High School Leadership Academy: 'Responding to the Communist Invasion of South Korea'

In partnership with the Truman Presidential Library’s White House Decision Center, the ASU Center for American Institutions is pleased to offer incoming high school sophomores, juniors and seniors an opportunity to join us on the ASU Tempe campus on July 29, 2024. 

The academy will challenge students to step into the roles of President Harry S. Truman and his advisors to make decisions about the role of the United States in the Korean War. Student participants will choose which cabinet role they would like to explore in the simulation. 

Prompted by the immediate threat of communism in Turkey and Greece, President Harry S. Truman issued a statement that came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, which pledged the United States to contain Soviet expansion and “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation.”  In June 1950, a Soviet-backed Communist army from North Korea invaded South Korea. With communism on the march on several fronts worldwide, President Truman had to decide whether to intervene in the Korean War.

Students will gain skills in:

• Close reading and information gathering.
• Primary source analysis.
• Comparing and contrasting multiple points of view.
• Synthesizing complex information.
• Group cooperation and communication.
• Speech writing and public speaking.
• Crafting evidence-based solutions for a complex problem

Two academies will be held on Monday, July 29 from 9 a.m.to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the ASU Tempe campus. Depending on availability, students will be assigned to one of the two sessions. The fee to attend is $50, which is subsidized by funding from the Apgar Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, the Palo Verde Republican Women, and community donors to the ASU Center for American Institutions. There are scholarships to attend for families who request them via email to the event contact by July 15th, 2024.