Who was to blame for the Cold War?

The Berlin Blockade (June 1948-May 1949) was Stalin cutting land access to West Berlin; the Allies answered with the Berlin Airlift until he lifted it. The Berlin Wall, built by East Germany in August 1961, thirteen years later, stopped East Germans fleeing west — a separate crisis. Recall too that the Western Allies held West Berlin, the USSR the East.

Yalta (February 1945) came first — wartime, Roosevelt still alive, cooperation still workable. Potsdam (July-August 1945) followed Germany's surrender: Roosevelt had died, Truman was president, the atomic bomb was tested, and relations were strained over reparations and Poland's borders. Do not swap the two conferences.

Both are 1947 US responses to communism. The Truman Doctrine was the pledge to aid any country resisting a communist takeover — the statement of containment. The Marshall Plan was the economic programme that followed, offering US money to rebuild Western Europe against communism. One is the principle, the other the programme; do not use one name for the other.

"Why" and "how far" questions credit explanation, not narrative. Describing the Berlin Blockade (routes cut, supplies flown in) earns little unless you explain why it raised tension: it showed each superpower would risk direct confrontation over Germany and hardened the split of Europe into two blocs. Turn the event into a reason, not a retelling.

On Poland as a Cold War flashpoint, examiners want two developed, evidenced reasons, not one generic point: (1) the Soviet desire for a friendly buffer state against future invasion from the west, and (2) the absence of genuinely free elections despite Stalin's Yalta promise. Give each its own supporting detail.

A 10-mark "how far" or "who was more to blame" answer must weigh both sides. Weaker answers argue only one side, or assert a share of blame ("the USA was 60 per cent responsible") without comparing evidence. The best answers set Truman's policies (Marshall Plan, Truman Doctrine, atomic bomb) against Soviet actions in Eastern Europe and reach a judgement.

A common wrong belief. NATO (1949) was the Western defensive alliance against the USSR. The Warsaw Pact came only in 1955 — six years later, prompted by West Germany joining NATO that year. Do not confuse Cominform (1947, communist parties) with Comecon (1949, Soviet economics) — different purposes and dates, and neither is the Warsaw Pact.