DHS 2023 Y5 H2 History WA2 (IH SBQ)

Year 5 History Weighted Assessment 2 1 The Origins of the Cold War 1 Read the sources and answer the questions which follow. Source A Of course the USA’s Economic Recovery Plan was taken very seriously. I should say that there were conflicting feelings. On the one hand, there was a willingness to agree to discuss the question; that was Molotov's stance. He even wrote a note to the Central Committee arguing that it was necessary to start negotiations; he understood that the Soviet Union needed help. In his reply he noted that reconstruction was everyone's main aim, and the United States' offer of help should be welcomed. His reaction to the Marshall Plan was positive. But Stalin, with his suspicious nature, didn't like it: “This is a ploy by Truman. It is nothing like Lend -Lease - a different situation. They don't want to help us. What they want is to infiltrate European countries.” Vladimir Yerofeyev, being interviewed in the late 1990s. *Yerofeyev was a Senior Official in the Soviet Foreign Ministry and Molotov was the Soviet Foreign Minister at the time of the Marshall Plan. Source B Published in a Soviet newspaper, November 1949. The caption reads “The American Bludgeon (the Marshall Plan) is the Solution of Market Problems”.

Year 5 History Weighted Assessment 2 2 Source C I have always worked for friendship with Russia but, like you, I feel deep anxiety because of their misinterpretation of the Yalta decisions, their attitude towards Poland, their overwhelming influence in the Balkans excepting Greece, the difficulties they make about Vienna, the combination of Russian power and the territories under their control or occupied, coupled with the Communist technique in so many other countries, and above all their power to maintain very large armies in the field for a long time. What will be the position in a year or two, when the British and American armies have melted and the French has not yet been formed on any major scale… and when Russia may choose to keep two or three hundred on active service? Extract from a telegram from Prime Minister Winston Churchill to US President Truman, May 12th, 1945. Source D In summary, we have here a political force committed fanatically to the belief that with the US be no permanent modus vivendi (way of existing), that to them it is desirable and necessary that the internal harmony of our society be disrupted, our traditional way of life be destroyed, the international authority of our state be broken, if Soviet power is to be secure. This political force has complete power of disposition over energies of one of world's greatest peoples and resources of world's richest national territory, and is borne along by deep and powerful currents of Russian nationalism. In addition, it has an elaborate and far-flung apparatus for exertion of its influence in other countries, managed by people whose experience and skill in underhanded methods are presumably without parallel in history. It should be approached with same thoroughness and care as solution of major strategic problem in war. I cannot attempt to suggest all answers here. But I would like to record my conviction that the problem is within our power to solve. Adapted from an extract from George Kennan Long Telegram, Feb 1946.

Year 5 History Weighted Assessment 2 3 Source E The Cold War had now begun. It was the product not of a decision but of a dilemma. Each side felt compelled to adopt policies which the other could not but regard as a threat to the principles of the peace. Each then felt compelled to undertake defensive measures. Thus , the Russians saw no choice but to consolidate their security in Eastern Europe. The Americans, regarding Eastern Europe as the first step toward Western Europe, responded by asserting their interest in the zone the Russians deemed vital to their security. The Russians concluded that the West was resuming its old course of capitalist encirclement; that it was purposefully laying the foundation for anti-Soviet regimes in the area defined by the blood of centuries as crucial to Russian survival. An extract from a journal article by an American academic published in 1987. Now answer the following question. How far do Sources A to E support the view that the United States was responsible for the outbreak of the Cold War? [30]