School Project on the Cold War

School Project on the Cold War

The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss is an allegory for the Cold War and the Arms Race. All the four topics of the Cold War are portrayed by the book. The Arms race can be clearly seen in the competition between the Yooks and the Zooks. When one side came up with a more advanced weapon, the other caught up and invented something even newer and more powerful. In the end, both sides had bombs and either side could drop them easily, like during the Cold War. This would destroy everything on that side. The Cold War reached a stage called “MAD”, or “Mutually Assured Destruction”. The Berlin Wall is clearly seen as the wall separating the two enemies, the Yooks and the Zooks. On the Yook side, or west side, there were posters, while on the Zook side, there were no posters, like on the real Berlin Wall. Nuclear fallout shelters can be seen in the Butter Battle Book as the Yookery and the Zookery, or the places where people were hiding during the existence of the Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroos. Spying is vague, but it can be seen if thought about. Somehow, when the Yooks came up with new weapons, the Zooks mysteriously had the same or more advanced weapons without ever seeing the Yooks’ weapons. Spies probably passed weapon secrets and found out what the others had.

After World War 2, Germany and Berlin were divided into four parts: American, British, French, and Russian. America, France, and Britain decided to give their shares back to the German government. The Russians decided to keep their parts. The Russian sides were East Germany/Berlin, while the German Government’s sides were West Germany/Berlin. However, Berlin was in the middle of the Russian (Soviet) part, so since West Berlin offered more opportunities to the people, East Germans began to pour into West Berlin. The Soviet government saw this and decided to put a stop to it because it was ruining their economy. They got together, and came up with the idea of a wall separating West Berlin from East Germany. The Berlin Wall was put up in the night of August 13, 1961. In the morning of that Sunday, most of the first work was done: the border to West Berlin was closed (Berlin Wall Online, April 17, 2006). The East German troops had begun to set up barbed wire entanglement and fences through Berlin. The concrete elements and large square blocks were first used on August 15, 1961. Within the next months, the first stage of the Berlin Wall was built up: a wall consisting of concrete elements and square blocks (Berlin Wall Online, April 17, 2006). A second Wall was built in June 1962 in order to prevent people from escaping to the West. The first Wall was improved during the next years and it's hard to distinguish between the first and the second stage of the Wall. The first two stages were replaced by the third stage of the wall beginning about 1965. The third stage consisted of concrete

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