NCHS 2025 H(E) QP+MS

Name: Register Number: Class: PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION 2025 SECONDARY FOUR HUMANITIES (HISTORY) Paper 2 2261/02 25 August 2025, Monday 1 hour 50 minutes Additional Material: Writing Paper 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, glue or correction fluid. Section A Answer all parts of Question 1. Section B Answer two questions. Start your answer for Section B on a fresh page. At the end of the examination, fasten all your work 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. This document consists of 5 printed pages including the cover page.

Section A: Source-based Case Study Question 1 is 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. Why did the Soviet Ambassador send the telegram to the Soviet leadership? Explain your answer. [5] (b) Study Source B. How useful is the source as evidence about the Marshall Plan? Explain your answer. [5] (c) Study Source C. Are you surprised by what the source says about the Marshall Plan? Explain your answer. [6] (d) Study Sources D and E. Does Source D prove Source E wrong about the Marshall Plan? Explain your answer. [6] (e) Study all sources. ‘The US introduction of the Marshall Plan was justified’. How far do these sources support this view? Use the sources and your knowledge to explain your answer. [8] 2

The Marshall Plan BACKGROUND INFORMATION Read this carefully. It may help you answer some of the questions. After World War 2, the relationship between the USA and USSR steadily worsened. This tension arose primarily due to their competition and rivalry for influence in Europe. Both countries attempted to achieve this through a series of initiatives and programs to outdo the other. One of the key initiatives implemented by the USA was the Marshall Plan or the European Recovery Programme, announced on June 5, 1947, and implemented from March 1948. It was a comprehensive economic recovery package to improve the economies of the European countries. However, it was regarded by the Soviets as an attempt to spread American influence and to hinder communism. The USSR, in turn, carried out countermoves against the Marshall Plan in order to exert Soviet influence. It was under such circumstances that a bi-polar world emerged in Europe. Was the US justified in introducing the Marshall Plan? Source A: From a private and confidential telegram by the Soviet Ambassador to the US, sent to the Soviet leadership, September 1946. The US foreign policy today is different from what it was before the war. Right now, the US government aims to limit Soviet influence in nearby countries. Many American leaders, often talk about the Soviet Union in a very hostile way. They even discuss the possibility of a “third war”. This is the current attitude of American ruling elites towards USSR. It is important to understand that the US is getting ready for a future war against the Soviet Union. In the eyes of American imperialists, they see the Soviet Union as their main obstacle to becoming the dominant power in the world. Source B: Excerpt from George Marshall’s speech delivered at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, announcing the launch of the Marshall Plan. It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist. 3

Source C: A cartoon published in the Soviet Union titled ‘American motor of the latest type’, published in 1947 after the announcement of the Marshall Plan. The figures on the left represent the European nations. Source D: A speech by Andrei Vyshinsky, Soviet deputy foreign minister, at the United Nations in September 1947. It is becoming more and more evident to everyone that the implementation of the Marshall Plan will mean placing European countries under the economic and political control of the United States and direct interference by the latter in the internal affairs of those countries. This policy conflicts sharply with the principle expressed by the United Nations which declared that relief supplies to other countries should not be used as a political weapon. Moreover, this plan is an attempt to split Europe into two camps and to complete the formation of a bloc of several European countries hostile to the interests of the Soviet Union. Source E: A diary entry by the French President, recounting his experiences of planning for the European Recovery Programme, written in July 1947. The Soviets are claiming that the introduction of Marshall Plan for Europe’s recovery would divide Europe. In reality, its actual aim is to unite Europe. Had the United States wanted to impose their presence and run Europe, they would have resorted to bilateral negotiations with every State. But nothing of the kind. Later when we were discussing about the membership of the Marshall Plan, the foreign policy decision maker in Prague looked very embarrassed as he had received a phone call from Moscow ordering him to refuse aid from Marshall Plan as a fellow communist ally. But what is to be done now? We must prevent this situation from emerging, the Eastern versus Western bloc. Source F: Adapted from a report published by a research centre in 2011 analysing the Soviet Union’s rejection of the Marshall Plan. 4

The Marshall Plan was not simply a strategic move to “defend” Western Europe from communist expansion, but also an assertive, even aggressive policy designed to protect and exp