Saleh,+Aladin

Aladin Saleh

IB History Y2

Part A

To what extent did international relations play a role in the 1980 winter Olympics hockey game? In this historical investigation I plan on explaining how international relations between the Soviet Union and the US motivated the US hockey team to defeat the Soviets and communism. I will prove this by providing research on the major cold war events (specifically between the US and Soviets) happening around the same time as this game. I will get this information from primary sources such as the news from the late seventies just before the Olympics and secondary sources just on the cold war events around that time period.

Part B

Everyone remembers the Miracle on Ice as “…the match would give [the US] hope that they are the best in the world.” (Coffey) This game took place when tensions were really high between the two superpowers and all either country wanted to do was be better than the other. The US was worried and surprised at first that the Soviet Union had Nukes and other dangerous weapons. The United States' main goal was to keep communism from spreading all over the world. This policy was called containment. This is why the two superpowers are in conflict which leads to my topic of investigation, how the relations plays a role in the miracle. 1980 was near the middle of the Cold War, which was between the USA and USSR. So the semi-final game between the two powers was similar to the cold war because outside of sports, the US and USSR are competing economically and militarily. The way the game relates to the foreign affairs is that the players and coaches on team USA thought of the game as a chance to show the Soviets that the US is the better country not only economically, but also in the sport they’re supposed to be best at, hockey. The title of one of my sources helps support my investigation. It's simply "Miracle on Ice When the Cold War Came to the Olympics" (DHN). This is clearly because the Soviets and the US are playing each other in the semi-final game and in world affairs. In a video I watched based on the story of the miracle, as the US team was getting off their bus to head into the locker room, American people were crowded around cheering and yelling things like "beat those commie bastards!" (Russel) because of their hate for communism. Not only does international relations compare to the game in general but to the players specifically too. "Most of the players on the [Soviet] team were part of the Red Army" (DHN), which is the communist military of the Soviet Union. So while the soviet hockey team was a bunch of communist soldiers, the US hockey team would analogically be US soldiers keeping containment. In the 1960s, the US and Soviet Union had the Space Race, which is what it sounds like: a race to see who can discover and accomplish more in outer space. It all started when the Soviets launched "Sputnik" successfully into space. The US's immediate response was NASA. By 1969, the US was the first to have a man walk on the moon while the Soviets had not yet done that (History). The US won the space race while the Soviets started it. Eleven years later the two superpowers met and battled it out hockey style. This is the Soviets chance to get revenge, knowing how much they're expected to win the game. Not only were they expected to win, but they wanted to destroy this American hockey team. On the American side, in 1963, JFK was assassinated by a man named Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. In the late fifties he traveled to the Soviet Union and tried to get his citizenship but was denied (Oswald). Technically he was still a communist for attempting to switch. So from these two events each team had something and someone to fight for. In the end the US came out on top and won the metaphorical cold war.

Part C

**Coffey, Wayne. //The Boys of Winter//. New York: Random House, Inc., 2005. Print.**

The origin of the book is from New York written by Wayne Coffey, an award-winning sports writer from the New York Daily News. The purpose of the book was to detail the significance of the 1980 Olympic semi final game. The value of the book is that it shows how events like the Miracle can inspire people to believe they can win in something they put their minds to. In addition, it helps show how things in America changed from feeling as if they are not as good as the Soviets to being better than the Soviets, which was huge at the time because of the Cold War. The limitations in this source were that entire book focused directly on Coach Herb Brooks and the hockey team and didn't talk much about why the miracle was such a big game.

**Ciardi, Mark, prod. //Miracle//. Gavin O’Connor. 2004. 2004. DVD.**

The purpose of the award winning movie, //Miracle//, was to remind the viewers of the miraculous game played between the USSR and the U.S, and how miracles can happen. Its origin would be that it takes place in 1980 Lake Placid, Michigan and was created in 2004. The lesson taken from the film, in other words the value, is that miracles happen and no matter the mismatch, there’s still hope. Another thing taken from the film is a reminder of how dominant the country is even compared to other superpowers like the Soviets. The only thing that should’ve been included in the movie, the limitations, is how the soviets reacted to the loss. Obviously they were angry but a little scene in the Soviet Union wouldn’t hurt. I used this source primarily so that I can visually learn about the atmosphere at the game and around the city around the gametime.