• 60 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Writing Prompts for the Cold War

A report, a letter or an argument from the Cold War: divided Berlin, the space race, a school drill.

Writing Prompts for the Cold War

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  1. A gardener is handed tree seeds that have been in orbit and told to plant them; write her letter to the crews.Fact: the crews of the joint flight of 1975 exchanged gifts, among them tree seeds later planted in both countries.
  2. In 1960 the neighbors are digging something in the backyard and will not say what; write it as the kid next door.Fact: sales of home fallout shelters grew from 1954 to 1961, and the market collapsed by 1963.
  3. A sailor on the recovery ship is told that nobody may shake hands with the men just back from the Moon; write his letter home.Fact: the first crew back from the Moon went straight from the sea into 21 days of quarantine.

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All 60 prompts

A divided city 15

  • A border guard at a Berlin crossing watches the crowd grow on the night of November 9, 1989; write the minute he opens the gate. Fact: late that evening guards at one crossing let people through with little or no checking of papers.
  • A boy waits at the end of a Berlin runway for a plane that rocks its wings; write what comes down on a handkerchief. Fact: during the Berlin Airlift a pilot dropped chocolate bars to children on parachutes made of handkerchiefs.
  • A girl in West Berlin counts cargo planes from her rooftop and keeps the tally in her diary; write the entry for the busiest day. Fact: at the Berlin Airlift's height a plane got to West Berlin every thirty seconds.
  • A grandmother in East Berlin writes to the grandson she can no longer walk across town to see. Fact: the Berlin Wall encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989 and was more than 140 kilometers long.
  • A mapmaker in East Berlin is told to leave half the subway off the new city map; write her diary entry. Fact: East Berlin's maps showed neither the West Berlin subway lines nor the ghost stations.
  • A milkman starts his round in Berlin one August morning and finds wire across a street he has crossed for years; write his report. Fact: on August 13, 1961, East German troops and workers began to string barbed wire around West Berlin.
  • A night nurse in East Berlin hears on the radio that the border is open and does not believe it; write the next hour. Fact: on November 9, 1989, East Germany announced that its citizens could visit West Berlin.
  • A reporter sits through a long press conference in East Berlin and almost misses the one sentence that matters; write her notes. Fact: the new travel rules came out at an hour-long press conference that began at 6 pm on November 9, 1989.
  • A soldier on duty at Checkpoint Charlie writes home about the people he watches cross in one afternoon. Fact: it was the one crossing in Berlin set aside for foreign visitors and members of the Allied armed forces.
  • A subway driver in West Berlin takes his train through a station where it never stops; describe the platform he rolls past. Fact: West Berlin trains slowed but did not stop at the dim, guarded ghost stations under East Berlin.
  • The blockade is lifted and the first truck in months comes down the road into West Berlin; report it as a child at the roadside. Fact: the blockade of West Berlin began on June 24, 1948, and was lifted on May 12, 1949.
  • From an upstairs window a Berlin baker watches the tanks of two armies face each other at a checkpoint; write what the street sounds like. Fact: in October 1961 American and Soviet tanks had a brief standoff at Checkpoint Charlie.
  • Someone chips a piece from the Berlin Wall as a keepsake; write the label they put on it and the story behind the label. Fact: after November 9, 1989, people nicknamed wallpeckers chipped souvenirs from the Berlin Wall with tools.
  • Two cousins who grew up on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall meet for the first time on top of it; write what they say. Fact: on the night the border opened, East Germans climbed onto the wall and West Germans joined them.
  • Write a letter from a child in West Berlin whose bedroom looks over the wall, about the houses she can see on the far side. Fact: buildings close to the Berlin Wall on the eastern side had their windows boarded and later bricked up.

The space race 15

  • A classroom keeps a scoreboard of who is ahead in space; write the argument when someone wants to add a new column. Fact: the Soviet probe Luna 2 reached the Moon in September 1959, ten years before a crew landed.
  • A farm worker looks up and sees someone in a helmet coming down under a parachute; write the first words they exchange. Fact: on April 12, 1961, the first person to orbit the Earth came down by parachute after a 108-minute flight.
  • A gardener is handed tree seeds that have been in orbit and told to plant them; write her letter to the crews. Fact: the crews of the joint flight of 1975 exchanged gifts, among them tree seeds later planted in both countries.
  • A newspaper editor has one hour to choose the headline for the first American satellite; write three she turns down and the one she prints. Fact: Explorer 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, late on January 31, 1958, Eastern Time.
  • A sailor on the recovery ship is told that nobody may shake hands with the men just back from the Moon; write his letter home. Fact: the first crew back from the Moon went straight from the sea into 21 days of quarantine.
  • A satellite falls back to Earth after three months and nobody is watching; write its last orbit as the satellite. Fact: Sputnik 1 burned up on January 4, 1958, after three months and 1,440 orbits of the Earth.
  • A science teacher walks in the morning after the first satellite goes up and throws away her lesson plan; write the lesson she gives. Fact: after Sputnik, a law signed on September 2, 1958, sent funds to American schools at all levels.
  • A teenager joins the neighbors on a rooftop with a small telescope to spot a satellite; write the log for the first night. Fact: in the late 1950s Moonwatch teams drew thousands of teenagers, teachers and other citizens.
  • A teenager with a homemade radio set tunes in to a beeping from the sky and wakes the whole family; write the night. Fact: Sputnik 1 went up on October 4, 1957, and radio amateurs in many countries tracked it.
  • A television repairman has the busiest week of his life in July 1969; write the call he gets an hour before the moonwalk. Fact: the Moon pictures came by slow-scan television, so broadcasters pointed a TV camera at a special monitor.
  • An interpreter helps two space crews who speak different languages rehearse a handshake; write the practice session. Fact: the first international handshake in space was exchanged through an open hatch in July 1975.
  • An old astronomer opens the newspaper to the first picture of the far side of the Moon; write what she says at breakfast. Fact: on October 7, 1959 the Soviet probe Luna 3 passed the Moon and photographed its far side.
  • Describe the first satellite to someone who has never heard the word, using only things found in a kitchen or a toy box. Fact: NASA says Sputnik 1 was about the size of a beach ball and circled the Earth in about 98 minutes.
  • The president asks for a Moon landing before the decade is out; write the dinner-table argument in one family that night. Fact: on May 25, 1961, the president asked Congress to commit to a Moon landing before the end of the decade.
  • Write the diary of a family that drives all night to watch a Moon rocket leave Florida from a beach across the water. Fact: Apollo 11 lifted off on July 16, 1969, from Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

A drill at school 15

  • A crate of microscopes reaches a country school in 1959; write the afternoon as the student who opens the first box. Fact: in total, over a billion dollars went toward improving American science teaching after Sputnik.
  • A new student from another country sits through her first duck-and-cover drill and writes home to explain it. Angle: she describes it step by step, like a game whose rules nobody has told her.
  • A principal in 1955 has to explain the new drill to parents in one short letter; write it without one frightening word. Angle: three sentences on what the children do, one on why, one on what happens afterward.
  • A radio announcer is handed the wrong card and tells a whole region that a test is real; write the next ten minutes at the station. Fact: on November 5, 1959, a Wisconsin radio station was wrongly sent a real alert message in place of a test.
  • A repairman in 1955 is asked by every customer what the two marks on the new radios mean; write his best answer. Fact: by law, radio sets made from 1953 to 1963 showed the two emergency frequencies with a civil defense symbol.
  • A student in the 1980s writes to the leader of the other superpower and asks one question; write the letter. Angle: one question, asked politely, and a P.S. about her own town.
  • In 1960 the neighbors are digging something in the backyard and will not say what; write it as the kid next door. Fact: sales of home fallout shelters grew from 1954 to 1961, and the market collapsed by 1963.
  • It is the last week of October 1962 and the teacher keeps the radio on low during class; write the day. Fact: on October 22, 1962, the president ordered a naval blockade to stop more missiles from reaching Cuba.
  • The janitor screws a shelter sign to the door of the school basement; write what the first-graders decide it means. Fact: plans were made to use existing buildings with sturdy basements as fallout shelters.
  • The projector is wheeled in and the class watches a cartoon turtle show them how to take cover; write one student's review. Fact: the civil defense film of 1952 opens and closes with a cartoon turtle. It was shown widely in schools.
  • The teacher says the word and the whole class goes under the desks; write the thirty seconds from down there. Fact: a civil defense film released in January 1952 taught American schoolchildren to duck and cover.
  • The town tests its warning siren at noon in 1958 and every dog joins in; write the minute as someone who hears it monthly. Angle: nobody looks up anymore. Write the one person on the street who still does.
  • Write a grandparent's answer when a child of today asks: did you really hide under your desk at school? Angle: the grandparent remembers the floor, the gum under the desk and what nobody said out loud.
  • Write the duck-and-cover drill as the one student who cannot stop giggling under the desk. Angle: say what set it off, who catches your eye, and what the teacher's shoes do.
  • Write the list a 1950s family makes of what to keep on the shelves of a shelter, and the argument over the last item. Angle: the list is practical until someone wants to add the board games.

An opinion to argue 15

  • The Cold War got its name because the two powers never fought each other directly. Is cold the right word? Propose a better name. Fact: the term fits because the two superpowers never fought each other directly.
  • The Cold War hotline between two capitals printed text and was never a red telephone. Is writing safer than talking in a crisis? Argue it. Fact: the hotline, set up in 1963, began with Teletype machines and was tested every hour.
  • Did the fear of falling behind in space make American schools better? Argue it as a student in 1958. Fact: the school law that followed Sputnik approved funding for four years, rising each year.
  • Dozens of countries stayed away from the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Should athletes be kept home to make a point? Take a side. Fact: 65 other nations joined the American boycott of Moscow's 1980 Summer Olympics.
  • In 1959 two rival leaders argued beside the kitchen of a show house. Can showing off ordinary life be a kind of argument? Write your view. Fact: for a fair in Moscow in 1959, American exhibitors built a whole house they said any American could afford.
  • In 1963 three countries agreed to stop testing bombs in the air, in space and under water, but not underground. Is half a promise worth making? Fact: the Limited Test Ban Treaty, signed on August 5, 1963, took effect on October 10.
  • In 1971 a table tennis team was invited to a country its government did not speak to. Can a game do what a meeting cannot? Argue it. Fact: an American table tennis team visited China in April 1971 and invited the Chinese team back.
  • Is a race the best way to get something hard done? Argue it with the two space programs of the Cold War as your example. Fact: the space race gave way to a joint flight, agreed in April 1972 and flown in July 1975.
  • Is a wall a sign of strength or of weakness? Argue it with the Berlin Wall as your example. Fact: the Berlin Wall was watched from over 116 watchtowers and stood from 1961 to 1989.
  • The Peace Corps sent volunteers abroad during the Cold War to teach, farm and build. Is helping also a way of competing? Argue it. Fact: the National Archives says Peace Corps volunteers have worked in more than 140 countries.
  • Should a country pay to rebuild a continent an ocean away? Argue it with American aid to Europe after 1948 as your example. Fact: from April 1948, Congress approved $13.3 billion over four years for the recovery of Europe.
  • Should the remains of the Berlin Wall be kept or cleared away? Argue it as a Berliner in the summer of 1990. Fact: the booth at Checkpoint Charlie was removed on June 22, 1990, and now stands in a museum in Berlin.
  • Was the race to the Moon worth what it cost? Argue yes or no in a letter to a newspaper dated July 1969. Fact: Apollo 11 landed the first people on the Moon, in the Sea of Tranquility, on July 20, 1969.
  • Were the duck-and-cover drills useful, or did they only make children afraid? Argue one side, then give the other its best point. Angle: if you can, ask someone who did the drills before you decide.
  • When the first satellite went up in 1957, some people were thrilled and some were frightened. Which would you have been? Write why. Fact: Sputnik's orbit carried it over virtually the entire inhabited Earth.

How it works

These Cold War writing prompts hand the story to people at its edges: a milkman in Berlin, a radio amateur, a school janitor, a television repairman. No leader is named, and no prompt asks the writer to be one.

Read the full guide

A Cold War writing prompt with a date under it

Fifty-two of the sixty prompts carry a Fact line: the event, its date and sometimes a figure. Start there, because the date decides what your person can know. A Berlin milkman in August 1961 has seen the wire go up and cannot guess that the wall will stand until 1989.

A writing prompt about the Cold War at school

Fifteen prompts stay close to school and home: the drill under the desks, the film with the cartoon turtle, a radio left on low in October 1962, a crate of microscopes that arrives after Sputnik. Seven of them carry no fact and ask only what the day was like.

  • Give your witness a job before you give them an opinion. A milkman notices different things than a soldier does.
  • For an argument prompt, write the letter someone would send back.

Questions and answers

What are good cold war writing prompts for a history class?

Ones told by a bystander, not a leader. A subway driver takes his train through a ghost station under East Berlin, where trains slowed and never stopped. A gardener is handed tree seeds that flew on the joint flight of 1975.

Are there prompts about the Berlin Wall?

Fifteen prompts are set in Berlin: three during the airlift of 1948 and 1949, twelve between the barbed wire of August 13, 1961, and the days after November 9, 1989. Two opinion prompts argue about the wall itself.

Is there a prompt about the space race?

Fifteen, from the beeping of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, to the handshake in orbit in July 1975. One asks you to describe the first satellite using only things found in a kitchen or a toy box.

What years do the prompts cover?

From 1948, when the blockade of West Berlin began and American aid to Europe was approved, to June 22, 1990, when the booth at Checkpoint Charlie was removed. The Cold War itself ended with the Soviet Union in 1991.

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