How is the Origin of the Cold War Depicted in Turkish History Textbooks?

The primary purpose of this article is to analyze how the origin of the Cold War is represented in Turkish history textbooks for general secondary school education for the twelfth grade. The author examined three history textbooks, which are only approved by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) for teaching the course of Contemporary Turkish and World History. This research applied content analysis, including narratives and visual interpretation of the origins of the Cold War, and also the events regarding the emergence of Soviet Bloc and Western Bloc in high school history textbooks in Turkey. Findings indicate that treatments of the origin of the Cold War in Turkish history textbooks are remarkably similar in many ways. The traditional approach of the origin of the Cold War, which depicts the Soviet Union as an aggressive power whose primary purpose was to expand Communism to the world, constitutes the dominant narrative in Turkish history textbooks. The representation of the United States is very positive. All textbooks underline that the United States played a crucial role in solving many problems in many different parts of the world to prevent the expansion of Communism.


Introduction
The British Marxist historian Hobsbawm (1996) described the twentieth century as the Age of Extremes because, in that century, humanity faced many dramatic events that affected the lives of millions of people deeply at different points. In the first half of the century, humanity witnessed two world wars, and each of them changed the world dramatically. After these two great wars, the new period called the "Cold War" started in 1945. The term "Cold War" was firstly used by Lippmann (1947) to describe the precarious state of neither war nor peace between the Soviet Union and the United States. Some historians claim that it can be dated from 1946 in which Winston Churchill introduced the phrase "Iron Curtain" to describe the struggle between Western powers and the Soviet Union over the world. Since then, it has become synonymous with the ideological rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States. Historians agree that that period was a crucial chapter in recent history, and it dominated world politics. The Cold War played an essential role in shaping the international history of the second half of the twentieth century. As such, it is imperative to understand the underlying factors that contributed to its formation.
Teaching the Cold War, which is still a sensitive and controversial issue, occupies an important place in the education systems around the world, and each country, attributing particular importance to it by including it into their curricula, interprets it differently. There are several ways in which the ideology of the Cold War is presented to school children through textbooks, which play a significant role in forming a nation's value system and collective memory (Ingrao, 2009). Anyon (1979) points out that textbooks express ideologies of the dominant groups, and Althusser (1971) underlines that schools are one of the important ideological apparatuses of the state. Apple (1992) argues that the school curriculum is the reflection of the struggle of the powers, and it is also the most crucial component of legitimating official knowledge. Likewise, textbooks convey preferred beliefs, norms, and ideologies (Issitt, 2004;Lässig, 2009;Pingel, 2008). History education and history textbooks are very efficient ways of conveying and legitimating the official ideology. Anderson (1991) emphasizes that history education is perceived as a critical factor in creating an identity, expressing collective memory, and shaping the "imagined communities". Many studies point out the struggle between the politics of the history curriculum (education) and its relation to the nation. (Evans, 2004;Osborne, 2003;Symcox, 2002;Taylor & Guyver, 2011;Zimmerman, 2002). Also, history textbooks play a crucial role in the dissemination of officially approved images of history, and they are reflectors of societal controversies concerning sensitive issues (Klerides, 2010). The Cold War is perceived as a significant issue for teaching and learning by all the parties involved, and history textbooks are good indicators of what students understand about the origins of the Cold War, or at least what they are taught.
Generally, textbooks contain three different frameworks for interpreting the Cold War while paying particular attention to the origins of the Cold War. One of these frameworks is called the traditional approach. According to this view, the main reason for the outbreak of the Cold War was the Soviet expansion and aggression, and the United States was perceived/ portrayed as the defender of freedom and democracy (Schlesinger, 1967). According to this point of view, the Soviet Union occupied Eastern Europe by establishing puppet states, and its main objective was to dismantle liberal democracy. Another interpretation of the Cold War is based on the revisionist version of the New Left. According to this view, the United States was not guiltless either. The fundamental causes for the Cold War start were American capitalism's economic growth and the quest for international markets (LaFeber, 2008;Williams, 1962). According to this viewpoint, the Soviet Union found itself defensive against the United States' expansionist policies. A third view on the origins of the Cold War is the Post-revisionist view. Post-revisionists, who use revisionist arguments to some degrees, draw attention to the role of perceptions and misperceptions, and diversity of motives. This view contends that the two superpowers, the United States and the USSR, played a role in the outbreak of the Cold War and that either the conflict was unavoidable and neither side is to blame or that both sides are equally to blame. (Gaddis, 1998(Gaddis, , 2007Lundestad, 2014).

Cold War and Turkey
Although Turkey remained neutral during the Second World War, the war affected Turkey deeply. Turkey encountered severe political, social, and economic problems during the course of the war. The country was governed by an authoritarian regime, firmly controlled by a political party in Turkey called "Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi "(Republican People's Party). After the war ended, the Soviet Union made some demands on Turkey, such as the creation of a defense force with the support of Turkey in the area of the osphorus and ardanelles straits. The Soviets also wanted "correction of the borders" in northeastern Anatolia between the two countries ( u rcher, 1993). These demands were deemed completely unacceptable by Turkey. Turkey resisted and rejected the Soviet demands. Turkey perceived the pressure of the Soviet Union as a threat to its sovereignty. Western countries claimed that the Soviet demands on Turkey were evidence of Moscow's expansionist policies and a warning to Western interests in the Mediterranean. This situation led to the establishment of a close relationship between Turkey and the Western countries. In particular, the United States became more supportive and encouraged Turkey to take a resolute position against the Soviets. In 1947, President Truman went to ask Congress for $400 million for assistance to Greece and Turkey (Satterthwaite, 1972). This policy was later named as the Truman Doctrine. In June of the same year, Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed a great monetary and financial aid package called the Marshall Plan for the economic reconstruction of the war-devastated Europe. All these initiatives aimed to deter the spread of Communism and also to consolidate the American position and interests in the Mediterranean. With the help of the United States, the relationship between Turkey and the United States grew rapidly. After participating in the Korean War on the side of the United Nations, which was spearheaded by the United States of America (U.S.A.), Turkey was rewarded with full membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952.

The Teaching of Contemporary History in Turkey
There has been a heated debate on the necessity of teaching the history of the Twentieth Century in Turkey. Some scholars have argued that the interpretation of contemporary events is politically controversial and that these events remain open to different readings. That is why history teaching in the secondary school system has been hesitant to accept contemporary history as an integral part of the discipline. Other authors, on the other hand, complain about the total lack of contemporary history in the education program in Turkey (Arslan, 1998;Dilek, 1999;Silier, 2003). For this reason, it would be a significant novelty and challenge for students to learn about contemporary history while in secondary education in a Turkish, European, or world context (Tekeli, 1998). Until 2008 there was no course covering the second half of the Twentieth Century in the curriculum of high schools in Turkey. There is only one course named "The History of the Republic of Turkey and Kemalism," and its coverage of the Twentieth Century is minimal: there are only three to five pages that mention the Second World War (Arslan, 1998). Several institutions expressed concerns about the inadequate treatment of the Twentieth-Century world history in the curriculum in Turkey. Finally, in 2008 a special commission, which was appointed by the Minister of National Education to prepare the report and proposal about the teaching of Contemporary times, submitted its proposal and report to the Ministry. It was approved on August 4, 2008, by Talim ve Terbiye Kurulu (the Board of Education), which is the council responsible for the primary and secondary school curricula under the Ministry of National Education (MoNE, 2008). The Contemporary Turkish and World History' course contains five units. Table 1 shows the hours and percentage of each unit in the 'Contemporary Turkish and World History' textbook. In Turkey, there is an average of 34 weeks in a school year, and one hour in school is equal to 40-45 minutes. The course is given two hours per week in high schools in Turkey.  Korbits (2015) examined the representation of the Cold War in three history textbooks, and two history books from the Soviet era, and one published during the period of Estonia's independence by using discourse analysis method. One of his main aims in his study was to underline the change of the ideological discourse in these textbooks with the time. Ritzer (2012) investigates the representation of the Cold War in the context of Swiss schools by examining the school curricula and history textbooks written in the 1950s and 1960s, from different French and German cantons of Switzerland. He found out history education was framed in such a way that it presented the defense of the country against Communism and nationalism as its primary purposes. Khodnev (2019) compares the Cold War narratives in four commonly used Russian history textbooks. He discusses how the authors of each book describe the responsibility for the rising conflict between the USSR and the United States during the Cold War. He found that all the authors of four textbooks placed the blame on both sides of the conflict. Chisholm and Fig (2019) explain how the prevalent use of the grammatical passive voice in textbooks used in South Africa contributes to constructing the image of Africa and Africans as powerless victims of the great rivalry of the superpowers in their study named "The Cold War in South African History Textbooks". Oteíza and Castro (2019) point out how history textbooks treat the era of Latin American dictatorships and part that the United States played in this phase during the Cold War. Stenfeldt (2012) argues in history textbooks about the ideology of totalitarianism, which was one of the critical ideological weapons during the Cold War, and its position in the postwar histories of Sweden and Denmark. Pingel (2017) focuses on West and East German, French, and British history textbooks to demonstrate how the ideology of the Cold War constantly came to control the European curriculum in recent history. In Turkey, there is only one study that focuses on the general outline of the unit of the Cold War in Turkish history textbooks by analyzing one book (Demircioglu and Demircioglu, 2017). He found that there were no negative comments on the United States in this textbook naturally because the United States is a supporter and ally of Turkey. This article aims to contribute to the literature on the Cold War's depiction in general and in the Turkish national education system in particular.

Methodology
This research is based on content analysis including stories, vocabulary and visual analysis of the representation of the origins of the Cold War, and also the events leading up to the emergence of a Soviet Bloc and a Western Bloc in high school history textbooks in Turkey. Content analysis is one of the most important research techniques in the social sciences (Krippendorff, 2004). Downe-Wamboldt (1992) defined that content analysis is a research method that provides a systematic and objective means to make valid inferences from verbal, visual, or written data to describe and quantify specific phenomena. He also underlined that it is more than a counting game: it is concerned with meanings, intentions, consequences, and context. Fyfe and Law (1988) point out that the visual is the most fundamental of all senses. erger (1972) underlines that "seeing comes before words'' (p. 7). Therefore, the use or representation of images, including photo, cartoon, map, etc. any visual thing in textbooks has crucial importance on the students' understanding.
The course named as "Contemporary Turkish and World History" in Turkey is taught to twelfth-grade students. There are only three available textbooks for this course. In Turkey, the Ministry of National Education is in full control of the curriculum and also steers the whole process of writing and approval with the support of academic institutions. It offers content guidelines, which teachers and textbook authors have to abide by. Textbooks must be approved by the Ministry. The authors of all these textbooks are not academic historians; instead, textbooks are usually written by history teachers.
Research questions of this study consider the following: (1) How is the origin of the Cold war depicted in the Contemporary Turkish and World history textbooks in Turkey?
(2) What historical events are associated with the emergence of Soviet Bloc and Western Bloc and are represented in the Contemporary Turkish and World History textbooks in Turkey?
Each textbook was carefully reviewed by the researcher to wholly and adequately answer the aforementioned research questions. Each textbook's paragraphs and visuals relevant to the origins of the Cold War were identified. The topic sentences and summaries were obtained from textbooks to compare the content on each topic and images. The researcher then identified major concepts and most common words related to the origin of the Cold War presented within the textbooks.

Results
Many textbooks include different kinds of visuals to illustrate and burnish certain words that are deemed essential in order to keep student interest and attention alive on a topic. History textbooks especially contain these visuals, such as political caricatures, which have a visual and a textual message that they want to impart to students. Furthermore, political cartoons are handy tools for convincing a certain readership to see a topic in a specific light. Several studies underline the importance of the use of political cartoons in teaching (Heitzmann, 1973(Heitzmann, , 1988Werner, 2004). These types of cartoons are heavily used in Contemporary Turkish and World History textbooks for explaining the Cold War.
Picture 1. The balance of power (SSCB, DUNYA and ABD refer to USSR, WORLD and USA, respectively) The cartoons (Picture 1) taken from the textbook by Okur et al. (2017), were used at the beginning of the chapter meant to trigger discussion by asking students what can be said about the balance of power in the world after WWII.
The textbook by Okur et al. (2017)   Authors of the all textbooks prefer to use several photographs to explain the Cold War.

Picture 4. Stalin`s monument
The photo (Picture 4) from the textbook by (Okur et al., 2017), is used to ask the question of what the students think about the relationship between the USSR and Hungary.

Picture 5. The reaction of Czech people
Photo (Picture 5) is taken from the textbook by Akgün et al. (2017). It shows the reaction of ordinary Czech people against the Soviet troops, which are depicted as militaristic and violent, as well as illustrating their anger and strong opposition to the Soviet presence. Communism "…One strategy was that the Soviet Union was working secretly, as in Eastern Europe, to install communist politicians to critical positions in the post-war governments of some of the West European countries".
The USSR Liberal "...both agricultural production and manufacturing increased in Europe within three years after receiving the Marshall aid.'' The United States Democracy "…France, ritain, and the United States took essential steps for real democracy in their respective zones of occupation and that significant progress was made in terms of economic recovery…These developments overshadowed East Germany and East erlin".

The United States
Aggressive "…the formation of NATO was the result of Soviet aggression".

The USSR
Oppressive the Soviet involvement in the "Czech Coup" of February 1948 is directly related to Czechoslovakia's desire to receive American aid The USSR Protector ''…the U.S provided military and economic aid to many countries; some of them encountering the Soviet threat very closely like Turkey and Greece''.

Discussion
As can be seen from the characterization (Picture 1), there is a clear ideological message embedded in these cartoons, which showcases to the students that the Soviet Union was the aggressive and oppressive side of the two powers. The Soviet Union is shown to have tied all the peoples of the communist countries of Eastern Europe and forced them under one "hat," while Western European countries enjoy full freedom under the protection of the United States. Carr (2001) emphasized in his book titled "What is History?" that before beginning to analyze the facts, we should first inquire about the historian. We can apply this premise to visual things as well, in that before analyzing the images, we should look at who drew those images in the first place. The textbook takes the caricature on the right-hand side from the January 1951 issue of Der Tintenfisch (the Squid), a popular and conservative-leaning German satirical magazine showing the superpowers as controllers of the post-war world. Here, what Ernst Maria Lang actually wants to show us is the fact that these superpowers cannot come to a compromise regarding the post-war settlements due to their fundamental differences of opinion, stemming from opposing ideologies. What this caricature tries to convey to its viewers, therefore, is the fact that both superpowers are stubborn in their conflicting views on the future of the world, and that they had an equal share of the blame for causing the start of the Cold War. Intelligent students can quickly see what these caricatures criticize. Having grasped the real meaning of these caricatures, students, therefore, will be puzzled by the written text in the same page where the author expresses his uncritical views on the Cold War unabashedly, without realizing that he is reproducing Cold War ideology of the 1950s. As opposed to the caricatures-which criticize the Cold War from a liberal (on the left), and a conservative (on the right) point of view-the authors of the textbook depict the Soviet Union as the expansionist power, and the aggressor by spreading Communism in Eastern countries. According to the textbook by Akgün et al.  (Okur et al., 2017, p.80).
This passage presents the Soviet Union as the aggressive power intent on world domination, and it also portrays the Soviet Union as an oppressive power. According to the text, the USSR was the main actor that caused the emergence of internal disturbances in the Far East and China.

The Emergence of the Eastern Bloc
All the textbooks mention the emergence of the Eastern Bloc by referring to several organizations such as Comecon and Warsaw Pact established under the leadership of the USSR. In addition to that, all the books portray the Soviet Union as a dark power. The textbook by Akgün et al. (2017) explicitly argues that the Soviet regime used several strategies to capture control of even Western European countries. One strategy was that the Soviet Union was working secretly, as in Eastern Europe, to install communist politicians to critical positions in the post-war governments of some of the West European countries.
All textbooks mention the security concerns of western powers against the expansion of the Soviet Union, but none of them acknowledge the USSR's security concerns. The Soviet Union had incurred a great loss during WWII. They even faced the German invasion. Many in the USSR remembered the historical role of Poland as a route for the invasion of the Soviet Union (Kuniholm, 1994). That they never mention any of the USSR's real or supposed concerns while depicting the Cold War, crystallizes the authors' partial approach and their effort to put all of the blame on the USSR alone, and without even pretending to be critically analyzing the U.S /Western bloc, or holding them to the same scrutiny and standards.
When we look at how these textbooks depict the U.S.A., we observe that the image of the U.S.A. is extremely positive in all of them. All emphasize that the U.S.A. implemented a policy of containment to oppose Soviet expansion. The U.S.A. followed a very active policy after Great Britain called on them to stop the Communist expansion in Western Europe. " ritain kept urging the U.S.A. to prevent the spread of the USSR after the [British] military forces withdrew from the region due to financial concerns. This was an open invitation to the United States to start implementing the containment policy against the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries (Okur et al., 2017). For this purpose, the U.S.A, beginning in 1946, signed mutual defense agreements with many states. Also, according to the textbooks, the U.S.A. provided military and economic aid to many countries; some of them encountering the Soviet threat very closely like Turkey and Greece. All textbooks indicate that the U.S played a significant role in the solution of regional problems (Akgün et al., 2017;Okur et al., 2017).

The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
According to all of the textbooks, the Truman doctrine and the Marshall Plan were crucial steps needed to be taken in order to prevent the Soviet influence from spreading. Each book gives detailed information about these events. Each one is supported with illustrations like cartoons or newspaper clippings showing Truman's picture and speech. Several indicators show the diversity among the textbooks in their description of the Marshall Plan. According to the textbook by Okur et al. (2017), The United States offered this aid to many countries, including France, Belgium, England, etc., and in fact, even to the Soviet Union and the communist countries of Eastern Europe as well. But the Soviet Union and communist countries except Yugoslavia declined this aid offer. This passage leaves an impression on the reader that the U.S. was a very generous and benevolent country towards all other countries without any prejudice and ulterior motive. But there is no explanation of why the Soviet Union and communist countries declined this generous offer. One textbook claims that several Eastern European communist countries were eager to receive Marshall Aid, especially Czechoslovakia (Okur et al., 2017). The textbook claims that the Soviet involvement in the "Czech Coup" of February 1948 is directly related to Czechoslovakia's desire to receive American aid (Okur et al., 2017).
Okur's (2017) narrative and the caricatures (Picture 2 and Pictures 3) he has chosen contradict each other. While the text accepts and repeats the language of the Cold War ideology in an uncritical manner, the caricatures of Illingworth clearly show the tragic and heartbreaking aspects of the Cold War in which Europe, or the world, is shown to be a battleground over which two superpowers continue fighting.
The caricature (Picture 2) textbook by Okur et al. (2017) used on the right-hand side shows the main threat to be famine, rather than the communist menace. In this respect, Okur et al. (2017) have chosen another caricature, which is critical of the Cold War ideology, while his text follows the outdated and uncritical portrayal of the post-war era. No attention is given to the role of the United States' economic expansion in any of the textbooks. According to the revisionist view, there are significant financial considerations behind American foreign policy and economic aid; and the Marshall Plan was one of the tactical weapons of the U.S. to expand its influence or hegemony around the world. Yet, all the textbooks emphasize that the Marshall Plan was a necessary measure for saving the world. Two of the textbooks underline the impact of the Marshall Plan on agriculture and industry in Europe by saying that both agricultural production and manufacturing increased in Europe within three years after receiving the Marshall aid (Akgün et al., 2017;Okur et al., 2107). In these textbooks the Marshall Plan is portrayed as through the only reason behind it was to solve the economic problems that European countries encountered during World War II. The general tendency of all of the books is to depict the U.S as an altruistic savior of Europe's economy, and the plan was the critical factor in rebuilding Western Europe.

Berlin Airlift
One of the main events of the early Cold War was the Berlin Blockade, which is referred to as one of the first crises of the Cold War, and all textbooks inform the students about the Berlin Blockade and the airlift. One of the textbooks uses the "iconic" photograph where curious erlin children watch a ouglas C-54 Skymaster seconds before landing at the Tempelhof airport (Okur et al., 2107). The textbook written by Alemdar and Keles (2019) uses another widely publicized photograph, where parents with their children watch an aircraft approaching the landing strip. The third textbook uses a similar photograph easily found on the internet, again showing parents and children watching another aircraft, this time, the ruins of erlin clearly visible in the background (Akgün et al., 2017). While these photographs show the visual aspect of the Berlin Blockade and the heroic support of the Americans, none of these textbooks ever mention how long the blockade continued.
One textbook claims that France, Britain, and the United States took essential steps for real democracy in their respective zones of occupation and that significant progress was made in terms of economic recovery. The author emphasizes that these developments overshadowed East Germany and East Berlin (Alemdar & Keles, 2019).

NATO
Representation of NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is a good indicator to understand the perception of the Cold war in the textbooks. Three textbooks claim that the formation of NATO was the result of Soviet aggression. According to one, there were three main reasons for its emergence. The first is that the USSR established several organizations like Cominform and Comecon, bringing the Eastern European countries under the Soviet umbrella. The authors of these textbooks take these actions as an attack on Western countries. The second one is that Western European countries wanted to see the support of the USA against the Eastern Bloc, and the third is that Communists changed the government in Czechoslovakia with a coup that took place in 1948 (Akgün et al., 2017). One textbook underlines that NATO does not only aim defense policy, but also covers social, economic, and political cooperation. According to the textbook, a powerful alliance is established against the spread of the Soviet Union by the formation of NATO (Okur et al., 2017).
Photography is another visual tool used in these textbooks. These photographs give an idea about approaches used to interpret the Cold War. erger (1972) states that the photographer's way of seeing is reflected in his choice of subject. It is the same for the textbook writers when they select photos to convey any specific topic. Without giving any background information about the photo or the event relating to its content, it will be a big challenge for students to make an accurate interpretation of the photos. To depict the struggle and life in the Eastern Bloc, the authors prefer to use the photos that demonstrate the Soviet aggression towards Eastern European countries, which also shows their partial interpretation of the events during the Cold War. Two textbooks mention the Hungarian uprising of 1956 and the Prague Spring of 1968 accompanied by photographs.
The photo (Picture 4) shows the Stalin statue that was demolished, and W.C. is inscribed on the monument. No background information about the photo is provided. As such, by only focusing on this photo, it will be very difficult for students to comprehend the relationship that existed between the USSR and Hungary. Werner (2002) argues that visual texts are no longer simple tools that enhance the look of a written text alone, but instead, he states, the visual text is the social world itself and, as such needs to be treated as the subject matter in teaching. Photographs in textbooks are not only presented as an accessory, but rather, they have their own part within the text, such as conveying the messages embedded in them. This photo in question, for instance, while showing the fall of a dictator/ship more generally, when observed more closely evokes an anti-Stalinist (anti-communist) image as well. The authors of textbooks use many photographs to show the oppressive side of the USSR.

Conclusion
The Cold War was a significant turning point in the history of the twentieth century, and it is recognized as a crucial topic for teaching and learning. History-teaching faces many challenges in dealing with such a socially and politically loaded era of contemporary history, which is why education of the Cold war is such a controversial and hot topic of the curriculum. In Turkey, contemporary history was not taught in secondary education until 2008. History textbooks are the main component of teaching, and they are dominant and influential educational tools that shape students' perspectives. Political trends significantly influence textbooks, which generally are designed according to the ideology of the ruler of the country, who then use these textbooks as a tool to inculcate students with their ideology. Accordingly, textbook authors have to abide by the dominant power interests in Turkey. It means that they select a particular language that reflects the ideology of the power holders.
Treatments of the origin of the Cold War in Turkish history textbooks are remarkably similar in many ways. The traditional interpretation of the origin of the Cold War, which portrays the Soviet Union as an aggressive power whose primary purpose was to expand Communism to the world, constitutes the dominant narrative in Turkish history textbooks. All the textbooks use similar words such as 'invade', 'pressure', etc. to underline how aggressive the Soviet Union was. The textbooks also discuss Soviet expansion and Communism in Eastern Europe, the growing influence of communist parties in Czechoslovakia and Hungary as a result of the Soviet influence. All textbooks argue that the Soviet Union gained power in Eastern Europe by rigging the elections, eliminating the opposition, and using pressure/force to make the resistant countries compliant. In addition to this, authors of the textbooks use many illustrations like cartoons, and photos to reinforce the oppression the Soviet Union caused by way of its military. Moreover, all underline the collective action against the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. According to the textbooks, it was the resistance of the Eastern European countries that finally led to the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. The traditionalist perspective dominates all the topics, such as the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, the Berlin Airlift, and the emergence of NATO, in every one of the textbooks.
The presentation of the United States, however, in stark contrast with the way the USSR portrayed, is very positive in the textbooks. The U.S., it is claimed, supported the countries and nations threatened by the Soviets. In short, all of the textbooks describe the United States as a defender of democracy and human rights and claim the United States played a crucial role in solving many problems in many different parts of the world in order to prevent the expansion of Communism. The authors use the illustrations which support the idea of a benevolent and heroic United States while simultaneously portraying the USSR as the source of all the malice and problems of the world.

Recommendations
For further studies, the comparative analysis of the Cold War representation in textbooks from other states would enrich the understanding of how the ideology of the state shapes the content of the curriculum and the interpretation of the events.

Limitations
The course named Contemporary Turkish and World History in Turkey is taught to twelfth-grade students. There are only three available textbooks approved by the Ministry of National Education for this course in Turkey. This study examined only three history textbooks. The study focuses on several events which took place in the beginning of the Cold War. The topics(events) are listed below:  The emergence of the Eastern Bloc