Exam skills: the period study

Superpower relations and the Cold War is Paper 2, Booklet P. It's worth 32 marks. You answer every question:

This booklet has no SPaG marks. Split your time on Paper 2 evenly between this booklet and Anglo-Saxon and Norman England.

Method: name one consequence, then explain how the event led to it, with specific detail. One well-explained consequence is enough.

Question: Explain one consequence of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979).

Model answer: One consequence was the end of détente. The USA saw the invasion as Soviet expansion towards the oil of the Persian Gulf, so President Carter announced the Carter Doctrine, promising to defend the Gulf by force if necessary. He also asked the Senate to delay SALT 2, which was never ratified, so the arms-control progress of the 1970s stopped.

Method: tell the key events in order, linking each to the next. Cover the whole period, and add events of your own to the stimulus points.

Question: Write a narrative account analysing the key events of the Berlin Crisis, 1958–61. (Stimulus: Khrushchev's ultimatum, 1958; the Vienna summit, 1961.)

Model answer: The crisis began because skilled East Germans were escaping to the West through Berlin. To stop this, in November 1958 Khrushchev demanded that the West leave West Berlin within six months. The West refused, which led to a series of summits. They failed: Paris collapsed in 1960 after the U-2 incident, and at Vienna in 1961 Khrushchev, thinking Kennedy weak, renewed his demands. As a result, in August 1961 East Germany built the Berlin Wall.

Method: you choose two of the three bullet points, and write about each separately (8 marks each). For each, explain why it mattered for the outcome named, using its consequences, with specific detail.

Question: Explain the importance of the Truman Doctrine (1947) for relations between the USA and the Soviet Union.

Model paragraph: The Truman Doctrine was important because it set out the policy of containment. In March 1947 Truman promised to support free peoples resisting outside pressure, and asked Congress for aid for Greece and Turkey. This mattered because it committed the USA to opposing the spread of communism anywhere in the world. Stalin saw this as a threat to Soviet security, and it led directly to the Marshall Plan and, in response, Cominform. So it deepened the division between the superpowers.

To reach the top in these questions:

• Analyse: show how events caused or led to each other, and why they mattered.
• Be precise: use dates, names and terms, such as 'containment', 'the Brezhnev Doctrine' and 'the INF Treaty'.
• Cover the whole period in a narrative, from the start of the dates given to the end.
• Go beyond the stimulus points in the narrative account.