2025 AQA A-Level HISTORY 7042/2R
Component 2R The Cold War, c1945–1991
Question paper and Marking scheme Merged
A-level
HISTORY
Component 2R The Cold War, c1945–1991
Friday 6 June 2025 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Materials
For this paper you must have:
• an AQA 16-page answer book.
Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is
7042/2R.
• Answer three questions.
In Section A answer Question 01.
In Section B answer two questions.
Information
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
• You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
• You are advised to spend about:
– 1 hour on Question 01 from Section A
– 45 minutes on each of the two questions answered from Section B.
, 2
Section A
Answer Question 01.
Source A
From a speech about the Yalta Conference to the US Congress by President Roosevelt,
1 March 1945.
Days were spent in discussing momentous matters, and we argued freely and frankly
across the table. At the end, on every issue, unanimous agreement was reached. More
important even than the agreement of words, we achieved a unity of thought and a way
of getting along together. We know that it was Hitler’s hope and his generals’ hope that
we would not agree – that some slight crack might appear in the solid wall of allied unity, 5
a crack that would give him and his fellow gangsters one last hope of escaping their just
doom. That is the objective for which his propaganda machine had been working for
many months. But Hitler has failed.
Never before have the major allies been more closely united – not only in their war aims
but also in their peace aims. And they are determined to continue to be united, to be 10
united with each other – and with all peace-loving nations – so that the ideal of lasting
peace will become a reality.
Source B
From a confidential report to President Truman, ‘American Relations with the
Soviet Union’ by Clark Clifford, 24 September 1946. Clifford was one of Truman’s senior
advisors.
The gravest problem facing the United States today is that of relations with the
Soviet Union. Soviet leaders appear to be conducting their nation on a course designed
to lead to eventual world domination. Their goals are in direct conflict with American
ideals, and the USA has not yet been able to persuade Stalin that world peace and
prosperity lie, not in the direction in which the Soviet Union is moving, but in the opposite 5
direction of international cooperation and friendship. Representatives of the USA have
been conferencing, bargaining and making agreements with Soviet leaders ever since
October 1943. Yet, American disillusionment increases as the Soviet government
continues to break the agreements which were made at Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam, or
interprets those agreements to suit its own purposes. As long as the Soviet Union 10
adheres to its current policy, the USA should maintain military forces powerful enough to
restrain the USSR and give generous economic and political support to those nations not
yet in the Soviet sphere.
IB/M/Jun25/7042/2R
, 3
Source C
From a telegram sent to the Soviet leadership by the Soviet Ambassador to the USA,
Nikolai Novikov, 27 September 1946.
US foreign policy has been characterised in the post-war period by a desire for world
domination. This hard-line policy is the main obstacle on the road to cooperation. It
consists mainly of the fact that the US no longer follows a policy of strengthening
cooperation but rather has striven to undermine the unity of the post-war allies. The
objective has been to limit or dislodge the influence of the Soviet Union from 5
neighbouring countries. Such a policy is intended to weaken and overthrow the
democratic governments in power in these countries, which are friendly towards the
USSR, and replace them in the future with new governments that would obediently carry
out a policy dictated by the United States. In Germany, the US is taking measures to
strengthen reactionary forces for the purposes of opposing democratic reconstruction. 10
One cannot help seeing that such a policy has a clearly outlined anti-Soviet edge and
constitutes a serious danger to the cause of peace.
0 1 With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context,
assess the value of these three sources to an historian studying relations between the
USA and USSR in the years 1945/46.
[30 marks]
Turn over for Section B
IB/M/Jun25/7042/2R Turn over ►
Component 2R The Cold War, c1945–1991
Question paper and Marking scheme Merged
A-level
HISTORY
Component 2R The Cold War, c1945–1991
Friday 6 June 2025 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Materials
For this paper you must have:
• an AQA 16-page answer book.
Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is
7042/2R.
• Answer three questions.
In Section A answer Question 01.
In Section B answer two questions.
Information
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
• You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
• You are advised to spend about:
– 1 hour on Question 01 from Section A
– 45 minutes on each of the two questions answered from Section B.
, 2
Section A
Answer Question 01.
Source A
From a speech about the Yalta Conference to the US Congress by President Roosevelt,
1 March 1945.
Days were spent in discussing momentous matters, and we argued freely and frankly
across the table. At the end, on every issue, unanimous agreement was reached. More
important even than the agreement of words, we achieved a unity of thought and a way
of getting along together. We know that it was Hitler’s hope and his generals’ hope that
we would not agree – that some slight crack might appear in the solid wall of allied unity, 5
a crack that would give him and his fellow gangsters one last hope of escaping their just
doom. That is the objective for which his propaganda machine had been working for
many months. But Hitler has failed.
Never before have the major allies been more closely united – not only in their war aims
but also in their peace aims. And they are determined to continue to be united, to be 10
united with each other – and with all peace-loving nations – so that the ideal of lasting
peace will become a reality.
Source B
From a confidential report to President Truman, ‘American Relations with the
Soviet Union’ by Clark Clifford, 24 September 1946. Clifford was one of Truman’s senior
advisors.
The gravest problem facing the United States today is that of relations with the
Soviet Union. Soviet leaders appear to be conducting their nation on a course designed
to lead to eventual world domination. Their goals are in direct conflict with American
ideals, and the USA has not yet been able to persuade Stalin that world peace and
prosperity lie, not in the direction in which the Soviet Union is moving, but in the opposite 5
direction of international cooperation and friendship. Representatives of the USA have
been conferencing, bargaining and making agreements with Soviet leaders ever since
October 1943. Yet, American disillusionment increases as the Soviet government
continues to break the agreements which were made at Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam, or
interprets those agreements to suit its own purposes. As long as the Soviet Union 10
adheres to its current policy, the USA should maintain military forces powerful enough to
restrain the USSR and give generous economic and political support to those nations not
yet in the Soviet sphere.
IB/M/Jun25/7042/2R
, 3
Source C
From a telegram sent to the Soviet leadership by the Soviet Ambassador to the USA,
Nikolai Novikov, 27 September 1946.
US foreign policy has been characterised in the post-war period by a desire for world
domination. This hard-line policy is the main obstacle on the road to cooperation. It
consists mainly of the fact that the US no longer follows a policy of strengthening
cooperation but rather has striven to undermine the unity of the post-war allies. The
objective has been to limit or dislodge the influence of the Soviet Union from 5
neighbouring countries. Such a policy is intended to weaken and overthrow the
democratic governments in power in these countries, which are friendly towards the
USSR, and replace them in the future with new governments that would obediently carry
out a policy dictated by the United States. In Germany, the US is taking measures to
strengthen reactionary forces for the purposes of opposing democratic reconstruction. 10
One cannot help seeing that such a policy has a clearly outlined anti-Soviet edge and
constitutes a serious danger to the cause of peace.
0 1 With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context,
assess the value of these three sources to an historian studying relations between the
USA and USSR in the years 1945/46.
[30 marks]
Turn over for Section B
IB/M/Jun25/7042/2R Turn over ►
