SS UIL important people

Josef Stalin

Leader of the USSR from 1924 until his death in 1953. Born as Josif Dzhugashvili in Georgia, he adopted the name Stalin (steel) when he became a Bolshevik supporter. He became General Secretary in 1922 and used his control of the Communist Party to take control of the Soviet government as Lenin declined in health. He purged his rivals and millions of dissenters including those seen as anti-party in any way. He sought to take the lead in the international communist movement and to consolidate his power, but was taken by surprise by the German invasion of WWII. He allied with the West out of necessity, but by the close of the war he was already planning on creating a sphere of influence in Europe to protect the USSR from future attacks. He focused less on internationalism and more on becoming a self-sufficient state (socialism in one country) with client states as a buffer against the West. He became increasingly paranoid about attacks from outside the country and plotters from within. The paranoia led to more repressive measures in the USSR and copy-cat style totalitarian systems in Eastern Europe. When he died of a stroke in 1953, a power struggle took place before he was denounced by the eventual leader of the USSR, Khrushchev, in 1956.

Winston Churchill

Prime Minister of the UK from 1940-45 and 1951-55. Churchill was one of the architects of the post-war spheres of influence in Europe and one of the “Big Three” at the Yalta Conference that helped set the stage for the Cold War. He famously delivered his “Iron Curtain Speech” in Missouri in 1946 at the behest of President Truman. He would return as PM during the Korean War and cede leadership of the Western camp more to the US while working for greater European military cooperation. He helped convince the US to back a 1953 coup in Iran and he authorized the UK’s creation of its own hydrogen weapons.

Bernard Baruch

Presidential advisor to Wilson, FDR, and Truman. He helped popularize the term Cold War and was the first representative of the US at the UN Atomic Energy Commission where he proposed international cooperation and joint control of atomic weapons and energy.

George Kennan

Leading diplomat, scholar, and policy advisor for the US during the beginning of the Cold War. He articulated the policy of containment via his “Long Telegram” and other writings and lectures. He served as US ambassador to the USSR in 1952 and to Yugoslavia from 1952-53.

George Marshall

General and chief of staff of the US Army during WWII and Secretary of State (1947-49) and Defense (1950-51) during the early Cold War. He was responsible for creating what became known as the Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program) to stabilize economies in Europe and to forestall communist governments from taking hold. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 for his efforts.

Ernest Bevin

Minister of Labour (1940-45) under Winston Churchill during WWII and foreign secretary under Clement Atlee (1945-51) for the start of the Cold War in the UK. He was an architect of the Brussels Treaty and facilitated US and European military, political, and financial ties to counter communist influence.

Vyacheslav Molotov

Minister of Foreign Affairs for the USSR (1939-49 and 1953-56). Originally named Skryabin, he was a close ally and the key diplomat for Stalin during WWII and the beginning of the Cold War. He also served as the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars (1930-41) and was part of the troika that led the USSR following Stalin’s death. He was removed from leadership after attempting a coup against Khrushchev in 1957 and sent to Mongolia as an ambassador.

Lavrenti Beria

Director of the NKVD (Soviet secret police) from 1938 to his death in 1953. He rose up the ranks in Stalin’s government during WWII and after Stalin’s death in March 1953, he temporarily led the USSR as one of four deputy prime ministers. He attempted to replace Stalin as the only true leader, but Khrushchev and others orchestrated a coup that resulted in his execution.

Georgi Malenkov

Prominent politician in the USSR who briefly took the lead of the Communist Party after the death of Stalin. He held the position of chairman of the Council of Ministers and party secretary, but was outmaneuvered by Khrushchev for dominance. He worked with Khrushchev to reform industry and agriculture, but was eventually marginalized. In 1957, he attempted a coup against Khrushchev and was removed from the Communist Party.

Nikita Khrushchev

Leader of the USSR from 1953 to 1964 as First Secretary of the Communist Party. He was able to outmanuver rivals to take over after the death of Stalin and moved forward with de-Stalinization efforts known as the “thaw.” He saw the USSR through the launch of Sputnik, the U-2 incident, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and numerous efforts to develop ties with post-colonial countries. He attempted to reform both the economy and society, but later pulled back from some liberalization. His reforms alienated Mao and other hardliners and he was forced into retirement in late 1964.

Leonid Brezhnev

Leader of the USSR from 1964 after helping to force Khrushchev into retirement. He would continue to be the de facto leader as first secretary/general secretary of the Communist Party until his death in 1982. He would be the only Soviet leader to be chair of the party and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. He oversaw the invasion of Czechoslovakia to deter liberalization, but also led détente efforts in the 1970s to normalize relations with the West.

Yuri Andropov

Head of the KGB from 1967-1982 and general secretary of the Communist Party in the USSR from 1982 until his death in 1984. He was part of the Soviet invasion of Russia as Ambassador in 1956. He was known for repression as the KGB head and succeeded Brezhnev briefly as leader of the USSR.

Konstantin Chernenko

Leader of the Soviet Union from February 1984 until his death in March 1985. Despite being seen as an heir to Brezhnev in the 1970s, his health was rapidly failing by the time he gained control of the Soviet government and it robbed him of the ability to make an impact.

Mikhail Gorbachev

General Secretary of the Communist Party in the USSR from 1985 to 1991. He was the final leader of the Soviet Union and through his reformist policies of glasnost and perestroika tried to modernize the country while moving it away from the stultifying politics of the Cold War. His break with the Brezhnev Doctrine allowed for the collapse of the Eastern Bloc via support for popular self-determination and facilitated the end of the Cold War. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

Eduard Shevardnadze

Foreign Minister of the USSR (1985-90, 1991) and leader of an independent Georgia (1992-2003). Shevardnadze was instrumental in guiding the progressive policies of Gorbachev into foreign policy achievements that helped bring about the end of the Cold War. He oversaw the withdrawal from Afghanistan (1988), the INF Treaty (1987), and START I (1991), as well as the non-interference policy that allowed the break up of the Eastern bloc. He resigned in 1990 to protest anti-reform leaders gaining influence over Gorbachev.

Andrei Gromyko

Soviet foreign minister (1957-1985) for most of the Cold War. He served as Soviet ambassador to the US (1943-46) and then representative to the UN Security Council. He also served briefly as ambassador to the UK before using his extensive knowledge of the West to be appointed deputy and then head of the Foreign Ministry. He would remain in his position until a shake up of Communist Party leadership under Gorbachev.

Anatoly Dobrynin

Soviet Ambassador to the US from 1962-1986. He served under every president from Kennedy to Reagan and every Soviet leader from Khrushchev to Gorbachev including an active role in the tense negotiations during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Aleksei Kosygin

Soviet statesman who served as premier (1964-80) and used his understanding of government and economics to remain in the upper leadership of the USSR from Stalin’s death until his own in 1980. He was part of the triumvirate that replaced Khrushchev in 1964, but lost out to Brezhnev due to his efforts at economic reform.

Andrei Sakharov

Soviet nuclear physicist who won the Nobel Peace Prize (1975) for his human rights campaign in the USSR and beyond. He originally helped develop the nuclear weapons program for the USSR before becoming disillusioned with the totalitarian aspects of the government and the impacts of nuclear testing. He pushed for nuclear disarmament and spoke out against the treatment of other dissidents. He was exiled internally in 1980 before being allowed to return to Moscow in 1986.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Russian writer that won the Nobel Prize for Literature (1970). He was best known for his novel based on his experiences of living in the Gulag, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. His works remained popular overseas, but by the mid-sixties were repressed in the USSR. His publication of The Gulag Archipelago led to his arrest and exile in 1974. He was rehabilitated in 1990 and returned to Russia in 1994.

Stanislav Petrov

Lieutenant Colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Force who was instrumental in avoiding a nuclear response by the Soviet Union in 1983. At a time of peak tensions between the USSR and US following the destruction of KAL Flight 007, Petrov was the duty officer at a detection site that received an alarm indicating a missile launch from the US approaching. He ignored protocol after interpreting the alarm as a mistake and avoided a retaliation by the USSR that could have led to a larger conflict.

Boris Yeltsin

First President of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991-99). He was an influential member of the Communist Party that originally supported Gorbachev before becoming disillusioned by the slow pace of reform. He resigned from the Politburo in 1987 seeking democratic elections and became chair of the Russian Supreme Soviet (1990). He acted swiftly during the coup attempt against Gorbachev in 1990 to rally support against the coup while positioning himself as Gorbachev’s savior and then superior. He pushed other states of the USSR to declare sovereignty and in 1991 after becoming the first ever democratically elected leader of Russia, he founded the Russian Federation effectively ending the USSR.

Konrad Adenauer

First chancellor of West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) from 1949-1963. Christian Democrat politician known for staunch anticommunism and working closely with the US, he helped develop NATO and solidify European cooperation.

Lucius D. Clay

US Army officer and first director of civilian affairs in Germany after World War II before becoming commander in chief of US forces in Europe in 1947. He oversaw the Allied airlift of Berlin in 1948-49 before retiring. In 1961, he was brought back to act as a special envoy for President Kennedy in West Berlin after the Berlin Wall was built and oversaw the standoff at Checkpoint Charlie during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.

Ernst Reuter

Mayor of West Berlin as leader of the Social Democratic Party during the Allied airlift (1948-49). He was elected in 1947 and took office in 1948 after the city was divided and served until his death in 1953.

Willy Brandt

Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. He served as Mayor of West Berlin (1957-66) during some of the most tense times for the city during the Cold War. He became the Chancellor of Germany (1969-74) and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his Ostpolitik that created treaties with the Eastern bloc and helped settle lingering issues from WWII.

Walter Ulbricht

Leader that helped establish East Germany (GDR) (1949) as First Secretary of the Communist Socialist Unity Party (1950-71). He pushed for the creation of the Berlin Wall to stop the hemorrhaging of East German people into the West and used repressive Stalinist means to control the GDR until he was forced into retirement following successive failures at economic reform. He would die two years after being removed from office.

Erich Honecker

Leader of East Germany (GDR) (1971-1989) through the 70s until the fall of the Berlin Wall. He was able to create a relatively successful economy compared to other Eastern Bloc nations, but did so with a severely authoritarian regime. He was forced out due to growing democratic protests and the loss of support from Gorbachev. He would be charged with abuses of power before being allowed to leave for Chile in 1993 due to ill health.

Erich Mielke

Head of the East German Ministry for State Security (Stasi) (1957-89). He was known as the “Master of Fear” and made the Stasi an almost omnipresent force in the GDR during the Cold War commanding over 250,000 spies and informants in a country of around 17 million. He was eventually imprisoned in 1990 for his actions during the Cold War and released in 1995 after being deemed mentally unfit.

Helmut Kohl

Chancellor of West Germany (FRG) (1982-1998) that oversaw the reunification of Germany. He served longer as leader of Germany than anyone since World War II.

Klement Gottwald

Premier (1946-48) then President (1948-53) of Czechoslovakia. In 1948, he used the support of the USSR to force out President Beneš and create a Stalinist style regime under his control until his death after becoming ill at Stalin’s funeral.

Jan Masaryk

Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia for the government in exile during WWII and then in the post-war government. He wanted his nation to accept Marshall Plan funds and not be a client-state to the USSR. He was one of the few government officials to retain his post after the communist takeover in February of 1948, but died the next month in a suspicious fall from his apartment window.

Alexander Dubček

First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1968-1969 during the Prague Spring. Dubček instituted political reforms and liberalizations in the country before a Warsaw Pact invasion led to him being taken to Moscow and forced to curtail his actions. He was eventually demoted and then removed from the party. He would return to politics after the fall of communist control in 1989.

Imre Nagy

Premier of Hungary (1953-56) known for progressive views despite being a long time member of the Communist Party. He was drafted by the growing revolutionary movement to replace the pro-Soviet government in October of 1956. Though he still called for a socialist government he tried to withdraw the country from the Warsaw Pact and was rebuked by Moscow with an invasion by the Red Army. He was arrested and tried in Romania before being executed in 1958.

Władysław Gomułka

Polish leader who began as a resistance fighter against the Nazi occupation during WWII before working with the Soviet-backed Lublin Committee. He became the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party after protesters in the country demanded reforms in 1956. He was responsible for the Polish Thaw that ended in the mid-sixties when he began to enforce more repressive measures. He normalized relations with Germany in 1970, but was forced to resign due to mounting economic difficulties in the country.

Wojciech Jaruzelski

Last leader of communist Poland, he controlled the country as a military dictator beginning in 1981. Jaruzelski was a general who became premier in 1981 and president in 1989. Shortly after becoming premier, he declared martial law and banned the Solidarity Movement. He allowed reforms beginning in 1989 in an effort to save the failing economy. He was replaced as president by the election of Lech Wałesa and later tried for crimes under his leadership, but ultimately escaped punishment due to ill health.

Lech Wałęsa

Leader of the Solidarity movement in Poland that won the Nobel Peace Prize (1983) for his attempts at reform. He was the first president of Poland (1990-95) elected by popular vote after he led the union-based agitation movement that helped bring down communist rule in the country. He started the movement as a union leader illegally striking against the government's low wages and intolerable work quotas. He originally won concessions before martial law was instituted in 1981 and he was imprisoned. He continued his work underground before successfully pressuring the government into permanent reforms in 1989.

Nicolae Ceaușescu

Leader of Romania as general secretary from 1965 and president of the State Council from 1967 until his execution in 1989. He practiced a more Stalinist style of government that was often at odds with Moscow due to differing ideas on cooperation and foreign relations. His authoritarian rule was overthrown in 1989 and he and his wife were tried and executed by the military within days of their attempt to flee.

Enver Hoxa

Leader of communist Albania from the end of WWII until his death in 1985. Albania was a member of the Eastern Bloc, but acted independently of Moscow with Hoxa creating one of the most repressive governments in the world. He was a Stalinist, but aligned more with China, before completely isolating his government from the greater socialist movement.

Chiang Kai-Shek

Leader of a somewhat unified China under the Nationalist KMT beginning in 1928 until he was forced to abandon the mainland in 1949. Despite using Soviet support early on, he renounced it and removed all communists from his party in 1927 and a state of civil war existed through WWII after which Mao’s communist forces eventually triumphed. He moved his government to Taiwan and with US aid created an authoritarian, but economically developed nation still claiming to rightfully be called China.

Mao Zedong

Founder of the People’s Republic of China and leader until his death in 1976. He was a supporter of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as a young man and became the leader in 1935 during the Chinese Civil War. He would agree to work with the KMT to defeat Japan during WWII and then continue the civil war. He used the power of peasant uprisings and mass movements to win control of China and to maintain an ideological cult of personality for most of his reign. He favored Stalinist-style rule and was fanatically devoted to communism. He attempted to modernize the Chinese economy with the Great Leap Forward (1958-62) and maintain societal focus on national goals and adherence to communism with the Cultural Revolution beginning in 1966. He would break with the USSR, eventually becoming hostile, after Stalin’s death due to what he saw as revisionist communism during Khrushchev’s thaw. This break led to an opportunity for rapprochement with the US in the 1970s.

Zhou Enlai

Premier of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) (1954-76) that led the country’s foreign policy under the reign of Mao Zedong. He acted as foreign minister (1949-58) during the beginning of the Cold War formulating key relationships between fellow socialist countries as well as Non-Aligned nations including representing the PRC at the Bandung Conference (1955). He was instrumental in détente policies that led to normalization of relations between the PRC and the US. He was considered Mao’s most likely successor and had been a lead decision maker when Mao stepped back from leadership after the Cultural Revolution, but his own ill-health led to him becoming less involved in the mid-seventies until his death in 1976.

Deng Xiaoping

Influential leader of the PRC from its revolutionary beginnings through most of the Cold War. He was the de facto leader of China from 1978 to 1989 and rapidly modernized the economy after the death of Mao (1976). He was sidelined during the Cultural Revolution as a capitalist traitor, but after becoming the head of the Communist Party he instituted market reforms and improved relations with the West. He made some political reforms, but ended them after eventually ordering an attack on democratic protestors at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Kim Il Sung

Founder and head of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) (1948-1994). Kim operated as a near defied dictator that established a hereditary rule after WWII. He tried to reunify the Korean peninsula under his control in the Korean War (1950-53), but was unable to defeat South Korea before US and UN forces arrived. A state of war still exists and North Korea became a hermit kingdom with few connections to the outside world save for the USSR and China.

Syngman Rhee

First president of South Korea (ROK)(1948-1960) and founder of the nation. He was a member of the Korean government in exile during Japanese colonial rule and WWII until he returned in 1945. He was elected president by the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea and sought unification of Korea under his rule. He refused to sign the armistice agreement after the Korean War in 1953 wanting to continue to seek reunification by force. He was a strong US ally and anti-communist, but used the military to suppress protests of his government. He was forced to resign and move into exile after his particularly brutal response to the student-led April Revolution in 1960.

Ho Chi Minh

Founder of the Indochina Communist Party in 1930 and the Viet-Minh in 1941, who became president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945-1969). Born as Nguyen Sunh Cung in what was then Annam, he led the independence movement against the French then Japanese then French occupiers until the 1954 Geneva Convention. He ceded party authority in North Vietnam to Le Duan and others by the early 1960s, but retained influence on the efforts to support Viet Cong activities in South Vietnam seeking to force reunification under communist rule until his death in 1969.

Ngo Dinh Diem

First President of South Vietnam (1955-63) after serving as the prime minister (1954-55). He was known for his autocratic rule and repression of Buddhists while he battled against communist forces within and outside of his country. He was known for corruption and his attacks on the Buddhist community eventually lost him the support of the US which implicitly supported a coup that resulted in his death in 1963.

Madame Nhu

Commonly known as the First Lady of South Vietnam (1955-1963), she was the wife of Ngo Dinh Nhu and sister-in-law of President Ngo Dinh Diem. Born Tran Le Xuan, she stoked controversy for ostentatious habits and her verbal attacks on Buddhists in her country.

Le Duc Tho

Military, political, and diplomatic leader of Vietnam that received the Nobel Peace Prize (1973) for negotiating the withdrawal of US troops from the Vietnam conflict. Born Phan Dinh Khai, he helped found the Indochinese Communist Party along with Ho Chi Minh and fought to end French colonial rule. He oversaw the Viet Cong efforts to unseat the US backed government in South Vietnam. He later helped coordinate the successful defeat of South Vietnam (1975) and invasion of Cambodia (1978).

Fidel Castro

Leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008. He led a nationalist revolution beginning in 1953 which eventually overthrew the dictator Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959. Castro would turn his 26th of July Movement into a revolutionary government that sought to throw off US business and political domination. He eventually turned to Marxism and became a Soviet ally in 1960. He allowed Soviet nuclear missiles to be placed in Cuba after the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion supported by the US. He would push for aggressive military action by the Soviets, but was ultimately disappointed by their capitulation and the removal of the missiles. He strengthened his military and provided aid to other revolutions in Angola and Ethiopia and acted independently of the USSR despite their support. He maintained leadership of his communist government, despite the collapse of the USSR, until he transferred control to his brother Raúl beginning in 2006 and permanently in 2008.

Ernesto Guevara

Marxist revolutionary known as “Che” that helped lead guerilla resistance efforts in Cuba and other countries. Che was an Argentine medical student that was radicalized by the poverty and exploitation he witnessed while traveling through Latin America in the early 1950s. He tried to support Árbenz before his overthrow in Guatemala in 1954 and then met Fidel Castro in Mexico and joined his invasion of Cuba in 1956. After the success of the revolution in 1959, Che became a leader in the Castro regime and began writing about revolutionary tactics for other people in Latin America. He left Cuba in 1965 and eventually led a band of guerillas in Bolivia in 1966. He was captured with the aid of CIA advisors and executed.

Allen Dulles

Director of the CIA from 1953-1961 before being removed for the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. He was the brother of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his powerful connections helped him mold the mission of the CIA from its inception. Under his administration, the Agency undertook coups in Iran and Guatemala and oversaw the U-2 surveillance program.

John Foster Dulles

US Secretary of State during the Eisenhower administration. He served as a diplomat under Truman and helped set up the UN in 1945 and create the formal peace agreement with Japan in 1950. He helped bolster NATO and conceived of SEATO and CENTO. He was an untiring opponent of communism in general and specifically believed the USSR was bent on global domination. His resoluteness in his opinions led to controversies with European allies and non-aligned nations and the support of anti-democratic measures to counter communist movements.

Curtis LeMay

Chief of Staff of the US Air Force (1961-65) and commander of the Strategic Air Command (1947-57). LeMay oversaw the crippling of Japan through firebombing during WWII and continued to be a leading advocate in aggressive bombing plans during the Cold War. He helped create the strategic bombing force for the US nuclear arsenal and famously pushed for an invasion of Cuba during the missile crisis. After retirement, he ran as the vice presidential candidate under segregationist governor George Wallace.

Dean Rusk

US Secretary of State (1961-69) under presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He served longer than any head of the State Department except for FDR’s Cordell Hull. He was a key advisor to Kennedy during his administration, especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He sought a diplomatic rather than military solution to the Crisis, but during Johnson’s term he supported the escalation of US military involvement in Vietnam.

Robert McNamara

US Secretary of Defense (1961-68) under presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He used his experience as a pragmatic technocrat and leader of Ford Motor Company to reform the military’s operations. He was a key advisor during the Cuban Missile Crisis and originally supported extensive US involvement in Vietnam. He began to discuss a peace option by 1965 and his research into the details of US actions in Southeast Asia led to the Pentagon Papers. He later became the president of the World Bank (1968-81) and wrote extensively on the Cold War and foreign relations.

Jacobo Árbenz

President of Guatemala from 1951-1954 who sought to continue and extend progressive policies. The former officer’s land reforms angered the powerful United Fruit Company and the US alleged he was under the influence of communists at home and abroad. The CIA supported a coup against him and after the military renounced him he resigned on June 27, 1954 and eventually went into exile.

Carlos Castillo Armas

President of Guatemala from 1954 to 1957 after being installed by a US and United Fruit Company-backed coup. He used the military to control the country, remove progressive reforms of his predecessors, and crackdown on any suspected communist activities. He was assassinated by a member of the presidential guard in 1957.

Salvador Allende

First socialist president of Chile from 1970-1973. He was elected as a candidate for the Popular Unity bloc of leftwing groups after several unsuccessful attempts. Despite controlling the most members in Congress, he was overthrown and died during a US-backed coup led by the military under Augusto Pinochet on September 11, 1973.

Augusto Pinochet

President of Chile (1974-90) that achieved his office by leading a US-supported military coup against Salvador Allende in 1973. He led a severely authoritarian regime that kidnapped, tortured, and executed thousands of political critics and leftists. He sought to legitimize his rule with an election in 1988, but was defeated. He was arrested in the UK for human rights crimes in 1998 and eventually stood trial in Chile beginning in 2004, but died two years later before his prosecution was complete.

Anastasio Somoza Debayle

President of Nicaragua (1967-79) and the final of three Samozas to control the country dating back to 1933. He served as commander in chief of the army and assisted the US in attempts to intervene in Cuba and the Dominican. He improved the economy as president, but then repealed the Constitution in 1974 and ruled under martial law to fight against the Sandinista rebels. He resigned and fled after the US dropped their support for his regime in 1979, but was assassinated the next year in Paraguay.

Mohammad Mosaddegh

Iranian Prime Minister (1951-53) that was removed in a US/UK-backed coup. His government had attempted economic and land reforms including nationalization that threatened western ownership of Iran’s vast oil resources. He was painted by British interests as being likely to turn to communism and the US supported putting the Shah back in power. He was arrested for treason and died under house arrest in 1967.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Shah of Iran (1941-1979) who led an authoritarian regime until being forced to flee during the Iranian Revolution (1979). He was first installed during WWII by an Allied invasion meant to keep his father from supplying the Germans with oil. He was marginalized by a more democratic government until a Western coup gave him complete authority beginning in 1953. He used Western support to modernize the country, but his secular rule and repression led to an uprising that resulted in his exile. He died due to complications from cancer the next year.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

President of Egypt (1954-1970) that navigated his country through the Cold War as a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement. Nasser started as a military officer that helped overthrow King Farouk in 1952 and then replaced the leader of the coup, Mohamed Naguib, to become president. He angered Britain and France by nationalizing the administration of the Suez Canal, but was able to gain support of both the US and the USSR to end the Suez Crisis in his favor. He continued to play the superpowers off each other as he sought to lead a pan-Arab movement. He resigned after the disastrous Six-Day Way (1967), but was drafted back into office and remained in power until his death due to a heart attack.

Anwar al-Sadat

President of Egypt (1970-81) who won the Nobel Peace Prize (1978) for his groundbreaking efforts to negotiate the recognition of Israel. He was part of the coup against the monarchy in 1952 and supported Nasser, becoming his vice president before being elected president after Nasser’s death. He expelled Soviet advisors and sought peace with Israel before becoming frustrated at the continued occupation of the Sinai and leading the Yom Kippur War (1973). He worked with President Carter to negotiate peace with Israel through the Camp David Accords (1979). The agreement created protests in Egypt and in 1981, Sadat was assassinated while viewing a military parade.

Golda Meir

First female prime minister of Israel (1969-74). She served as the Minister of Labor after Israel’s founding (1949-56) before becoming the Minister of Foreign Affairs until 1966. She was seen as one of the founders of the state and led the country during the Yom Kippur War (1973).

Patrice Lumumba

First prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (1960). Lumumba had fought for the independence of Belgian Congo and the former colonial government tried to keep him from rising to power. After independence, his government was subverted by Belgian interests which supported the secession of the uranium-rich Katanga province. Lumumba reached out to the USSR after the UN would not help stop the secession. He also reached out to other newly independent African nations. His rivals in the DRC government tried to remove him from power and during the struggle, Joseph Mobutu successfully led a coup. Lumumba was arrested and eventually executed in January 1961 by Belgian troops in Katanga.

Kwame Nkrumah

First president of Ghana (1960-66) and the Prime Minister of Ghana (1957-60) after it achieved complete independence from the UK and previously under its name the Gold Coast (1952-57) before that. He was a proponent of Pan-Africanism and helped found the Organization of African Unity. He used support from the USSR to modernize the economy, and became more authoritarian when challenged for power. He became president for life in 1964, but was overthrown in 1966 and lived in exile in Guinea.

Agostinho Neto

First president of independent Angola (1975-79) after leading the communist-backed MPLA against Portuguese colonizers and rival Angolan revolutionaries until his death from cancer. Agostinho was also an accomplished poet and supporter of the international communist movement. He used Soviet and Cuban support to keep his government in power despite Western-backed rival militias.

Costas Georgiou

Greek-Cypriot mercenary and former British paratrooper also known as Colonel Callan during the Angolan Civil War. He fought on behalf of the FNLA against the MPLA and was dubbed a "psychopathic killer” in the press for his brutality to his own troops as well as enemies. He was captured, tried for numerous murders, and executed in 1976.

Charles De Gaulle

French leader who acted as Chair of the Provisional French Government after World War II until 1946 to reestablish the French Republic. He was appointed PM in 1958 and started the Fifth Republic as President in 1959 and served until 1969. He was often at odds with NATO powers seeking to maintain French autonomy in colonial, nuclear, and pan-European affairs. He worked to restore relations with Germany and sought to limit the influence of the US and the UK over Europe.

Henry Kissinger

Diplomat and advisor for US presidents Nixon and Ford who was a foreign policy specialist during the 70s and 80s. He served concurrently as National Security Advisor (1969-75) and Secretary of State (1973-77) for a short time and in both offices separately. He is credited with championing détente between the US and their Cold War adversaries the USSR and the PRC. He received the Nobel Peace Prize (1973) for negotiating the US withdrawal from Vietnam, but was also known for propping up authoritarian regimes responsible for atrocities and genocide.

Margaret Thatcher

First female and longest serving prime minister of the UK (1979-1990) since 1827. She was known as the “Iron Lady” for her Cold War leadership style. She worked closely as a staunch anti-communist with President Reagan economically, politically, and militarily, but she eventually worked well with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in seeking a thaw.

Suzanne Massie

Advisor to President Reagan in dealing with the USSR during negotiations. She was a leading Russian historian in the US and acted as a go between for Reagan and Gorbachev. She is credited with increasing Reagan’s understanding of the USSR and its culture which aided in ending the Cold War.

Josip Broz Tito

Leader of the communist government in Yugoslavia from the end of Nazi occupation until his death in 1980. He adopted the moniker Tito in the 1930s as a communist writer after serving in the Austro-Hungarian army in WWI and being sent to Russia as a POW. He led the Partisan resistance against the German occupation during WWII and therefore was able to establish a communist party that was not dominated by the Soviets. He became prime minister in 1945, president in 1953, and in 1974 was named president for life. He created the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and his unique approach to socialism led to Stalin kicking him and his government out of the Cominform (1948). He would be a co-founder of the Non-Aligned Movement and develop some relations with Western powers. His authoritarianism kept an extremely diverse set of regions together as a federation, but after his death and the fall of communism in Europe a decade of bloody ethnic-based independence movements would tear the country he created into pieces.

Klaus Fuchs

Nuclear physicist who fled from Germany to England due to communist connections in 1933. He worked on behalf of the UK in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, but passed on secret information to the USSR. He was arrested in England in 1950 and released in 1959. He moved to the GDR to be part of their nuclear research efforts.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

US married couple that were the first civilians executed for spying on behalf of the USSR, or during peacetime, in 1953. The information that was passed on regarded weapons and defense initiatives including nuclear bomb designs. Protests erupted in many parts of the world against their planned execution and years later exoneration efforts continued on behalf of Ethel.

George Blake

British diplomat and MI-6 officer that became a double agent for the USSR. He secretly defected while a POW in North Korea and was arrested in 1961. He was sentenced to 42 years in prison for giving the Soviets names of hundreds of agents, but he escaped in 1966 and lived in Russia until his death over 50 years later.

Harold ‘Kim’ Philby

Intelligence officer for MI6 during WWII and the beginning of the Cold War that acted as a Soviet double agent. Philby had been an ideological communist who made connections with like-minded individuals at Cambridge University. He became a Soviet informer in 1933 as a journalist before entering British intelligence during the war. He served as MI-6’s chief in the US and used his position to make the Soviets aware of Western agents and activities. He came under suspicion in 1951, but was able to flee to Moscow in 1963.

Oleg Penkovsky

Colonel in the Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU) (1953-63) that acted as a double-agent for the US and UK. Penkovsky was the highest ranking and probably most important double agent for the West until his arrest, trial, and execution by the USSR. The technical information he shared concerning Soviet missile capabilities was essential to US and NATO military planning.

Oleg Gordievsky

Colonel of the Soviet KGB and bureau chief in London. From 1974 until leaving the USSR in 1985, he acted as a double agent for the UK’s MI6. He was eventually betrayed by US double agent Aldrich Ames.

Aldrich Ames

CIA analyst from 1962 to 1994. He was arrested as a double agent for Russia. He was responsible for identifying spies in the US during the Cold War, but received nearly $3 million from the USSR/Russia to reveal the name of all US agents in the Soviet Union.

Valentina Tereshkova

First female to enter space and only female to ever fly solo in space aboard Vostok 6 (1963). She began her career as an amateur skydiver and joined the Air Force eventually becoming a major general before retiring in 1997 serving with distinction as a cosmonaut for the USSR. She became a member of the Duma in 2011 and is still in office.