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Paper 2 - Surprise CC6

The document discusses the analysis of historical sources, focusing on President Kennedy's speech in West Berlin and an interview with Mikhail Gorbachev regarding the Strategic Defense Initiative. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the context, purpose, and content of these sources to evaluate their significance and the perspectives they represent. The document serves as a guide for students to critically engage with historical texts and develop their analytical skills.

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19 views13 pages

Paper 2 - Surprise CC6

The document discusses the analysis of historical sources, focusing on President Kennedy's speech in West Berlin and an interview with Mikhail Gorbachev regarding the Strategic Defense Initiative. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the context, purpose, and content of these sources to evaluate their significance and the perspectives they represent. The document serves as a guide for students to critically engage with historical texts and develop their analytical skills.

Uploaded by

uttaraa.siingh16
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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IGCSE History

Paper 2
2022 - CC 6

Question type: Surprise!


What is this all about...

The aim of these questions is for you to show you


understand the period being studied and how
historians use sources. So, for example:
• whether or not the events described in the source are
surprising in the context of the time.
• whether or not it is surprising that the creator of the
source was saying what they were saying in this place at
this time.
President Kennedy visited West Berlin in 1963. Wow! That wall looks
great! The Soviets
really know how to
build solid, strong
walls.
The barbed wire of the
top is really a special
touch…
While the wall is the most obvious
and vivid demonstration of the
failures of the Communist system,
for all the world to see, we take no
satisfaction in it, for it is, as your
Mayor has said, an offense not only
against history but an offense
against humanity, separating
families, dividing husbands and
wives and brothers and sisters, and
dividing a people who wish to be
joined together.

President John F. Kennedy


West Berlin
June 26, 1963
Conten Provenanc
t e

Nature –
What it WHAT kind of Origin – Purpose –
What it says doesn’t say source is it? WHERE and WHO created
– Summarise – Use your WHEN the it?
and infer own (e.g. Speech, source was WHY was it
knowledge diary, gov created? created?
document)
SOURCE A

We cannot take in earnest the assertions that the SDI would guarantee invulnerability from
nuclear weapons, thus leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons. In the opinion of our
experts (and, to my knowledge, of many of yours), this is sheer fantasy. However, even on a
much more modest scale, in which the Strategic Defense Initiative can be implemented as an
antimissile defense system of limited capabilities, the SDI is very dangerous. This project will,
no doubt, whip up the arms race in all areas, which means that the threat of war will increase.
That is why this project is bad for us and for you and for everybody in general.

An Interview with Mikhail Gorbachev. Time Magazine. Sept. 09, 1985


Step 1
◦Analyse the CONTENT – What is the
source saying?
 Figure out the BIG MESSAGE
Step 2
◦Analyse the PROVENANCE

◦Nature – WHAT kind of source is it?  private /


public?
◦Origin – WHERE and WHEN the source was
created?  what was happening?
◦Purpose – WHO created it?  perspective?
◦WHY was it created?  persuade?
SOURCE A

We cannot take in earnest the assertions that the SDI would guarantee invulnerability from
nuclear weapons, thus leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons. In the opinion of our
experts (and, to my knowledge, of many of yours), this is sheer fantasy. However, even on a
much more modest scale, in which the Strategic Defense Initiative can be implemented as an
antimissile defense system of limited capabilities, the SDI is very dangerous. This project will,
no doubt, whip up the arms race in all areas, which means that the threat of war will increase.
That is why this project is bad for us and for you and for everybody in general.

An Interview with Mikhail Gorbachev. Time Magazine. Sept. 09, 1985


Sample answer
NOT suprised by this source.
In this source Soviet leader Gorbachev is criticizing US President Reagan's Strategic Defense
Initiative. Gorbachev says the SDI cannot "guarantee invulnerability from nuclear weapons" and
will "whip up the arms race in all areas" and it is "bad for us and for you and for everybody in
general". This means he believes the SDI is ineffective and will increase the arms race posing a
threat to the whole world.
This is not surprising because when Gorbachev came to power in 1985 he inherited a failing
Soviet economy and he realised that the USSR could not afford to continue an arms race with
the USA. He wanted to discourage the USA to develop new military technology like the SDI,
which was an anti-ballistic missile program that was designed to shoot down nuclear missiles in
space. Therefore, he gave an interview criticizing the project.

YOU CONTINUE …
SOURCE B

Perestroika, which once again is returning our people to commonsense, has enabled us to open up to the
world, and has restored a normal relationship between the country's internal development and its foreign
policy. But all this takes a lot of hard work. To a people which believed that its government's policies had
always been true to the cause of peace, we proposed what was in many ways a different policy, which would
genuinely serve the cause of peace, while differing from the prevailing view of what it meant and particularly
from the established stereotypes as to how one should protect it. We proposed new thinking in foreign policy.

Thus, we embarked on a path of major changes which may turn out to be the most significant in the
twentieth century, for our country and for its peoples. But we also did this for the entire world.

We want to be an integral part of modern civilization, to live in harmony with mankind's universal values,
abide by the norms of international law, follow the "rules of the game" in our economic relations with the
outside world. We want to share with all other peoples the burden of responsibility for the future of our
common house.

Mikhail Gorbachev, Nobel Lecture (5th June, 1991)

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