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Section IV (Change in the Modern World): The Cold War 1945-1991
Quick questions on Iron Curtain and containment 1946-1947: HSC Modern History Cold War
7short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the Fulton speech, 5 March 1946?Show answer
Winston Churchill, Leader of the Opposition since the Labour victory of 26 July 1945, accepted an invitation to speak at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, the home town of Truman's military aide General Harry Vaughan. Truman travelled with Churchill from Washington and was on the platform.
What is the Novikov Telegram, 27 September 1946?Show answer
Soviet Ambassador to Washington Nikolai Novikov, prompted by Foreign Minister Molotov, sent the Soviet counterpart to Kennan's cable on 27 September 1946. Novikov argued the United States was pursuing "world supremacy" through military expansion, anti-Soviet propaganda, and the construction of a global base network. American behaviour was driven by capitalist contradictions and the search for export markets.
What is the X Article, July 1947?Show answer
Kennan, by then head of the State Department's new Policy Planning Staff (created May 1947), published "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" in Foreign Affairs (July 1947) anonymously as "X." The article extended the Long Telegram's argument and coined the policy term: "the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies."
What is kennan's later distance from containment?Show answer
Kennan came to regret the militarisation of containment after NSC-68 (April 1950) and the Korean War. His preferred approach was political, economic, and patient. By the 1960s he was publicly critical of American policy in Vietnam and of nuclear arms-racing. His American Diplomacy 1900-1950 (1951), Memoirs 1925-1950 (1967) and Memoirs 1950-1963 (1972) became important historiographical texts in their own right.
What is q1?Show answer
Source A is Churchill's Fulton speech (5 March 1946): "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent." Using Source A and your own knowledge, explain how Western leaders defined the Soviet threat in 1946. [5 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Evaluate the extent to which the doctrine of containment shaped American Cold War policy between 1946 and 1949. [25 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Compare the views of John Lewis Gaddis and Vladislav Zubok on the role of ideology in the early Cold War. [10 marks]
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