Secondary 4 History Practice Paper: Origins Of The Cold War, Marshall Plan, Berlin Blockade, Korean War, Cuban Missile Crisis And The End Of The Cold War

Secondary 4 History Practice Paper: Origins of the Cold War, Marshall Plan, Berlin Blockade, Korean War, Cuban Missile Crisis and the End of the Cold War

2026-11-13

History – Secondary 4 – Practice Paper

S4 History Cold War paper: 6 sections and 24 parts on Potsdam, Marshall Plan, Berlin airlift, Korea, Cuba and 1989; 100 marks in 60 minutes, with full marking points.

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Paper details　S4 History practice paper on the Cold War: Potsdam, Marshall Plan, Berlin airlift, Korean War, Cuban missile crisis and 1989; answers and marking points included.

Section A: Origins of the Cold War and the Potsdam Disagreements (16 marks)

The Cold War was a long standoff between the US-led and Soviet-led blocs after 1945 in politics, economics, the military and ideology. The two sides never fought directly; they contained each other through arms races, alliance systems and proxy wars.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
1	(a) State two ideological oppositions in the Cold War and give one institution for each.	Answer: capitalist private markets with elected government (US bloc, NATO) against communist planned economy and single-party rule (Soviet bloc, Warsaw Pact). 1 mark for each opposition, 0.5 mark for each correct matching institution.
2	(b) What were the three disagreements over Germany at the Potsdam Conference (July to August 1945)?	Answer: (1) Germany was divided into four occupation zones without a working mechanism for reunification; (2) the USSR wanted reparations taken from its own zone, while the West feared a repeat of the Versailles settlement; (3) Poland’s western border was moved to the Oder-Neisse line, and the make-up of eastern European governments was disputed.
3	(c) How many years passed between the end of the Second World War (1945) and the founding of NATO (1949)? Give two events in those years that turned allies into rivals.	Answer: 4 years (1949 minus 1945). Events include Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech at Fulton in 1946, and the Truman Doctrine of March 1947 with the Marshall Plan of June 1947, which redrew Europe along economic and military lines.
4	(d) Who were the recipients of the Truman Doctrine (March 1947), how much was pledged, and what strategic principle lay behind it?	Answer: Greece and Turkey, with 400 million US dollars pledged in the speech to Congress on 12 March 1947. The principle was containment of communist expansion, later known as the containment policy.

Section B: The Marshall Plan and Economic Division (16 marks)

The Marshall Plan (1948 to 1951) rebuilt western Europe with economic aid, tying US markets, currency and political influence to European recovery, and splitting the continent into two economic systems.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
5	(a) State three aims of the Marshall Plan.	Answer: rebuild western European industry and farming to prevent famine and unrest; open European markets to US goods and capital; use aid to strengthen pro-Western governments and weaken communist electoral support. 1 mark each, plus 1 mark for linking the three aims together.
6	(b) Total aid was 13.3 billion US dollars over four years. Calculate the average annual amount in hundred millions of dollars.	Answer: 13.3 billion dollars equals 13.3 billion; divided by 4 years the average is 33.25 hundred million dollars per year (133 divided by 4). 3 marks for the steps, 2 marks for the correct unit.
7	(c) Which two organisations did the USSR create in response to the Marshall Plan?	Answer: the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) in 1947 to coordinate eastern European communist parties, and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) in 1949 to counter western European economic cooperation. 2 marks for each name.
8	(d) To what extent did the Marshall Plan deepen the division of Europe? Explain in two respects.	Answer: economically, recipients had to disclose data and accept US scrutiny of spending, so aid cemented the western system; politically, the USSR barred eastern Europe from joining and set up Comecon, and in 1948 blockaded Berlin, leaving two rival economic and military blocs.

Section C: The Berlin Blockade and the Airlift (18 marks)

Berlin lay inside the Soviet zone but was jointly governed by four powers. In 1948 the West pushed ahead with a West German state and currency reform, so the USSR cut the land routes into West Berlin and the West supplied 2.2 million people by air.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
9	(a) State two direct causes of the Soviet blockade of Berlin.	Answer: (1) in June 1948 the western powers introduced a new currency (the Deutsche Mark) in their zones, disrupting the Soviet zone economy; (2) the London conference of six powers moved towards a West German state, which the USSR saw as breaking the Potsdam arrangements.
10	(b) The blockade ran from 24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949. Calculate the number of days.	Answer: 322 days (the difference between the two dates: 190 days left in 1948 plus 132 days in 1949), roughly ten and a half months. 3 marks for the conversion, 2 marks for the total.
11	(c) The airlift carried 2,326,406 tonnes. Calculate the daily average in tonnes and the kilograms per person per day for a city of 2.2 million people.	Answer: about 7,225 tonnes a day (2,326,406 divided by 322), and about 3.3 kilograms per person per day (tonnes converted to kilograms, divided by 2.2 million). 2 marks for each figure, 1 mark for units.
12	(d) What three political results followed the Berlin blockade?	Answer: (1) NATO was founded on 4 April 1949 with 12 founding members as a collective defence system; (2) the Federal Republic of Germany was created in May 1949 and the German Democratic Republic in October 1949, formalising the division; (3) the West established that airlift and alliance solidarity could hold a line, extending containment from economics into defence.

Section D: The Korean War (16 marks)

After Japan surrendered in 1945 Korea was divided at the 38th parallel for surrender purposes, and two states emerged in 1948. On 25 June 1950 North Korean forces crossed the parallel, and the UN authorised force while the USSR was absent.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
13	(a) How did the partition of Korea arise before the war, and when did fighting start?	Answer: after Japan surrendered in 1945 US and Soviet forces accepted the Japanese surrender either side of the 38th parallel; in 1948 the Republic of Korea in the south and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the north each claimed the whole peninsula. Fighting began on 25 June 1950.
14	(b) Why could the UN authorise military action, and how many member states took part?	Answer: the USSR was boycotting the Security Council over the Chinese seat, so no veto was cast and the resolution passed. 21 member states took part: 16 sent combat forces and 5 sent medical units (16 plus 5).
15	(c) MacArthur’s landing at Inchon (15 September 1950) changed the war; which country’s entry then pushed the line south again?	Answer: the Inchon landing cut North Korean supply lines and UN forces advanced north of the parallel; in October 1950 Chinese People’s Volunteer Army units entered the war and drove UN forces back south of the parallel. 2 marks for the landing, 2 marks for the Chinese entry and the retreat.
16	(d) How many days did the Korean War last, and what was the territorial outcome?	Answer: from 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953 is 1,128 days (189 days left in 1950, then 1951 and 1952, then 208 days of 1953). The armistice was signed at Panmunjom, the border returned roughly to the 38th parallel with a demilitarised zone, and both states survive today.

Section E: The Cuban Missile Crisis (18 marks)

After the Cuban revolution of 1959 Havana broke with Washington. The USSR deployed medium-range missiles in Cuba, detected by US reconnaissance aircraft in October 1962, producing the thirteen days that came closest to nuclear war.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
17	(a) Which two US-Cuban conflicts formed the background to the crisis?	Answer: (1) Castro’s 1959 revolution nationalised US property, so Washington cut sugar purchases and imposed an embargo; (2) the failed Bay of Pigs landing backed by the US in 1961 pushed Cuba towards Soviet military protection.
18	(b) US aircraft photographed missile sites on 14 October 1962. How many medium-range missiles had the USSR sent to Cuba, and what threat did they pose?	Answer: 42 medium-range missiles. Their range covered major cities on the US east coast, including Washington and New York, cutting warning time to minutes and eroding the US lead in strategic weapons.
19	(c) The crisis ran from 16 to 28 October 1962: how many days is that? What did Kennedy announce on 22 October, and why was it not called a blockade?	Answer: 12 days between the dates, or 13 counting both ends. Kennedy announced a naval quarantine intercepting ships carrying offensive weapons, avoiding the word blockade because a blockade is an act of war in international law.
20	(d) How was the crisis resolved? Give two outcomes.	Answer: the USSR withdrew the missiles in return for a US pledge not to invade Cuba and a secret removal of US missiles from Turkey; in 1963 a direct hotline was installed and the Partial Test Ban Treaty signed, and both sides learned to avoid direct nuclear confrontation.

Section F: Detente and the End of the Cold War (16 marks)

From the late 1960s Washington and Moscow moved from confrontation to negotiation, a phase called detente. Eastern Europe changed at the end of the 1980s, the Berlin Wall fell, and the USSR dissolved two years later.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
21	(a) The Berlin Wall was built from 13 August 1961. Calculate the days and the approximate years until it opened on 9 November 1989.	Answer: 10,315 days, which is about 28.2 years at 365.25 days a year (10,315 divided by 365.25). 3 marks for the days, 2 marks for the years, with the 365.25 basis stated.
22	(b) Which two arms control and security agreements belong to the detente period?	Answer: the 1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Talks agreement (SALT I), which limited anti-ballistic missile systems; and the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, signed by more than thirty states, which accepted the inviolability of European borders and added human rights clauses.
23	(c) What were the two reforms Gorbachev launched from 1985, and which treaty did he sign with the US in 1987?	Answer: glasnost (openness in speech and information) and perestroika (economic and political restructuring). In 1987 the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was signed, eliminating all land-based intermediate and shorter-range missiles.
24	(d) How many years did the Cold War last from the Truman Doctrine of 1947 to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991? Give two events that marked its end.	Answer: 44 years (1991 minus 1947). The markers are the opening of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and the formal dissolution of the USSR on 26 December 1991; the Warsaw Pact had already ceased military functions that year.

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