Lesson Plan – “The Sinews of Peace” and the Cold War



Lesson Plan – “The Sinews of Peace” and the Cold War

I. Introduction

Summary This lesson plan is for a four to five day study of Winston Churchill’s “Sinews of Peace” speech (also known as “The Iron Curtain Speech”) and its influence in terms of ideas and language on later speeches given during the Cold War. It would be taught once students have covered the Cold War. It is focused on an analysis of primary sources that reflect the language and ideas of the Cold War and would give students an opportunity to discuss their thoughts on the events and the language in the documents. It is designed to develop critical thinking skills, group discussion, and written expression.

Activities Background reading in textbook and on the Internet; close reading of two primary sources; written responses to study questions; group collaboration and discussion of a document; class presentation and discussion; short essay.

II. Guiding Question

To what extent are the language and ideas expressed in Winston Churchill’s “The Sinews of Peace” speech reflected in later speeches and actions during the Cold War period?

III. Learning Objective

The lesson would take place during or after a study of the Cold War. Upon the completion of this lesson, students should be able to place the following people and events in their historical context:

Identify Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Harry Truman, the Berlin Airlift, John F. Kennedy, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan

Identify the key ideas and themes in several important speeches of the Cold War era

Compare and contrast the development of ideas about the Cold War between different speeches

IV. Background Information for the Teacher

. I have included websites below that contain summaries of events surrounding the speeches we will examine. The last website is a timeline of Cold War events.

Lesson One For this lesson, the teacher should have background knowledge of Churchill’s “The Sinews of Peace” speech. It was delivered in 1946 at Fulton College, MO in the presence of President Truman. While victory had been declared by the Allies a year earlier and the UN Charter had been signed in San Francisco, Winston Churchill anticipated a new war – a threat to democracy and to peace and freedom. He urges Americans to embrace the special relationship with Great Britain and to prepare to fight against war and tyranny. At the end of his speech, he introduces the phrase “the iron curtain” which came to describe the divide between western democracies and communist states for the next 45 years.



For this lesson, there is a PowerPoint summary of the documents covered and some of the leading questions. It could be used to introduce the lesson to the students and to give them a visual as they discuss their documents. There are hyperlinks to websites that could be used interactively during discussion.

Lesson Two The speeches of Stalin, Truman, Kennedy, Gorbachev, and Reagan and the Berlin Airlift were chosen to illustrate various reactions to Churchill’s “Sinews of Peace” speech. Each website below provides background information as well as the text of major speeches by each historical figure.

Joseph Stalin



Harry Truman



The Berlin Airlift



John F. Kennedy



Mikhail Gorbachev



Ronald Reagan



Chronologies of WWII and the Cold War





Lesson Three The final lesson is comprised of student presentations of their documents and research. At the end, students will be asked to write a one to two page essay assessing the significance of “The Sinews of Peace” speech and its connection to the second document or topic their group covered.

VI. Suggested Activities

Document Reading Students should gain an understanding of the ideas in the document, their meaning, and the significance of the document to our study of the Cold War.

Study Questions The guided study questions should be answered in notebooks as the students read and will help students formulate their own response and ideas on the readings.

For lesson one, all students will read document #1 and answer the questions for class. In their small groups, they will discuss the study questions in small groups and then report back to the large group.

For lesson two, students will be broken into six groups and each group will be assigned one more document. Students will read and answer the study questions for the document for lesson two’s in-class small group discussions. For students who are audio/kinesthetic/visual learners, it is suggested that they be assigned the Berlin Airlift topic. In terms of Bloom’s taxonomy, this lesson is designed to incorporate all levels from ‘knowledge’ to ‘evaluation.’

Group Discussion The group discussion during lessons one and two will enable students to articulate together the significance of the documents as well as help them put together a presentation of their particular document.

Group Presentation For lesson three, this will give students the opportunity to share with the whole class the overall context of their speech, its contents, and their own analysis of the document. Students can use any medium to make the presentation i.e. chart; PowerPoint; audio version of the speech.

Online Resources As listed above. Students will also be free to use any other Internet source so long as they cite it and/or turn in a bibliography. Once students have researched the background of their document, they will be expected to share that information with the group during lessons two and three.

VII. Assessment

Study Questions During lessons one and two, while students are discussing their responses together to the study questions, the teacher will check to see that each student has written out their answers and has read the documents assigned.

Group Presentation During lesson three, the teacher will assess the effectiveness of the group presentations: content, quality of presentation, comprehension of key ideas. This would be a group assessment worth a quiz grade.

Short Essay Students will write a one to two page assessment of the significance of Churchill’s “Sinews of Peace” speech and its relationship to the document they studied. These would be turned in according to the teacher’s discretion. Normally, a weekend for writing would be expected.

VIII. Extending the Lesson

All of the websites listed above would be helpful resources for any of the speeches included in this lesson.

IX. Additional Information

Grade Level 9-12

Subject Areas World History, American History, Modern European History

Time Required 4-5 classroom periods, depending on class size plus one weekend for the completion of the essay

Author’s Name Amanda S. Rowcliffe, Webb School of Knoxville

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