Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945-1972 | AQA GCSE History (8145)
Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945-1972
- 139 questions
- 9 subtopics
- Paper 1
- Paper 1
Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945–1972 is examined in Paper 1, Understanding the modern world.
It covers the end of the Second World War, the Iron Curtain and the evolution of East-West rivalry, the significance of events in Asia for superpower relations, military rivalries: the arms race and the space race, the ‘Thaw’, the building of the Berlin Wall, tensions over Cuba, Czechoslovakia and the Prague Spring and easing of tension.
Sample questions from Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945-1972
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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The end of the Second World War
What was the quarrel at Potsdam about reparations, and how was it patched up?
Show the answer
Stalin demanded huge payments from Germany while the western powers refused to strip a country they would then have to feed, so each occupying power was left to take reparations from its own zone. -
The Iron Curtain and the evolution of East-West rivalry
Which two countries prompted that promise, and why just then?
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Greece, where communists were fighting a civil war, and Turkey, because Britain had announced it could no longer afford to prop either of them up. -
The significance of events in Asia for superpower relations
How did the Korean War begin?
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Northern forces crossed the dividing line in June 1950 and overran almost the whole of the south within weeks. -
Military rivalries: the arms race and the space race
What event of 1955 provoked the founding of the Warsaw Pact?
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West Germany was rearmed and admitted to NATO, which the USSR saw as German soldiers being pointed east again only ten years after the war. -
The ‘Thaw’
Which of Nagy's announcements alarmed Moscow most, and why?
Show the answer
That Hungary would leave the Warsaw Pact and be neutral, because if one satellite could walk out the whole protective belt along the Soviet border might unravel. -
The building of the Berlin Wall
What happened when Kennedy and Khrushchev met in Vienna in June 1961?
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Khrushchev renewed his demand that the West pull out, Kennedy flatly refused, and Khrushchev came away thinking the new president young and easily pushed. -
Tensions over Cuba
What were the two consequences of that failed landing?
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Castro declared himself a communist and drew much closer to Moscow for protection, and Khrushchev concluded that Kennedy could be pushed around. -
Czechoslovakia and the Prague Spring
What did Dubček promise Moscow in order to reassure it?
Show the answer
That his country would remain a loyal ally and stay inside the Warsaw Pact, unlike Hungary twelve years earlier.
The 9 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| The end of the Second World War | The Yalta and Potsdam conferences and what was agreed about Germany, the quarrel over reparations, the rival beliefs of the USA and the USSR, the aims and attitudes of Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, Attlee and Truman, and how the atomic bombs on Japan began an arms race. | 18 |
| The Iron Curtain and the evolution of East-West rivalry | Churchill's iron curtain speech, the satellite states and how communists took power in eastern Europe, containment, the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, Cominform and Comecon, Tito's break with Stalin, and the Berlin Blockade and airlift that led to two German states and NATO. | 19 |
| The significance of events in Asia for superpower relations | Mao's victory in China and the Soviet alliance, the domino theory, the division of Korea and the Korean War from invasion to armistice, the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu and the division of Vietnam, the Vietcong's guerrilla war, and what the fighting meant for the superpowers. | 16 |
| Military rivalries: the arms race and the space race | The arms race from the Soviet atomic bomb to the hydrogen bomb, mutually assured destruction, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and the space race from Sputnik and Gagarin to ICBMs, Polaris, Kennedy's Moon pledge and the Apollo 11 landing. | 16 |
| The ‘Thaw’ | The easing after Stalin's death, de-Stalinisation, the Hungarian rising of October 1956, Nagy's promises and the Soviet tanks, the West's response, the U2 shot down in 1960 and the collapse of the Paris summit. | 15 |
| The building of the Berlin Wall | Why West Berlin troubled the USSR, the refugee drain, Khrushchev's ultimatum of 1958 and the Vienna summit, the barrier of 13 August 1961, Kennedy's response, Checkpoint Charlie and the results for the Cold War. | 12 |
| Tensions over Cuba | Castro's revolution and the American response, the Bay of Pigs and its consequences, why Khrushchev placed missiles on the island, the crisis from the spy-plane photographs to the blockade and 27 October, the terms of the settlement, Castro's anger, and the results for Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Cold War. | 16 |
| Czechoslovakia and the Prague Spring | Discontent under Novotný, Dubček and socialism with a human face, the reforms of the Prague Spring, the Warsaw Pact invasion of August 1968 and passive resistance, Jan Palach, Dubček's fall, the Brezhnev Doctrine, and what the crushing of the reforms meant for the Warsaw Pact and East–West relations. | 13 |
| Easing of tension | What détente meant, the Soviet dissidents, why each superpower wanted to reduce tension, the split between the USSR and China, SALT 1 and its limits, and the parts played by Nixon and Brezhnev. | 14 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
AQA GCSE History Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 1,889 questions with their answers.