(Suggested Answer)TJC 2024 JC2 H1 History Prelim

1 Temasek Junior College 2024 8838/01/S/2024 H1 History Paper 1 Suggested Pointers TJC Preliminary Examination SBCS Success Criteria SBCS Success Criteria Students can: #1 identify supporting evidence and provide explanations that are clear and accurate, to answer the question directly and obviously. #2 Ask relevant questions about a source’s creation to examine it in its specific historical context e.g., By Whom? When? Why? What was going on at that time that may have influenced the content of the sources? #3 Use other sources and contextual knowledge to reinforce or undermine a source’s views. A. Comparing and contrasting sources as evidence on an issue – Part (a) A1. HOW are the sources’ views similar? (Success Criterion #1) (a) Compare and contrast Sources A and B as evidence of the USSR’s contributions towards easing tensions between the superpowers. Similar view: Both Sources A and B agree that the USSR contributed to the easing of tensions between the US. • A: ‘It is my hope that our fireside summit in Geneva and Mr. Gorbachev’s upcoming visit to America can lead to a more stable relationship.’ This highlights the USSR’s, particularly Gorbachev’s, role in improving diplomatic relations between the US and the USSR. • B: Gorbachev states that the USSR ‘understood that in today’s world of mutual interdependence, progress is unthinkable for any society fenced off from the world by ideological barriers’ and that this prompted them ‘to propose an entirely new concept of

2 Temasek Junior College 2024 8838/01/S/2024 global security’. This emphasises the conciliatory role that the USSR played in transiting the US-Soviet relation from one of ideological hostility to one of cooperation. A2. WHY are the sources’ views similar? (Success Criterion #3 – Contextual Knowledge) Both sources concur that the USSR took steps to ease tensions between the US and the USSR because it is true that from 1985 onwards, Gorbachev had pursued a foreign policy that was friendlier towards the West after he came into power, and this was due in part to how Brezhnev’s era of stagnation had undermined the Soviet economy. This necessitated that the USSR reduced its competition with the US to reduce military spending. The more conciliatory approach towards the West was underscored by Gorbachev meeting with Reagan in the first of four Summits, beginning with the Geneva Summit in 1985 and the Reykjavik Summit in 1986 – when Source B was created – where the USSR expressed a willingness to negotiate and make substantial cuts to its missile production if the US was also willing to reciprocate commensurately. A3. HOW do the sources’ views differ? (Success Criterion #1) Sources A and B differ regarding the degree to which the USSR contributed towards the easing of tensions between the US and the USSR. Source A claims that the US contributed to the easing of tensi