THE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARD DR. FRANKENSTEIN CAN BEST BE SUMMED...

10. The students’ attitude toward Dr. Frankenstein can best be summed up by which of the following

words?

a. admiration

b. horror

c. indifference

d. anger

P

ART

C: M

INI

-T

ALKS AND

L

ECTURES

The Cold War is one of the most interesting and troubling times in American history. Several

important historical events led to the Cold War.

Let’s start in 1939, the year that Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roo-

sevelt. In that letter, Einstein told Roosevelt that it was possible to create an atomic weapon, and

he asked Roosevelt to fund research and experiments in atomic weapons. Roosevelt agreed, and

the government created the Manhattan Project, a massive effort to develop nuclear weapons.

Next, the date you all probably already know well: August 6, 1945. The fruit of the Manhat-

tan Project, the atomic bomb, was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan—a civilian, not military, target.

An estimated 150,000 civilians were killed in the attack. President Harry Truman and others

claimed at the time that dropping the bomb was necessary to force Japan to surrender and end

World War II. Others argue, quite convincingly, that we used the bomb largely to show the Soviet

Union that we were a superior world power. Though the United States and the USSR were offi-

cially allies, tensions between the two countries were already high. A deep ideological battle

between the two countries—one Communist, the other Capitalist—was already in place. And each

country was determined to outdo the other.

Two years later, in 1947, President Truman established the Truman Doctrine. This impor-

tant document redefined American foreign policy. It created a “policy of containment” which

framed our foreign policy as a battle between “good” and “evil.” Of course, we were the good guys,

and the Soviets and other Communists were the bad guys. Needless to say, this dramatically

increased the growing tension between the two countries.