Social Studies Key Individuals

Konrad Adenauer

First Chancellor of West Germany, serving from 1948 to 1963

Salvador Allende

Socialist president of Chile from 1970-1973; died in a coup d’etat that overthrew his government

Aldrich Ames

American CIA officer convicted for espionage on behalf of Soviet Union in 1994

Yuri Andropov

Chairman of KGB from 1967-1982 and General Secretary of the Soviet Union from 1982-1984

Jacabo Arbenz

President of Guatemala from 1951-1954; was overthrown by CIA coup

Bernard Baruch

Served as financial advisor for 4 decades of presidents (Wilson-Roosevelt)

Lavrentiy Beria

Head of NVKD from 1938-1945

Ernest Bevin

Served as Minister of Labor and National Service in the Wartime Coalition Government

George Blake

Spy that was a double agent for the Soviet Union, giving them British intel; was jailed by the British then escaped and fled to the USSR, where he became a citizen

Willy Brandt

Leader of Social Democratic Party of West Germany from 1964-1987 and served as Chancellor rom 1969-1974

Leonid Brezhnev

General Secretary of the Soviet Union from 1964-1982; also served as Chairman of Presidium of Supreme Soviet from 1960-1964 and 1977-1982

Carlos Castillo Armas

Military Officer that became president in 1954-1957 after coup d’etat; closely allied with United States (against communism)

Fidel Castro

Cuban politician that served as Prime Minister from 1959-1976 and President from 1976-2008

Nicolae Ceausescu

Led Romanian Communist Party in 1965 and became president in 1974; executed in 1989 as a part of communism falling

Chiang Kai-Shek

Leader of Republic of China from 1928-1949, then retreating to Taiwan and becoming the dictator there until 1975

Konstantin Chernenko

Led Soviet Union after Yuri Andropov’s death from 1984-1985 (his death)

Winston Churchill

Prime Minister of UK from 1940-1945 and again from 1951-1955; led Britain through WWII

Lucius D. Clay

US General known for administering the US zone of West Germany from 1945-1949

Charles De Gaulle

Led Free French Forces in WWII against Nazi Germany and chaired government from 1944-1946 to restore democracy

Deng Xiaoping

Leader of China (not Taiwan) from 1978-1989f

Anatoly Dobrynin

Soviet Ambassador to the US from 1962-1986

Alexander Dubcek

First Secretary of Presidium of Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1968-1969; also served as Chairman to Federal Assembly from 1989-1992

Allen Dulles

Director of CIA from 1953-1961; fired by JFK because of the failed Cuban Invasion

John Foster Dulles

Secretary of State in US from 1953-1959; Dulles Airport is named after him

Klaus Fuchs

German physicist that became a spy for the communists, leaking important atomic intel from the US, Britain, and Canada

Costas Georgiou

British mercenary that was tried during Luanda trial in 1976, found guilty of war crimes, then executed

Wladyslaw Gomulka

De facto leader of Poland from 1947-1948 and 1956-1970

Mikhail Gorbachev

Leader of Soviet Union from 1985-1991, contributing to its downfall; implemented democratic policies that destroyed tight 1-party rule

Oleg Gordievsky

Soviet double agent that joined MI6 in Britain and became a spy for them

Klement Gottwald

Leader of Czechoslovakia Communist Party from 1929-1953, General Secretary until 1945, Chairman from 1945-1953, 1st leader of Communist Czechoslovakia from 1948-1953

Andrei Gromyko

Soviet that was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1957-1985 and Chariman of Soviet Supreme Presidium from 1985-1988

Ernesto “Che” Guevara

Helped Castro establish communist state in Cuba; was a doctor in Argentina before that

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnamese leader that led the fight for independence and was president of North Vietnam from 1945-1969

Erich Honecker

Led East Germany from 1971-1989

Enver Hoxha

Marxist leader of Albania from 1944-1985

Wojciech Jaruzelski

Polish general that led Poland as a dictator from 1981-1983 and as de facto leader from 1981-1989

George Keenan

Former Counselor to the Department of State that successfully advocated for containment policies of communism

Helmut Kohl

Chancellor from 1982-1998 and leader of Christian Democratic Union from 1973-1998

Nikita Khrushchev

First Secretary of USSR from 1953=1964 and Chairman of Council of Ministers of Soviet Union from 1958-1964

Kim Il Sung

Leader of North Korea from 1948-1994

Henry Kissinger

American political scientist and Secretary of State from 1973-1977

Aleksei Kosygin

Chairman of Council of Ministers of Soviet Union from 1964-1980

Le Duc Tho

North Vietnamese diplomat that made a ceasefire in 1973 with Henry Kissinger; received Nobel Peace Prize but denied it

Curtis Lemay

Chief of Staff of US Air Force from 1961-1965

Patrice Lumumba

Prime Minister of DR Congo (then a Republic) from June-September 1960; was overthrown and assassinated with Belgian and CIA help

Madame Nhu (Tran Le Xuan)

De Facto 1st Lady of South Vietnam from 1955-1963

Georgi Malenkov

Former Premier for the Soviet Union from 1953-1955; was expelled for a variety of reasons, mostly noting poor performance and leadership

Mao Zedong

Former Leader of China from 1949-1976; think Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution

Margaret Thatcher

Former Prime Minster of UK from 1979-1990 and leader of Conservative Party from 1975-1990

George Marshall

Chief of Staff under Roosevelt and Truman then Secretary of Defense and State under Truman; won Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 for Marshall Plan

Jan Masaryk

Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1940-1948; father founded Czechoslovak Republic

Suzanne Massie

American writer that served as a large bridge between the Soviets and Americans, especially during the Reagan and Gorbachev eras

Robert McNamara

Former businessman and 8th Secretary of Defense from 1961-1968

Erich Mielke

Head of East German Ministry of Security (Stasi) from 1957-1989

Golda Meir

Prime Minister of Israel from 1969-1974

Vyacheslav Molotov

Former Chairman of People’s Commissar of Soviet Union; signed Molotov-Ribbentrop Act

Mohammed Mossadegh

Prime Minister of Iran from 1951-1953; overthrown by Operation “Ajax” (CIA and MI6)

Imre Nagy

Chairman of Council of Ministers of Hungarian People from 1953-1955; led the anti-Soviet revolution in 1956 where he lost, was jailed, then died

Gamal Abdel Nasser

President of Egypt from 1952-1970

Agostinho Neto

President of Angola from 1975-1979; regarded as Angola’s founding father

Ngo Dinh Diem

Former President of Republic of Vietnam from 1955-1963; was captured and assassinated by the CIA

Kwame Nkrumah

Prime Minister of Gold Coast from 1952-1957, then after gaining independence from Britain, became the 1st president of Ghana from 1957-1966

Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

Shah of Iran from 1941-1979

Oleg Penkovsky

Soviet double agent convicted for giving information to Americans and British

Stanislav Petrov

Soviet lieutenant who stopped nuclear war (1983 Soviet False Alarm Incident)

Harold “Kim” Philby

British double agent and part of the Cambridge 5; was seen as the most valuable to Soviets

Augusto Pinochet

Leader of military junta from 1973-1981, where he was considered president from 1974-1990

Ernst Reuter

Mayor of West Berlin from 1948-1953; played a large role in uniting all of West Berlin

Syngman Rhee

1st president of South Korea from 1948-1960

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

American couple that was convicted and assassinated in 1953 for espionage for Soviet Union

David Dean Rusk

US Secretary of State from 1961-1969 under JFK and LBJ

Anwar Al-Sadat

Egyptian military officer and former President of Egypt from 1970-1981, when he was assassinated on October 6th by Islamic extremists

Andrei Sakharov

Father of Soviet Hydrogen Bomb; won Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for human rights work; exiled from Moscow by Soviets to Gorky

Eduard Shevardnadze

Governor of Georgia through many terms between 1972-2003; final Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1985-1991

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Writer of the Gulag Archipelago

Anastasio Somoza Debayle

Former President of Nicaragua from 1967-1972 and 1974 until his assassination in 1979

Joseph Stalin

Led Soviet Union from 1924-1953; also served as Premier and General Secretary

Valentina Tereshkova

Soviet engineer who was the 1st woman in space (Vostok on June 16, 1963)

Josip Broz Tito

Longtime dictator of Yugoslavia through WWII until 1980

Walter Ulbricht

Played a large role in creating the Eastern Germany Communist Party; built the Berlin Wall in 1961

Lech Walesa

1st President of Poland from 1990-1995 and Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1983

Boris Yeltsin

President of Soviet Union from 1991-1999, resigning and passing it onto Vladimir Putin

Zhou Enlai

1st Premier of China from 1949-1976