Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Communists?

Fellowship Lesson 2008

Krista Ruud

Champaign County Archives

Lesson 4 - The Defector of Champaign County

To download this lesson in PDF format, click here.

Length: 2 class periods

Set-up: Group work (same or different from the previous days)

Procedures:

§ Review what students have learned in previous class periods

§ Explain to students that many Americans were afraid of spies, secret agents, and Communists in America. Most people were not Communists, but there was still a threat. Groups will now read through articles about a University of Illinois graduate and how Communism affected his life and how people responded to this. Students will need to understand the man’s story and fill out the Event Analysis Chart based on what they read in all the articles.

• Each group will receive one copy of each article as well as an Event Analysis Chart form and work on reading the articles and filling out the chart.
  William H. Martin Articles:
• Courier August 2, 1960: “Missing U.I. grad may be sought now in Cuba”
• Courier August 10, 1960: “Missing NSA men may aid Reds: Senator”
• Courier September 6, 1960: “Security agents are in Moscow”
• Courier September 15, 1960: “Defecting security clerks may have missing notes”
• Courier June 25, 1962: “U.S. aide not sorry he defected to Russia”
• When groups are done (or mostly done) the class should discuss the story of William H. Martin. After the class has discussed the situation and the implications of the event (why he left, why people reacted as they did, why it was such a big deal that he left), the teacher can give students ‘the rest’ of the story. Information on what happened to William H. Martin later in life can be found on the following websites:

o http://www.seattleweekly.com/2007-07-18/news/the-worst-internal-scandal-in-nsa-history-was-blamed-on-cold-war-defectors-homosexuality.php

o http://www.6901st.org/traitors.htm

o http://www.espionageinfo.com/Ne-Ns/NSA-United-States-National-Security-Agency.html

Local Primary Sources: Students will view newspaper articles from the Champaign-Urbana Courier about William H. Martin, a National Security Agency employee and University of Illinois graduate who defected to the Soviet Union and the height of the Cold War. Although the stories are about a local graduate, concern was felt on a national level and many of the Associated Press (AP) articles printed in the Courier were also printed in newspapers nation-wide.

Assessment: Students will have read articles about an American who defected to the Soviet Union and organized the information to create a logical story summary from the Event Analysis Chart about the greatest NSA scandal in American history.