Transformation of the Cold War Practice Questions

Study Source A below, then answer the question.

Source A: From an editorial in a West Berlin newspaper, published in late August 1961, about two weeks after the border through Berlin was closed.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

For two weeks the wire, and now the concrete, have been growing across our city, and what has Washington done? It has sent a note of protest to Moscow, which was brushed aside within a day. The Vice-President has flown in to make speeches, and fifteen hundred more American soldiers have driven up the autobahn to be cheered in the streets. We are grateful for them. But not one strand of the wire has been cut. The Americans promise to defend West Berlin, and nobody doubted that they would. What they will not do is lift a finger for the people trapped on the other side.

Study Sources B and C below, then answer the question.

Source B: From a script written for a Radio Moscow broadcast to listeners in Eastern Europe, 24 October 1962, two days after the American President announced a naval blockade of Cuba.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

The Soviet Union has done nothing but help a small island defend itself. Everyone remembers that only last year armed exiles, trained and paid for by Washington, landed at the Bay of Pigs to overthrow Cuba's government. Now American warships surround Cuba and stop peaceful shipping on the high seas. This is piracy. For years American rockets have stood in Turkey, within easy reach of our cities, and no one in Washington called that a crime. The Soviet people want peace, but they will not be bullied.

Source C: From a private letter written by an American naval officer serving with the ships enforcing the blockade of Cuba, sent to his wife on 25 October 1962.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

I cannot tell you where we are, only that the air here feels heavier than any storm I have known. Our orders are to stop and search any ship carrying weapons to the island. Nobody on board believes the Russians will simply turn their ships around, and if one refuses to stop, I do not know what happens next. The younger men joke about it; the older ones do not. We listen to the radio for every word from Washington. I have never been so certain that a single mistake could finish everything.

Study Sources B and C below, then answer the question.

Source B: From a statement sent by the Soviet government to communist parties in Eastern Europe in September 1968, explaining why Warsaw Pact troops had entered Czechoslovakia the previous month.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

Every socialist country finds its own road, but it may not take a road that damages socialism in its neighbours. When forces hostile to socialism attempted to turn Czechoslovakia away from the socialist road, this ceased to be the affair of the Czechoslovak people alone. It became the affair of every country in the socialist community. The assistance given by the allied armies in August was therefore not interference but a duty. Let no one doubt it: the Warsaw Pact will defend the gains of socialism wherever they are threatened.

Source C: From a report written in 1969 by a Western diplomat working in Eastern Europe, sent privately to his own government.

Written for practice: not a real historical source.

Moscow's declaration that the socialist community may intervene in any member state has been received here with alarm rather than agreement. Romania took no part in the August operation and its leaders speak openly of the right of every nation to settle its own affairs; Albania has left the Warsaw Pact altogether. In the West our governments protested loudly and then did nothing, much as they did nothing over Hungary in 1956. Ministers here assume that talks with the Americans on limiting weapons will go ahead, whatever is said in public about Czechoslovakia.