Homework due Friday 5/22

Seminar Reflection:

Homework due Wednesday 5/20

Homework due Tuesday 5/19

What does the film say about the role of scientific elites in society? Why? What scenes demonstrate this?

When watching The Thing I noticed how each "elite" such as the military and the scientist thought that their way of doing things/ solving problems were better. The movie to me showed that scientist thought they were better because they had more knowledge and that the military thought they were better because they had more authority. Although the military and scientist thought they would do a better job at getting rid of "The Thing" they could only do this if they worked together.

There were times in the movie that represented anxiety over science/ science getting out of hand. Such as when one of the scientist was willing to die just to keep some secrets.

Homework Due Monday 5/18

http://www.nisd.net/marshall/WebQuests/Cold%20War/USAmccarthy3.jpg

http://www.faculty.umb.edu/hannah_sevian/G660/TechPres/Fall2003/McCarthyism_files/image002.jpg

Homework Due Thursday 5/14

What Cold War anxieties are represented in the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers? How is this film related to the Red Scare, McCarthyism, and spy cases, based on the handouts and your independent research?

When watching this movie I couldn't really figure out how this all tied into our Cold War Unit. After reading the handouts and doing my own independent research it became clear how this movie tied in with everything we have been learning. The movie was about

many things we have been learning/watching but one of the main things was the Red Scare. The Red Scare was a g

eneral fear of communism. People feared communism because they felt that it was a direct threat to their freedoms as an American and it underminded basic values. When watching the movie I didn't realize how much all we were learning tied into what was happening in the movie but it is now clear. In the movie the main doctor, Dr. Bennel appeared as if he were being paranoid by thinking that some kind of aliens were taking over. As the movie continues he realizes that these pods are taking over his town and that nearly everyone he knows was now being controlled. The pods were clearly a symbol of communism and Dr. Bennel feared becoming just like everyone else. McCarthyism ties into all of this because like Red Scare, communism is a big threat that comes with fear that leads to paranoia.

Independent Research Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/arthur-miller/mccarthyism/484/

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthyism.htm

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Saccov/redscare.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Scare

Homework and Classwork due Wednesday 5/13

Seminar Reflection:
Today we had a Seminar on the film Fail Safe, the article Fat Man, and the film Dr. Strangelove. The opening of our seminar was asking small questions we had on the text. One of the first questions asked was "Was Kahn for or against nuclear war? Where did he stand?" As a group we concluded that Kahn believed in second strike deterrence. He believed that we should let someone else strike first and survive then retaliate and win, second strike deterrence. He also believed that nuclear war was not only survivable but winnable as well. One question I had was "What was the doomsday machine?" A doomsday machine was something mentioned in the Fat Man and in Dr. Strangelove. This machine was positioned around the world and once a nuclear attack is made it would automatically go off. Once it was set off it was impossible to take back. This fictional machine was used as a threat to the other country and was used as a type of deterrence. This discussion led to another question raised by Zach, "Do you think the US was being paranoid by continuing to make weapons when they had little to no proof that the Soviet Union had weapons?" At first I believed that the US wasn't being paranoid and that they were just trying to be safe. But as I started to hear more people's opinions it started to become clear that the Americans were kind of being paranoid because they had no proof, but on the other hand if you were being threatened with nuclear weapons don't you think it's better to be safe than sorry? One thing that kind of made me think the other way was when Mirit said that paranoia led them to make more because they didn't have facts which is pretty much true when you think about it. This question is still kind of a struggle for me to answer. But in the end the Soviet Union only had four missiles.

Still Need to Finish.

3-5 Pictures Related to Dr. Strangelove.


















Site: http://forrfiles.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/fallout.jpg



















Site: http://thisdistractedglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/DrStrangelove2.jpg


















Site: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/Slim-pickens_riding-the-bomb_enh-lores.jpg

















Site: image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2007/10/17/strangelove460.jpg

Homework Due Tuesday 5/12

Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was a film made in 1964 directed by Stanely Kubrick. Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe were very similiar in the sense that they were both out at the same time and they were both about nuclear war and fear of nuclear annhilation. Although they were very similar I enjoyed Dr. Strangelove more than Fail Safe because it kept me interested and it was very funny at times.

Dr. Strangelove follows a mentally unstable U.S Air Force general who orders a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. As the movie progresses General Ripper finds himself with a problem, like Fail Safe. Unlike Fail Safe, Dr. Strangelove pretty much made fun of the problem they were in. Although one of these films had humor, both had the ideas of Herman Kahn in them.

Homework Due Monday 5/11

This photo was taken in Waterloo Iowa and you can see a Fallout Shelter sign marked and stocked for 246 people. I chose this as one of my images because while reading Fat Man it mentioned that there were hundreds of these signs in the United States during the cold war that were put up by the Kennedy Administration.

Site: http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/coreng/waterloo2.html

This is a photo of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg two American communist who were executed after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage to pass information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. This photo was taken moments after there conviction. They were executed by an electric chair.

Site: http://theflapjackdepartment.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html

This is a photo of one of the many propaganda posters that were put up during the cold war. I chose this one because of the explosion and the bold colors. It has all the elements of a poster that would catch someone's eye and make them want to read which is exactly what the people who made these posters wanted.

Site:http://faculty.umf.maine.edu/%7Ewalters/web%20104/104%20outline%2010_08.htm

This is a photo from the cold war of school children doing emergency drills. As you can see they are wearing gas mask and are preparing for the worst. This is what a typical drill looked like during the cold war. More were practiced.

Site: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/smallscreen/reviews/article_1445005.php

This is a photo of a Thermonuclear bomb that was going to be used during the cold war. The name of this bomb was the Mk-17 thermonuclear bomb.

Site: http://blog.800hightech.com/cold-war-gallery-images-weapons-mass-destruction-wmd/3542/


This is a photo showing the main countries involved in the cold war. At the corner there is a key to show where each country stood.

Site: http://www.thecorner.org/hist/europe/coldwar.htm

This is a photo of the Nigaski explosion on August 6, 1945

Site: http://www.presidentialtimeline.org/html/educators/HST/atomicbomb_wq/

Homework Due Wednesday 5/6

Honestly I did not understand the movie at all. The way the characters spoke made things very hard to follow. Although I understood the basis of what was going on I still didn't get many things that were going on.

Homework Due Tuesday 5/5

Assignment Instructions:

• Read The New Yorker, “Fat Man” by Louis Menand pp. 1-4 up to line 21 (at the section break). This will be passed out in class. You can also find a printable version of the article here: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/06/27/050627crbo_books
• Answer the following questions on your blog: 1) Who was Herman Kahn and what were some of the main ideas in his book, On Thermonuclear War? 2) What is your reaction to his ideas so far?

Assignment:

Who was Herman Kahn and what were some of the main ideas in his book, On Thermonuclear War?

Herman Kahn was a part of a group called the Megadeath Intellectuals during the years of the cold war. He attended UCLA where he majored in physics. Kahn was involved in the development of the hydrogen bomb and worked with Edward Tllere, John von Nuemann, and Hans Bethe.

On Thermonuclear War:

-The book was based on two assumptions; first one was that nuclear was was possible and the second was that nuclear war is winnable.

-Kahn starts his book with a table showing the number of dead (2 million - 160 million) at the bottom of this table Kahn states a question. "Will the survivors envy the dead?" Kahn believes that the answer is no.

- Kahn believes that Americans believe that nuclear war is survivable.