NCHS MYE Sec4 Pure History Paper 2 Korean war edited

1 Name: Register Number: Class: NAN CHIAU HIGH SCHOOL MID-YEAR EXAMINATION 2019 SECONDARY FOUR EXPRESS HISTORY (Paper 2) 2174/2 Additional Materials: Writing papers 14 May 2019, Tuesday 1hour 40 minutes READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST Write your name, class and index number on all the work you hand in. Write in dark blue or black pen. Do not use staples, paper clips, highlighters, glue or correction fluid. Section A Answer Question 1. Section B Answer one question. Write all answers on the writing paper provided. At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together. The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question. The total marks for this paper is 50. Setter: Lim Jian Ming Gary Vetter: Fu Jizheng Edwin This document consists of 6 printed pages including the cover page. For Marker’s Use

2 Section A: Source-Based Case Study Question 1 is compulsory for all candidates. Study the Background Information and the sources carefully, and then answer all the questions. You may use any of the sources to help you answer the questions, in addition to those sources you are told to use. In answering the questions you should use your knowledge of the topic to help you interpret and evaluate the sources. 1 (a) Study Source A. (b) Study Sources B and C. (c) Study Source D. Does the source prove that USA was responsible for the escalation of the Korean War? Use your contextual knowledge to explain your answer. [6] (d) Study Source E. Why do you think this poster was published? Use the source and your knowledge to support your answer. [5] (e) Study all the sources. What is the message of this source? Explain your answer. [5] How far would Dean Acheson in Source B agree with the North Korean Foreign Minister in Source C? Explain your answer. [6] “Soviet Union was responsible for the Korean War.” How far do the sources agree with this statement? Use the sources and your knowledge to explain your answer. [8]

3 Was USSR responsible for the Korean War? BACKGROUND INFORMATION Read this carefully. It may help you to answer some of the questions. The Korean War, which broke out in June 1950, was the first real example of the Cold War spreading outside of Europe. It was also the first example of the Cold War turning into a ‘hot war’. Although, in the end, the USA and the USSR were able to avoid any direct confrontation, the armed forces of two great powers – the USA and China – did clash on the battlefield. Many people assumed that it was an attack that happened due to careful planning behind the scenes in the Communist bloc. Those in the democratic world labelled it as Walt Disney and Donald Duck; Stalin pulling the strings to control Kim II Sun g and Mao Zedong and start the Korean War. However, some historians have analysed some declassified documents which proved that the Russians might not have been the ones who were completely responsible for the Korean War. Hence, was Soviet Union responsible for the escalation of conflict in Korean Peninsula? Source A: An American leaflet dropped in North Korea on 3rd April 1953. Under Soviet’s control, Communist China lost her sovereignty. Stay safe and be healthy. Topple those communist puppets under Soviet’s influence. So-Called Soviet advisers are Russian special agents to control China. Puppet Liu, Puppet Mao, Puppet Zhou

4 Source B: It seemed close to certain that the North Korean attack had been mounted, supplied and instigated by the Soviet Union and that it would not be stopped by anything short of force. If the South Koreans proved unequal to the job, as seemed probable, only American intervention could do it. Plainly, it was an open undisguised challenge to our internationally accepted position as the protector of South Korea. To back away from this challenge, would be highly destructive of the power and prestige of the United States. It was thus our duty to save South Korea from Communism. The only way to fulfil that duty was to repel North Korea with an overwhelming force, of which we have already been preparing for, and of which we were willing to send. Source C: Intervention into the civil war by the American imperialists and their running dogs headed by Syngman Rhee have inflicted tremendous calamities and hardships upon the Korean people, for which the American government is solely responsible. The American gove rnment supplied the traitorous bandits of Rhee’s regime with political, military and economic aid, working out the aggressive plan for the invasion of North Korea. Such encouragement and aid started a civil war in Korea. As far back as May 1950, our govern ment received reliable information that Rhee had scheduled the attack on North Korea for mid -June 1950. This enabled us to take timely measures for repulsing the attack from the south, made possible with our Soviet advisers in planning of the operation. Source D: Excerpt from US Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s memoirs, written in 1969, about the North Korean Offensive of 25 June 1950. Dean Acheson was the US Secretary of State during Truman’s presidency. Adapted from an extract from a statement sent by North Korean Foreign Minister to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 28 September 1950. Mao Zedong’s address to all Politburo members in late September 1950 on the situation in Korean peninsula. Even if Washington did not attack China immediately, it could establish a hostile regime on the Korean Peninsula and deploy its troops along the Sino-Korean border to insert military pressure. This would constitute a very grave threat to north-eastern China, the industrial heartland of our country. The task of sustaining a passive defence of the region was impossible as our immediate concern is to destroy the Chiang’s regime in Taiwan. How many troops are needed to guard the Yalu River of more than one thousand kilometres? Moreover, we have to wait there year after year without knowing when the enemy will come.

5 Source E: A poster widely distributed during the Korean War in 1951. Source F: According to my own, still incomplete investigation, the war started in fact in August-September 1949 and not in June 1950. Repeated attacks were made along key sections of the 38th parallel throughout the summer of 1949, by Rhee’s forces, aiming at securing key positions for a full -scale invasion of the north. What happened later was that the North Korean forces simply decided that things had gone far enough and that the next assault by Rhee’s forces would be repulsed; that having exhausted all possibiliti es of peaceful unification, those forces would be chased back and the south liberated. From left to right: Soviet Union, China, North Korean generals, North Korean soldiers Communist Invasion North Korean soldiers were forced to fight in the war for Russia. A report by an Australian journalist, Wilfred Burchett, on the Korean War in 1970s. Burchett was known for his reporting of conflicts in Asia and his Communist sympathies.

6 Section B: Essays Answer two questions. 2 ‘Tengku Abdul Rahman’s leadership was the most important reason for the independence of Malaya in 1957. ’ How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. [10] 3 ‘The comm