore Ellis, Born January 17, 1921, Location Chicago, Occupation: Scrap dealer "I was a scrap dealer. I bought metals, aluminum, iron and other things at a low price and then sold them at a higher price. During the cold war, the demand of the products increased and it was harder to get the scraps. Inflation was also not helping the problem. Work for me was hard. I could not always get the scraps I needed. Some days were really hard and I was worried that I would not be able to provide food for my family. "

**Document 34**
Source: Teresa Zawadzka, Born April 20, 1949, Location: Prostki, Poland, Occupation: V. President of Village Hall

"All you know is freedom and democracy. I was forced to be a part of the Communist Part because I worked in the government. We weren't even allowed to go to church. We had to baptize our kids secretly because it was against communist beliefs... When Stalin died, officially, you had to mourn his death and put up Russian flags in your home. But secretly people were celebrating and anticipating change."

**Document 35**
Source: Robert Levy, Born June 15, 1931, Location: Chicago, Illinois, Occupation: Deli Owner " I don't remember anything about the Cold War. Even if there was a Cold War, it never affected my life."

**Document 36**
Source: Linden Lee, DOB: October 2, 1951, Location: Chicago, Illinois, Occupation: T-Shirt making business

"Vietnam War, there was no reason for us to be there. For a big country to go to a poor country to get natural resources, was the main point of the war, and when they were there, there were not many resources there so they came back...I was an army soldier, but I didn't have a chance to fight because it was so close to the end of the war."

**Document 37**
Source: Minsu Lee, DOB: January 25, 1966, Location: Urbana, Illinois, College Student at the University of Illinois

"Oh yeah, its main ideas about its people of communist countries, it taught the little ones that communists had horns on their heads, and had long teeth and nails, which made youngsters believe that communists were evil without proof that people in socialist countries were indeed human."

**Document**
Source: Steven Levy, DOB:September 3, 1954, Location: Skokie, Illinois, Occupation: Lawyer

"I remember when I was 8 years old, it was discovered that there were Russian missiles in Cuba pointing at the U.S.A. And for a few weeks, no one knew whether the U.S.A. would be under nuclear attack. Since Chicago was the center of transportation and communication, everyone thought that Chicago would be the prime target. We were all afraid of dying from a Soviet nuclear missile....... and we all realized that the duck and cover wouldn't save us during an attack. But, even though that was a bad time, it was when President Kennedy died that we all thought we would go to war with the Soviet Union for sure."

Source: Rong Zhou, DOB: September 25, 1954, Location: China
 * Document 38

"During the Cold War, much of the efforts were focused on the war efforts. There was a belief that the super powers were going to the destroy the world and that the ability to coexist was impossible. In society, marching songs and clothing were created in dedication to the military. In addition, many Chinese built tunnels underground to protect from potential airplane bombs." **

Document 39 Source: Chengguo Wang, DOB: August 20, 1948, Location: China

"I believe that the younger generation today sees the world differently because they have never experienced the tensions that once were between the U.S. and the Russians."

Source: Jeff Schmidt, DOB: October 21, 1961, location: Alton, Illinois
 * Document 40**

"When I turned 18, I had to sign up for the draft. I was allowed to vote and as soon as I could do that i went down to the draft office and signed up for the war in Vietnam. i was ready to go to war for my country but luckily i wasn't drafted. i was scared to go to war but as long as i was fighting for my country and fighting against threats from other countries like communism and Russia, i was ready to do so because that's what I was taught to feel."

Source: Valorie Schmidt, DOB: May 10, 1966, location: Chicago Illinois
 * Document 41**

"I really only remember the very end of the cold war, but i remember being taught that communism was a very negative economic policy and that we should all be afraid of communists because they were bad people and were threatening to the American civilization. i think communism is a terrible economic policy and i don't see how it could really work for anyone in the world. it upsets me that everyone is looking toward socialist economic ideals today because what i know is capitalism, and i don't want that to change."

**Document 42**
Source: Irene Hwang, DOB January 18, 1963, Location: Seoul, South Korea "I remember during elementary and through junior high the schools would make us write these letter to the soldiers serving in the Korean army. I also remember hating those letters we had to write. I didn't understand why we had to write them. But now as I look back, I kind of regret not being more sincere in those letters we wrote to them."

Source: Steve Hwang, DOB: September 19, 1961, Location: Seoul, South Korea "During school I would remember the teachers telling us to draw these drawing about communism and all my classmates, including myself, would draw these big demons and monsters representing them. They would have horns and we learned that they were bad. It wasn't very hard to persuade us since due to the Korean War all of us knew that Korea only got split up due to communism.

source: Clark Chaffee, DOB: july 2, 1951, Location: teaching in IL "I was a student during the cold wars. I remember watching nuclear prevention videos of nuclear war and also practicing drills. They taught us to hide under desks which was really stupid. During that time, I felt insecure and unsafe with no dependency on anyone. I think because of this certain uncertainty, that was when rock and role took off since people thought "we might die tomorrow, so why formality" which also loosened and changed society."
 * Document 44**

source: Jing Shi, DOB: may 21, 1975, student in China, Location Chengde " I did not really feel the impact of the cold war. Of course i knew that China was under chairman Mao; he was viewed as a hero who promoted communism and China felt proud of communism. But, society was not really involved in government and the citizens knew very little about things. Since China was under low living conditions at the time,everyone had to worry about their own lives and doing everyday chores in order to support the family. so I felt very little of the effect of the cold war"
 * Document 45**

 source: Rao Manam, DOB-October 3, 1935, In 1989-civil engineer, living in Palentine, IL, Ethnicity-Indian " The tension between capitalism and communism... actually I don’t see that as a fight between them, it is a national interest, and Russia is interested in itself, and china is interested in itself, and so on and it had nothing to do with capitalism. It is only an outside reason. It’s like Islam, they are not fighting for Islam, only because they want civil rights and don’t want an outsider to dominate. It is the natural tendency to oppose anything coming from outside, especially if you see what happened in the history. You don’t want to repeat history, As Churchill once said,”If one does not read history they are condemned to repeat it, at the same time if you read too much history you are likely to be prejudice.” "
 * Document 46**

source: Sugana Gella, DOB-April 9, 1940, in 1989-Engineer, Chicago, IL, Ethnicity-Indian What do you know about Vietnam war? “America went for a good intention, so they could help South Vietnam to not be taken over by North Vietnam, which is already dominated by Russia. And same thing happened in North Korea and South Korea…East Berlin and West Berlin. But sadly it wasn’t paid off, many people were being drafted and I was so scared I was going to be drafted so we went on a long vacation to Canada and came back after it had ended. “
 * Document 47 **