SAJC_2021_Prelims_Mark Scheme_H2 History Paper 1

2021 Prelims_ JC2 H2 History P1_ Mark Scheme 1 1 (a) Compare and contrast the evidence provided in Source C and D on the impact of the Strategic Defensive Initiative (SDI) on the superpowers’ negotiations. [10] Similar View #1 Expected valid responses: • [Success Criterion #4] Both Sources C and D agree that the SDI stalled the negotiations between the two superpowers and had a negative impact. o C: Gorbachev highlighted how the USSR ‘had made real concessions to the US in a number of negotiations and sought to establish conditions for reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons’ but ‘the US was trying to drag things backwards’ due to the apparent US intention of using Soviet amenability to arms reduction as ‘leverage to force the Soviet Union to make concessions in certain areas’. This suggests that the issue of arms control, of which SDI was a major feature, had stalled negotiations to the point that they ‘had reached a dead end’. o D: ‘At the Reykjavik Summit, the sticking point was SDI, Gorbachev insisting that it be confined to the laboratory and Reagan refusing to give up testing.’ This implies that SDI was an impediment to the two superpowers’ making progress in their negotiations with each other due to their divergent views on the issue. • Both Source C and D share this similar view because: o Evidence corroborates how SDI had indeed been a key impediment to the US and the USSR’s efforts towards arms reductions up to 1986. o During the summit at Reykjavik in October 1986, Gorbachev offered comprehensive concessions to set nuclear disarmament into motion. He was prepared to remove all SS-20s from Europe and cut Soviet strategic w eapons by 50%. Arms reduction talks, however, ended acrimoniously and little progress was made. (#3) o Although Reagan was interested in what Gorbachev had to offer, he was unwilling to compr omise on SDI. Gorbachev, on the other hand, insisted that America’s abandonment of SDI was a necessary condition for any arms reduction negotiations to be meaningful. (#3)

2021 Prelims_ JC2 H2 History P1_ Mark Scheme 2 Differing Views Expected valid responses: • [Success Criterion #4] While Source C presents primarily the view that SDI was an impediment to negotiations, Source D highlights how negotiations were ultimately not compromised by SDI. o C: Source C highlights the irreconcilable positions of the superpowe rs regarding SDI, suggesting it remained a major impediment to negotiations where Reagan ‘had promised the American people he would not give up SDI’ and ‘could not confine its work to the laboratory’ but Gorbachev insisted that ‘he had to take a principled position that SDI-related work could only be in laboratories.’ o D: The source observes that ‘ almost all the participants assessed Reykjavik retrospectively as, in Reagan’s words, ‘a major turning point in the quest for a safe and secure world’ with George Shultz even describing the Summit as ‘sensationa