DSE History | Origins of the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis: a ten-section tutor guide

2026-11-05

Students remember the phrase America versus the Soviet Union but cannot say why the Cold War hardened after 1945, and they blur a blockade with an invasion. This lesson uses one timeline and one map to separate ideology, spheres of influence and nuclear deterrence, then returns to the judgement question examiners ask most.

Objectives — Students can: (1) explain how the Cold War took shape using three dated events between 1945 and 1949 rather than ideology alone; (2) analyse three causes of the Cuban missile crisis, namely the Cuban revolution, the Turkish missiles and Khrushchev nuclear parity calculations; (3) judge who escalated the crisis with evidence and state the limit of their own argument.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Post-war map	How was Germany divided in 1945?	Four occupation zones, and Berlin split as well
Vocabulary	How does a sphere of influence differ from a buffer zone?	Control versus a safety distance
Source skills	What three questions open a 1962 cartoon?	Who drew it, for whom, and what should readers do

02 Lesson flow (45 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-6 min	One timeline to open	Write 1945 to 1991 on the board with one event per year	Students add three years they remember
6-16 min	Three events that hardened it	Truman Doctrine 1947, Marshall Plan 1948, NATO 1949: was each defensive or offensive?	Write one line: how Moscow would read it
16-24 min	Why Cuba became a frontline	From the 1959 revolution to the 1962 deployment, mark the 90-mile distance	Mark Cuba and the US mainland on the map
24-34 min	Walk the 12 days	Day one discovery, day seven blockade, day twelve withdrawal, asking what came next	Fill a three-column table: date, action, response
34-40 min	Practice the judgement	Model a two-sided answer: Khrushchev gambled, but the US deployed in Turkey first	Write a position plus one reason
40-45 min	Exit check	Collect three answers, read them but do not reteach	Work alone

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Build the skeleton first

Answers scatter because students hold emotion rather than dates. Write seven years only, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1961, 1962 and 1991, and ask pairs to attach one event to each before any explanation. Fill their answers back onto the board.
The point is not memorising dates but seeing that the Cold War was a chain of answers to the previous move. Then ask: if you were Moscow and you saw the Marshall Plan, would you call it aid or encirclement?

Students do: add events to the timeline and write one line on the Soviet reading.

Scene 2: Three events, two readings

Set three rows with a Western reading on the left and a Soviet reading on the right. Truman Doctrine: aid to free peoples against interference in other states. Marshall Plan: rebuilding Europe against buying influence. NATO: collective defence against military encirclement. This contrast is where essay marks sit, because the question nearly always asks for both sides.
Ban empty claims such as America wanted to rule the world; require the claim that US action in Greece and Turkey looked like encirclement to Moscow.

Students do: complete the table, fifteen words per cell at most.

Scene 3: Cuba: distance, missiles, a secret trade

Cuba sits about 90 miles from Florida, so any deployment there becomes an unacceptable threat: geography deciding politics. Use one map with Cuba, Florida and Turkey marked, and the Turkish missile line becomes obvious.
Then walk the days: day one, a U-2 finds the missiles; day seven, a quarantine is announced, the word chosen to avoid the legal meaning of blockade; day twelve, Moscow announces withdrawal while Washington quietly removes the Turkish missiles. That is 12 days from discovery to withdrawal, though textbooks often say thirteen by counting the closing day.

Students do: fill the three-column table and circle the step closest to war.

Scene 4: Judgement: two sides and a limit

The last act teaches writing, not facts. Model the sentence: the deployment was a gamble, yet the US had placed missiles in Turkey first, so the crisis was jointly made, and the public withdrawal made Khrushchev look weak at home. Then name the limitation plainly: Soviet archives opened only after 1991, so older textbooks blamed Moscow alone.
Insist every student writes one sentence on the weakness of their own case. That sentence separates a top grade from a solid one.

Students do: write three sentences, position, evidence, limitation.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Causes	Analyse the causes of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962	Three layers: the Cuban revolution and US response, the Turkish missiles, nuclear parity	One paragraph each with a dated fact
Cartoon source	A 1962 arm-wrestling cartoon	Origin and stance, then symbols, then the historical link	Three sentences: origin, message, limit
Responsibility	Who was most responsible for escalation?	One argument each way plus a limitation	Position, two evidence points, one limit
Consequences	How did the crisis change the Cold War?	Hotline, test ban treaty, Cuba staying in the Soviet camp	Three consequences, one explanation each

Sanity check (teach this): Sanity check: the Cold War ran from 1945 to 1991, 46 years, so any answer dating its end to the 1950s has the chronology wrong; Cuba is about 90 miles from the United States, so thousands of kilometres confuses Cuba with Vietnam; the crisis ran 12 days from discovery to withdrawal, thirteen only if the closing day counts; a quarantine is not a declaration of war, so an answer saying Washington declared war is factually wrong; and any answer blaming one side alone tops out mid-range because the question asks for analysis.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Three causes	List three causes with one dated fact each	Check the three layers are different in kind
Cartoon	For the class cartoon, write origin, message and limit	Check the author stance is stated
Judgement	Write a 120-word position with one counter-argument	Check one sentence names a limitation

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Calling it a shooting war	US and Soviet troops fought in Europe	“It was a standoff without shooting. Name the year any shot was fired.”
Ideology only	Because capitalism and communism differ	“That sentence fits any question, so nothing was answered. Give me a 1947 event.”
Blockade confused with invasion	The US invaded Cuba	“Did troops land? A quarantine stops ships at sea; it is not a landing.”
One-sided blame	It was entirely Khrushchev fault	“The question says analyse, not convict. What is the other case?”

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Redo this chapter — Three causes, cartoon sentences, 120-word judgement
History index — Other chapters and question types
All prep guides — The same ten sections across subjects

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Dates	1945 to 1991, 46 years	Wrong span means repeat act one
Crisis length	12 days from discovery to withdrawal	Saying months means repeat act three
Judgement shape	Position, evidence, limitation	Position only means redo homework one

09 Tutor FAQ

Must students memorise every date?

Only the seven key years; papers supply the rest, and causation carries the marks.

Can an answer stay on the US side?

No. Essay questions require both perspectives, and one-sided answers cap low.

Should Cuba and Vietnam be revised together?

Keep them apart: close in time but different in cause, and mixing them blurs the answer.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.