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Victor Arutyunov (13CN)

History A-Level
18 March, 2020

DATE OF PAPER?

1. How far do you agree with the view that the Cold War only really began in the
years 1947-48?

There exists a general perception that the Cold War immediately followed World War
II, and therefore began in 1945, which is widespread and supported by a multitude of
historians, such as Dobbs, the author of Extract 2. However, other historians, including
Walker, the author of Extract 1, argue that events and projects such as Marshall Plan, the
establishment of Cominform and the West German currency reform in the years 1947-48
was what truly constituted the outbreak of the Cold War. Other views, such as that the Cold
War only began with the Berlin Blockade of 1948-49 and the establishment of the two
German states, (These events are pertinent to Extract 1) are also common among Cold War
historians.
A confident introduction that describes the key arguments of both extracts well

Those historians who focus on ideology and the inevitability of conflict claim the Cold War
began in 1917 with the Bolshevik Revolution – interesting argument

Extract 1 suggests that the Cold War only really commenced in the years 1947-48,
citing a number of crucial events which led to its beginning. According to Walker, the USA
‘opened the game by proposing the Marshall Plan’, which was subsequently responded to by
the Soviet Union ‘by organising Cominform and encouraging industrial strikes in Western
Europe to stop the plan’. Indeed, the Marshall Plan, announced by US General George
Marshall on 5 June, 1947, was the first major point of disagreement between the USA and
the USSR since the Potsdam Conference, with 1946 having been a relatively calm year. The
USSR was completely opposed to the Plan, also known as the European Recovery
Programme (ERP), as it constituted what the Soviet Union deemed ‘dollar imperialism’, or
ensnaring European countries into the American capitalist sphere of influence by making
them economically dependent on the USA. This was partly an accurate view, as the ERP did
contain some abusive clauses, such as the one requiring countries receiving Marshall Aid to
dismantle all trade barriers with the USA and buy a certain minimum amount of American
goods. It is also true that the USSR responded by establishing Cominform on 5 October,
1947 and calling for public opposition to the ERP in Western Europe in the form of strikes.
The USSR also forbade all East European countries, which either had Soviet-aligned
socialist governments or were occupied by the Red Army, to receive any form of aid from the
ERP, ostensibly to avoid them being captured by Western ‘dollar imperialists’. This is seen
by some as a key point in the beginning of the Cold War, as this was the first major
disagreement between the two superpowers and the first time two clearly defined blocs - ‘the
armed camps began to mobilise under their two opposing banners’ - were created in Europe
- one not obtaining any American aid, the other almost dependent on it. This division would
persist throughout the Cold War, which made the Marshall Plan and the creation of
Cominform crucial events in the outbreak of the Cold War.
Clear summary of major argument in Extract 1 and developed very effectively with accurate
contextual material

Extract 1 also alludes to events in 1948 as being paramount in the initiation of the
Cold War, particularly those in Germany in June of that year. The 18-23 June ‘currency
reform and the creation of the Deutschmark’ caused the USSR to announce the Berlin
Blockade (which lasted until May 1949) on 24 June, 1948, the first act of direct confrontation
between the two superpowers. This is seen as the true beginning of the Cold War, an event
which turned the Marshall Plan stand-off into a true conflict, primarily because this was the
first time that the USA and the USSR were ‘very close’ to ‘direct military confrontation’. There
might have been disagreement at Potsdam and tensions following it, but this was when the
Cold War actually became a ‘war’ and gained the status of a real conflict, and not simply
mutual distrust and tensions between two nations. Therefore, it can be argued that the Cold
War only really began in 1947-48, when ‘the division of Europe was complete’ and ‘open war
.. was very close’, as opposed to earlier dates, when the relationship between the two
superpowers was merely one of suspicion and non-violent discord.
Strong argument produced that supports interpretation of Extract 1

Extract 2, however, takes a different stance, arguing that it was in the ‘six-month
period between February and August 1945’ that the ‘most significant events of the early Cold
War’ took place, thereby meaning that the Cold War did not only really begin in 1947-48, but
commenced directly after the end of World War II. Some of the events which Dobbs sees as
crucial to the Cold War’s alleged outbreak in 1945 were ‘the death of Roosevelt, the end of
World War II, the disintegration of the anti-Hitler alliance, and the division of Europe into rival
political blocks’. Each of these events was indeed vital in beginning in the Cold War. US
President Roosevelt’s passing in April 1945 meant that his Vice-President Harry S. Truman
became President of the USA. Truman, unlike Roosevelt, did not wish to cooperate with the
USSR, being a staunch anti-communist, and was inexperienced in foreign affairs, having
mostly dealt with domestic issues during his terms as Vice-President. In addition, Truman
was insecure, having never been actually elected to office, and constantly felt as if he had to
somehow justify his Presidency by a show of strength. This show of strength was the use of
nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to end the war with Japan and his
reluctance to let Stalin know about the American nuclear test during the Potsdam
Conference in July 1945. Both of these upset Stalin, who had wished to be able to have
access to information about developing nuclear weapons and to be able to defeat Japan on
his own to gain a sphere of influence in East Asia. This schism between Stalin and Truman
did indeed signify the ‘end of the anti-Hitler alliance’ which Extract 2 cites as crucial to the
beginning of the Cold War. Moreover, the ‘end of World War II’ did in fact lead to the ‘division
of Europe into rival political blocks’. The borders of the Cold War (‘the front lines of the Cold
War’, as Extract 2 calls them) - the famous Iron Curtain - was nearly identical to the border
between countries ‘freed’ by the USSR and those ‘liberated’ by the Western allies.
Furthermore, the end of the war meant there was no common enemy, and consequently no
‘anti-Hitler alliance’, meaning that the two rival ideologies of capitalism and communism
could finally enter open conflict with each other, which was eventually what caused the Cold
War.
Excellent deployment of relevant material that fully develops the key argument of Extract 2.
 Extract 2 also dismisses the events of 1947-48 as merely ‘follow-ons’ from events in
1945 which were, according to Dobbs, the true starting points of the Cold War. Dobbs
argues that the Communist seizure of power in Czechoslovakia in February 1948 was
merely a continuation of the ‘pattern established in Romania in the weeks immediately
following Yalta’. This is a reference to the Communist coup against Nicolae Radescu’s
government in early March 1945. There were indeed plenty of similarities between the two
coups, and the one in Czechoslovakia was by no means the first attempt by the USSR to
seize power in East European countries. However, it must be noted that Dobbs is ignoring
that the Romanian coup did not have nearly the same impact as the Czechoslovakian coup
did. The former was merely a confirmation of the Red Army’s authority in an occupied
country where communism was actually more popular than the alternatives, while the latter
was a coup against an elected liberal government in a country which fervently despised
communism. Most importantly, the Czechoslovakian coup, and in particular the murder of
Czechslovakian Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk on 10 March, 1948, was what convinced the
US Congress to approve the ERP and begin the geopolitical ‘game of tennis’, as Extract 1
calls it, between the USA and the USSR that was the Cold War. Dobbs also mentions the
Berlin Blockade and the Truman Administration’s ‘support for pro-Western governments in
Greece and Turkey’ in 1947 as mere follow-ons from disputes over Western access rights to
Berlin at Potsdam and Truman’s prior opposition to Soviet access to military bases in the
Eastern Mediterranean. While such claims are legitimate, as both of the aforementioned
were indeed the ‘origins’ of the Berlin Blockade and the US intervention in the Greek Civil
War, they by no means had the same profound impact on Cold War relations that the actual
Blockade and Civil War did. The Greek Civil War (1946-49) was the first proxy war fought
between the USA and the USSR, and this is crucial in that it was the first of many such wars
which were the defining feature of the Cold War. The Berlin Blockade, as previously
discussed, was the first instance of direct quasi-military confrontation between the two
superpowers. ‘Squabbles’ cannot be compared to the Berlin Blockade, for the sheer reason
that they were mere disputes and an indication of diplomatic tension, but far from actual
conflict, which the Cold War was.

A firm grasp of Extract 2s key message that has been effectively developed with high level
supporting cold war evidence.

There are also other views as to when the Cold War really began. Some historians
accuse their counterparts of being overly Euro-centric and not focussing on the
establishment of the communist People’s Republic of China in October of 1949 as a key
event in creating the Cold War. Their main argument is that without the spread of the
capitalist-communist divide into other continents, what we know as the Cold War would only
have been a confrontation in Europe between two superpowers, something which had often
happened previously in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, this suggestion is an
incomplete argument, because by the time of the PRC’s foundation, the USA and the USSR
were already in open conflict. Indeed, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) had by
that time been established, converting the world into a Western, pro-capitalist, pro-
democratic camp and an opposed communist bloc. The establishment of the PRC did not
instigate the Cold War - it merely extended its ‘battleground’ to Asia.
A worthy argument that maintains a strong focus on the question
 Based on the evidence given in the Extracts and the wider context, one can conclude
that the Cold War really only began in 1947-48. The disagreements at Potsdam in 1945,
along with the Romanian coup d’état or the death of Roosevelt, initiated a period of strained
relations and tensions between the USA and the USSR. However, they were just that -
strained relations and tensions, and not a genuine conflict, as the Cold War would become.
The true conflict between the USA and the USSR was brought about by the division of
Europe caused by the Marshall Plan based on who accepted it and who did not, and even
more crucially by the currency reform of 1948 and the subsequent Berlin Blockade of 1948-
49. This latter event was the first military confrontation between the USSR and the USA and
therefore the first instance of conflict between the superpowers - the definition of the Cold
War. Therefore, I agree to a large extent with the view that the Cold War only really began in
the years 1947-48.
A conclusion that makes a valid judgement and summarises effectively the key arguments
expounded in the answer.

A high quality answer that demonstrates a commendable level of understanding which

enables a confident and sustained evaluative argument throughout.
Excellent work Victor