20th Century Leaders Sets A+B

Neville Chamberlain

British Prime Minister from 1937-1940; known for his attempts at "appeasement" before World War II; signed the Munich Pact in 1938

Winston Churchill

British Prime Minister from 1940-1945; won the Nobel Prize in Literature; coined the term "Iron-Curtain"

Margaret Thatcher

First female Prime Minister of the UK from 1979-1990; known as the "Iron Lady"; privatized state-owned industries

Georges Clemenceau

Served as Prime Minister of France from 1917-1920; One of the principal architects of the Treaty of Versailles (1919)

Charles DeGaulle

French general and leader of Free France during WWII; after WWII he founded the French Fifth Republic and served as its first president.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Last German Emperor/ Prussian King; ruled from 1888 to 1918

Alfred von Schleiffen

German field marshall who created the plan to invade Western Europe at the beginning of WWI

Hermann Goering

was a German politician, military leader, and leading member of the Nazi Party; headed the German Airforce (luftwaffe) during WWII

Joseph Goebbels

was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.

Willy Brandt

leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1964 to 1987; chancellor of West Germany from 1969 to 1974

Francisco Franco

started the Spanish Civil War; leader of the Nationalists; supported by Hitler and Mussolini; leader of Spain from 1936 to 1975

Nicholas II

last czar of Russia, from 1894 to 1917; took the throne after Alexander II's assassination

Vladimir Lenin

Founder of the Russian Communist Party; led the November Revolution in 1917; ruled until his death in 1924; established the USSR

Joseph Stalin:

head of the Soviet Communists after 1924, and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1953; known for his purges and Five-Year Plans; responsible for the Holodomor (starvation of millions of Ukrainians)

Leon Trotsky

Russian Bolshevik revolutionary intellectual and close adviser to Lenin; was expelled from the Communist Party (1927) and banished (1929) for his opposition to the authoritarianism of Stalin; assassinated in 1940 in Mexico City

Nikita Khrushchev

Soviet leader from 1953 to 1964; built the Berlin Wall; led during the Cuban Missile Crisis; criticized Stalin

Leonid Brezhnev

Soviet leader from 1964 to 1982

Mikhail Gorbachev

led the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991; supported economic reform (perestroika) and political openness (glasnost); withdrew Soviet military support from communist governments in Eastern European

Mohandas Gandhi

(1869-1948) a lawyer from South Africa; fought against racial prejudice against Indians; pushed for Indian independence from UK; advocated civil disobedience; led Salt March and other protests; assassinated by a Hindu extremist for his beliefs

Jawaharlal Nehru

Indian leader after Gandhi; negotiated the end of British colonial rule in India and became India's first prime minister (1947-1964).

Indira Gandhi

daughter of Jawaharhal Nehru; the third prime minister of India; assassinated by her Sikh bodyguard in 1984

Ali Jinnah

first leader of Pakistan after its partition from India in 1947; led Muslims in India as they worked with Hindus to fight for independence from Britain.

Chiang Kai Shek

president of China 1928-31 and 1943-49 and of Taiwan 1950-75; tried to unite China in the 1930s, was defeated by the Communists; fled mainland China in 1949 and set up a separate Nationalist Chinese State in Taiwan.

Mao Zedong

led the Communist Party of China to victory in the Chinese Civil War; led the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 to his death in 1976; oversaw the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which brought the deaths of millions of Chinese citizens

Deng Xiaoping

Leader of China and the Communist Party following Mao Zedong's death (1976 to 1989); led China toward a mixed socialist and market economy

Emperor Hirohito

emperor of Japan during WWII. his people viewed him as a god

Hideki Tojo

general and premier of Japan during World War II, basically dictator of the country

Nelson Mandela

South African leader of the African National Congress; in prison from 1962 to 1989; served as the first black president of South Africa (1991-1997)

FW DeClerk

white South African leader from 1989 to 1994 who brokered the end of apartheid, South Africa's racial segregation policy

Jomo Kenyatta

A nationalist leader who fought to end oppressive laws against Africans; later became the first Prime Minister of Kenya; served from 1964 to 1978

Gamel Nasser

president of Egypt from 1956-1970; during the Suez Crisis, he nationalized the canal, causing a dispute between him and Israel, France and Britain.

Anwar Sadat

replaced Nasser as the president of Egypt; signed peace treaties with Israel in 1978 and 1980; was assassinated in 1981 by opponents of his Israeli policy

Muammar Gaddafi

Libyan dictator from 1969 to 2011; made multiple terrorist acts on the US; was eventually overthrown in the 2011 Arab Spring.

Saddam Hussein

A member of the Baath Party and leader of Iraq from 1979n to 2003; led during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and the first Persian Gulf War (1991); deposed by the U.S. and its allies during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Reza Pahlavi (the Shah)

Leader of Persia/ Iran from 1941 to 1979; modernized the country but ruled with brutality; ally of the US in the Middle East

Menachem Begin

Israeli Prime minister from 1977 to 1983; signed a peace deal with Egypt (Camp David Accords); won the Nobel Peace Prize with Anwar Sadat (leader of Egypt) in 1978

Golda Meir

prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. 1st woman in that role; led during the Yom- Kippur War

Yitzak Rabin

Prime Minister of Israel from 1974-1977, and from 1992 until his assassination in 1995; won the Nobel Peace Prize together with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat for their work on the Oslo Accords

Porforio Diaz

1876-1911 dictator of Mexico who encouraged foreign investment; later nationalized mining and railroads

Francisco Madero

1910 political opponent to Porforio Diaz; started the Mexican Revolution; bought in democratic modern reforms to Mexico; led from 1910 until his assassination in 1913

Fulgencio Batista

Cuban dictator from 1952 to 1959; supported by the US; overthrown in the Cuban Revolution

Fidel Castro

Cuban revolutionary leader; overthrew Batista in 1959; established communism in Cuba; ruled until 2008

Che Guevara

Argentine revolutionary and guerilla leader; prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution 1956-59; was captured and executed in Bolivia

Juan Peron

President of Argentina (1946-1955, 1973-1974); wife Eva Duarte (Evita) Peron; built up Argentinean industry;very popular among the urban poor.

Salvador Allende

Chilean socialist leader from 1970 to 1973; nationalized industry and banks, brought land reforms; removed by military coup in 1973

Augusto Pinochet

Chilean dictator from 1973-1990; led a coup to depose Salvador Allende; many human rights abuses; supported by the US because he was anti-communist

Pol Pot

Leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia; killed nearly 2 million Cambodians in the 1970s

Idi Amin

Ugandan military leader/president in the 1970s- responsible for hundreds of thousands of Christian/tribal deaths

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of North Vietnam from the 1940s through the 1960s

Benito Mussolini

Fascist dictator of Italy (1922-1943). He led Italy to conquer Ethiopia (1935), joined Germany in the Axis pact (1936), and allied Italy with Germany in World War II. He was overthrown in 1943 when the Allies invaded Italy.

Ayatollah Khomeini

Shiite religious leader of Iran from 1979 - 1989; led the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and ordered the invasion of the US Embassy.