ACJC H1 HIST IH P1

© ACJC 2018 9752/01/ Preliminary Examinations/18 1 ANGLO-CHINESE JUNIOR COLLEGE PRELIMINARY EXAMINATIONS HISTORY 9752/01 Paper 1 Shaping the International Order (1945-2000) 14 August 2018 3 hours Additional Materials: Answer Paper READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST Write your class, index number, and name on all the work you hand in. Write in dark blue or black pen on both sides of the paper. Do not use staples, paper clips, highlighters, glue or correction fluid. Section A Answer Question 1. Section B Answer two questions. Begin each question on a fresh sheet of paper. 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 This document consists of 5 printed pages. © ACJC History Department 2018 [Turn over

© ACJC 2018 9752/01/ Preliminary Examinations/18 2 Section A You must answer Question 1. THE SOVIET-AFGHAN WAR AND THE END OF BIPOLARITY 1 Read the sources and then answer the questions, which follow. Source A The ignoble Soviet exit from Afghanistan became a global symbol for the failure of Moscow’s Third World policies. Most Soviets initially resented the costs of the war and the lack of results, rather than the policies that had produced that outcome. But since a substantial part of the CPSU regime’s overall legitimacy was based on its superpower role abroad, the failure in Afghanistan became a deadly challenge to the key concept of its foreign policy: Soviet military power and the global advance of socialism. The decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was a conscious choice by the Gorbachev leadership. In spite of the economic costs, the human losses, and the criticism at home and abroad, there is little doubt that the Soviet Union could have held on to the 1985 status quo in Afghanistan for a very long time if it had so wished. But by early 1987, the general secretary had decided to withdraw the Soviet forces, and over the following two years the political direction was clear. Soviet economic difficulties played an important role with regard to Afghanistan, as indeed they did in all of Gorbachev’s policies. The dramatic drop in its surplus income that the Soviet state experienced in the beginning of the 1980s – mostly as an effect of the drop in price of its main raw material exports – brought out the worst in a planned economy in which weapons expenditure played such a major role. From a book by a professor of international history, 2006. Source B Some people think that the Russian military might is invincible, but is not the six year long resistance of the Afghan Mujahideen enough proof to the contrary? This was also said about Great Britain, the empire where the sun never set, but now it is a tiny country where the sun never rises and it is still facing the Irish problem. Some people are worried how long the Mujahideen will be able to fight. We are not only not tired but are prepared for a long war and are confident of victory. Why do they not ask how long the Russians will be able to fight? Address by Gulbuddin Hekmatayar, head of the Hezb-i-Islami party, to a conference of Afghanistan’s Islamist parties in Pakistan, 1985.

© ACJC 2018 9752/01/ Preliminary Examinations/18 3 Source C Six regiments will be returned home from Afghanistan before the end of 1986 with their integral equipment and armaments. These units will be returned to their areas of permanent deployment in the Soviet Union, in such a way that anyone interested can easily verify it. In taking so serious a step, the Soviet Union is striving to speed up a political settlement, to give it another impetus. The Soviet Union also proceeds from the view that those who have been organizing and implementing armed intervention against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan will correctly understand and duly appreciate this unilateral step of ours. It must be answered by the curtailment of outside interference. Our approach to relations with the United States is well known. We stand for peaceful, good-neighborly relations and for mutually beneficial cooperation, which has incidentally considerable opportunities also in the Far East and in the Pacific. A few words about the most important thing in our present relations, the termination of the arms race. After the Geneva meeting, the Soviet Union put forward major proposals on the entire range of problems of reducing and eliminati ng arms and of verifying the process. We have not seen any movement to meet us halfway. From a speech by General-Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to the residents of the Soviet city of Vladivostok, July 1986. Source D Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don’t regret anything today? Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: ‘We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.’ Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire. Q: And neither do you regret having supported radical Islamists, having given arms and advice to future terrorists? Brzezinski: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war? From an interview with former United States National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1997 . Source E Common sense also told us that to preserve the peace, we'd have to become strong again after years of weakness and confusion. So, we rebuilt our defenses, and this New Year we toasted the new peacefulness around the globe. Not only have the superpowers actually begun to reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons—and hope for even more progress is bright—but the regional conflicts that rack the globe are also beginning to cease. The Persian Gulf is no longer a war zone. The Soviets are leaving Afghanistan. The Vietnamese are preparing to pull out of Cambodia, and an American-mediated accord will soon send 50,000 Cuban troops home from Angola. The lesson of all this was, of course, that because we're a great nation, our challenges seem complex. It will always be this way. But as long as we remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours. Farewell speech by President Ronald Reagan televised to the people of the United States, 1989.

© ACJC 2018 9752/01/ Preliminary Examinations/18 4 Source F Cartoon published in a satirical Soviet magazine, September 1986. *Russian caption: 'Catch, Mujahideen! And I must also hurry to Angola!' Now answer the following questions: (a) Compare and contrast the evidence provided in Sources A and B about the Soviet military effort in Afghanistan in the 1980s. [10] (b) How far do Sources A-F support the view that Soviet failure in Afghanistan was the most important reason for the end of the Cold War? [30]

© ACJC 2018 9752/01/ Preliminary Examina