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2017 National History Day Process Paper

The document is a process paper by William Ciptonugroho for his National History Day project on the topic of the US policy of containment during the Cold War. [1] It describes how he chose this topic after reviewing what was covered in his history textbook and finding that it discussed containment. [2] It then outlines his research process, which included initial background reading, focusing his project on the early conceptualization and implementation of containment, and gathering primary and secondary sources. [3] It also discusses how he created an interactive website to present his topic and the design elements and sources included in the site.

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83 views3 pages

2017 National History Day Process Paper

The document is a process paper by William Ciptonugroho for his National History Day project on the topic of the US policy of containment during the Cold War. [1] It describes how he chose this topic after reviewing what was covered in his history textbook and finding that it discussed containment. [2] It then outlines his research process, which included initial background reading, focusing his project on the early conceptualization and implementation of containment, and gathering primary and secondary sources. [3] It also discusses how he created an interactive website to present his topic and the design elements and sources included in the site.

Uploaded by

William
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Policy of Containment:

America Taking a Stand Against

the Spread of Communism

William Ciptonugroho

Senior Division, Individual Website

National History Day 2017: Taking A Stand in History


Process Paper

Because of my great passion and interest in Cold War history, it was evident to me from the

start that my topic this year was going to relate to the Cold War in some way. However, choosing this

year's topic for me was considerably more challenging than in the past because my teacher required

that my topic had to be covered in the GCSE (British equivalent of an American high school diploma)

history syllabus. So what I did after knowing this was that I went through my history textbook to see

what topic I could do. After flipping through the pages of my textbook, I noticed that it covered the

policy of containment. It was then when I knew that I found the perfect topic.

After choosing my topic, I spent the early stages of my research reading through the

containment section of my history textbook and going on Wikipedia. I did this so that I could have a

general idea on my topic. Because the policy of containment stretches all the way to the end of the

Cold War, I chose to focus on its conceptualization and early implementation, and decided to split my

website into three main sections: historical context, Kennan, and its implementation. From then on, I

started to research deeper into my topic and gathered both primary (mainly documents, photographs,

and speeches) and secondary sources (mainly books, both from the library and online, and websites). I

found the Library of Congress's online database very useful for finding primary sources. I got in touch

with historians Professor Richard H. Immerman and Dr N. Piers Ludlow via email to interview them.

For my presentation category, I decided to create a website. I chose the website category

because out of all the other options it was the most visual and interactive. Moreover, I am already very

familiar with the Weebly interface. When creating my website, I tried to make it look as professional

as possible by adopting a very modern and minimalist design. I also decided to keep the overall design

of each page similar to the rest so that the design is consistent throughout the website. To make my

website as visual and interactive, I tried to put as many primary sources (such as photographs and

quotes) on each page to enhance the viewer's experience. I adopted a red, white, and blue color

scheme for my website to represent the colors of the American flag.


I believe that America's policy of containment fits perfectly with this year's theme, as it stood

testament to the lengths America was willing to take to preserve freedom and stop the spread of

tyranny. After U.S. diplomat George F. Kennan articulated the strategy in 1946, it was quickly

adopted since it was seen as the most viable option to respond to a series of aggressive moves by the

Soviet Union. Therefore, my topic is the embodiment of this year's NHD theme because America took

a stand against the spread of communism.

Word Count: 499

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