Key People

Joseph Stalin

(18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1878 – 5 March 1953) A Soviet revolutionary and politician who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held office as general secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 to 1952 and as premier from 1941 until his death. Despite initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he eventually consolidated power to become a dictator by the 1930s.

Jian Jieshi (Chiang Kai-Shek)

(31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975) A Chinese military commander, revolutionary, and statesman who led the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 until his death in 1975. His government was based in mainland China until it was defeated in the Chinese Civil War by Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949, after which he continued to lead the ROC government on the island of Taiwan.

Alger Hiss

(November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) An American government official who, in 1948, was accused of spying for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The statute of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. Before the trial, he was involved in the establishment of the United Nations, both as a U.S. State Department official and as a UN official. In later life, he worked as a lecturer and author.

Joseph McCarthy

(November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) An American politician who served as a Republican U.S. senator from Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, he became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread communist subversion. He alleged that numerous communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry, and elsewhere. Ultimately, he was censured by the Senate in 1954 for refusing to cooperate with and abusing members of the committee established to investigate whether or not he should be censured. The term "____________ism", coined in 1950 in reference to his practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today, the term is used more broadly to mean demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

(May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) and (September 28, 1915 – June 19, 1953) An American married couple who were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, including providing top-secret information about American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and nuclear weapon designs. They were executed by the federal government of the United States in 1953 using New York's state execution chamber in Sing Sing in Ossining, New York, becoming the first American civilians to be executed for such charges and the first to be executed during peacetime.

Richard Nixon

(January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) The 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the United States Congress before serving as the 36th vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. His second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.

Betty Friedan

(February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) An American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century. In 1966, she co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men."

Elvis Presley

(January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) An American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. His energetic and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy.

Rosa Parks

(February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) An American civil rights activist. She is best known for her 1955 refusal to move from her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in defiance of Jim Crow racial segregation laws, which sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. She is sometimes known as the "mother of the civil rights movement".

Martin Luther King Jr.

(January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) An American civil rights activist and Baptist minister who was a prominent leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. He advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination, which most commonly affected African Americans. A Black church leader, he participated in and led marches for the right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other civil rights. He oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and was the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), leading the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, and helping organize nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. He was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, and helped organize two of the three Selma to Montgomery marches during the 1965 Selma voting rights movement. There were dramatic standoffs with segregationist authorities, who often responded violently. The civil rights movement achieved pivotal legislative gains in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Ella Baker

(December 13, 1903 – December 13, 1986) An African-American civil rights and human rights activist. She was a largely behind-the-scenes organizer whose career spanned more than five decades. In New York City and the South, she worked alongside some of the most noted civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King Jr. She also mentored many emerging activists, such as Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, and Bob Moses, as leaders in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Earl Warren

(March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) An American attorney and politician who served as the 30th governor of California from 1943 to 1953, and as the 14th chief justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. The ______ Court presided over a major shift in American constitutional jurisprudence, which has been recognized by many as a "constitutional revolution" in the liberal direction, with ______ writing the majority opinions in landmark cases such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Reynolds v. Sims (1964), Miranda v. Arizona (1966), and Loving v. Virginia (1967). _____ also led the ______ Commission, a presidential commission that investigated the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He is the last Chief Justice to have served in an elected office before nomination to the Supreme Court, and is generally considered to be one of the most influential Supreme Court justices and political leaders in the history of the United States.

Nikita Khrushchev

(15 April 1894 – 11 September 1971) The First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. As leader of the Soviet Union, he stunned the world by denouncing his predecessor Joseph Stalin, embarking on a campaign of de-Stalinization, and presiding over the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Hồ Chí Minh

(19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969) A Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman who founded the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, which was commonly known as North Vietnam after 1954. He served as its first president from 1946 until his death in 1969 and as its first prime minister from 1945 to 1955. A committed Marxist–Leninist, he also played a central role in establishing the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and later led its successor, the Workers' Party of Vietnam (later the Communist Party of Vietnam), as chairman until his death.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

(15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) An Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. He led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-reaching land reforms the following year. Following a 1954 assassination attempt by a Muslim Brotherhood member, he cracked down on the organization, put President Mohamed Naguib under house arrest and assumed executive office. He was formally elected president in June 1956. He remains an iconic figure in the Arab world, particularly for his strides towards social justice and Arab unity, his modernization policies, and his anti-imperialist efforts. His presidency also encouraged and coincided with an Egyptian cultural boom, and the launching of large industrial projects, including the Aswan Dam, and Helwan city. His detractors criticize his authoritarianism, his human rights violations, his antisemitism, and the dominance of the military over civil institutions that characterised his tenure, establishing a pattern of military and dictatorial rule in Egypt which has persisted, nearly uninterrupted, to the present day.

Fidel Castro

(13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) A Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as prime minister from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he also served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1965 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state; industry and business were nationalized, and socialist reforms were implemented throughout society.

John F. Kennedy

(May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963) The 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president, at 43 years, and the first Catholic president. He served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress before his presidency.

Lyndon B. Johnson

(August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), The 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of _____________ under whom he had served as the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963. The following year, He won reelection to the presidency in a landslide. His domestic policy agenda known as the Great Society was aimed at expanding civil rights, public broadcasting, access to health care, aid to education and the arts, urban and rural development, consumer protection, environmentalism, and public services. He sought to create better living conditions for low-income Americans by spearheading the War on Poverty. As part of these efforts, he signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965, which resulted in the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. He made the Apollo Moon landing program a national priority; enacted the Higher Education Act of 1965 which established federally insured student loans; and signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which laid the groundwork for U.S. immigration policy today. His civil rights legacy was shaped by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Due to his domestic agenda, his presidency marked the peak of modern American liberalism in the 20th century. His foreign policy prioritized containment of communism, including in the ongoing Vietnam War.

Jack Kerouac

(March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) An American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.

Arthur Miller

(October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) An American actor and writer of plays in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955). He wrote several screenplays, including The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman is considered one of the best American plays of the 20th century.

Robert F. Kennedy

(November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968) An American politician and lawyer. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 64th United States attorney general from 1961 to 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New York from 1965 until his assassination in 1968. Like his brothers, he is considered an icon of modern American liberalism.

Robert McNamara

(June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) An American businessman and government official who served as the eighth United States secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson at the height of the Cold War. He remains the longest-serving secretary of defense, having remained in office over seven years. He played a major role in promoting the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He was responsible for the institution of systems analysis in public policy, which developed into the discipline known today as policy analysis.

Ngô Đình Diệm

(3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) A South Vietnamese politician who was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955) and later the first president of South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) from 1955 until his capture and assassination during the CIA-backed 1963 coup d'état.

Malcolm X

(May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) An African American revolutionary and Black nationalist leader who rose from a background of poverty, family disruption, and criminal activity to a prominent figure during the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1965. He discovered the religious organization the Nation of Islam while in prison and served as its spokesperson from 1952 until 1964. He was also a vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the African American community. A controversial figure accused of preaching violence, he is also a celebrated figure with Black people and Muslims worldwide for his pursuit of racial justice.

Stokley Carmichael

(June 29, 1941 – November 15, 1998) A Trinidadian-American activist who played a major role in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in the Crown Colony of Trinidad and Tobago, he moved to the United States at age 11 and became an activist while attending the Bronx High School of Science. He was a key leader in the development of the Black Power movement, first while leading the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), then as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party and as a leader of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP).

Eugene McCarthy

(March 29, 1916 – December 10, 2005) An American politician, writer, and academic who represented Minnesota in both houses of the United States Congress for over 22 years, first in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959, then in the U.S. Senate from 1959 until his resignation in 1971. A member of the Democratic Party, he sought the party's presidential nomination in the 1968 presidential election, challenging incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson on an anti–Vietnam War platform, and ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for president four more times.

George Wallace

(August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) An American politician and lawyer who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the longest-serving governor from the Democratic Party. He is remembered for his staunch segregationist and populist views, although in the late 1970s he moderated his views on race, renouncing his support for segregation. During his tenure as governor of Alabama, he promoted "industrial development, low taxes, and trade schools." He unsuccessfully sought the United States presidency as a Democrat three times, and once with the American Independent Party, in which he carried five states in the 1968 presidential election. He opposed desegregation and supported the policies of "Jim Crow" during the Civil Rights Movement, declaring in his 1963 inaugural address that he stood for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever."

Henry Kissinger

(May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) An American diplomat, political scientist, and politician. He served as the 7th national security advisor from 1969 to 1975, followed by being the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977. He served under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. An advocate of a pragmatic approach to geopolitics known as Realpolitik, he pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrated an opening of relations with China, engaged in "shuttle diplomacy" in the Middle East to end the Yom Kippur War, and negotiated the Paris Peace Accords, which ended American involvement in the Vietnam War. For his role in negotiating the accords, he was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, which sparked controversy. He is also associated with controversial U.S. policies including its bombing of Cambodia, involvement in the 1971 Bolivian and 1973 Chilean coups d'état, and support for Argentina's military junta in its Dirty War, Indonesia in its invasion of East Timor, and Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War and Bangladesh genocide. Considered by many American scholars to have been an effective secretary of state, he was also accused by critics of war crimes for the civilian death toll of the policies he pursued and for his role in facilitating U.S. support for authoritarian regimes.

Rachel Carson

(May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) An American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose sea trilogy (1941–1955) and book Silent Spring (1962) are credited with advancing marine conservation and the global environmental movement.

Cesar Chavez

(March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) An American labor unionist and political activist. Along with Dolores Huerta and Gilbert Padilla, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Ideologically, his worldview combined leftism with Catholic social teaching.

George McGovern

(July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) An American politician, diplomat, and historian from South Dakota who served in both chambers of the United States Congress as a member of the United States House of Representatives for two terms representing South Dakota's 1st congressional district from 1957 to 1961, the director of Food for Peace in 1961 and 1962 under John F. Kennedy, and a member of the United States Senate for three terms from 1963 to 1981. He was the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 U.S. presidential election. As a senator, he was a prominent example of modern American liberalism. He became most known for his outspoken opposition to the growing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He staged a brief nomination run in the 1968 U.S. presidential election as a stand-in for the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy. The subsequent ________–Fraser Commission fundamentally altered the presidential nominating process, by increasing the number of caucuses and primaries and reducing the influence of party insiders. The ________–Hatfield Amendment sought to end the Vietnam War by legislative means but was defeated in 1970 and 1971. His long-shot, grassroots-based 1972 presidential campaign found triumph in gaining the Democratic nomination but left the party split ideologically, and the failed vice-presidential pick of Thomas Eagleton undermined his credibility. In the general election, he lost to incumbent Richard Nixon in one of the biggest landslides in U.S. electoral history. Although re-elected to the Senate in 1968 and 1974, he was defeated in his bid for a fourth term in 1980.

Gerald Ford

(July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) The 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party, he assumed the presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon, under whom he had served as the 40th vice president from 1973 to 1974 following the resignation of Spiro Agnew. Prior to that, he served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973. Domestically, he presided over the worst economy in the four decades since the Great Depression, with growing inflation and a recession. In one of his most controversial acts, he granted a presidential pardon to Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. Foreign policy was characterized in procedural terms by the increased role Congress began to play, and by the corresponding curb on the powers of the president. He signed the Helsinki Accords, which marked a move toward détente in the Cold War. With the collapse of South Vietnam eight months into his presidency, U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War essentially ended. In the 1976 Republican presidential primary, he narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, but narrowly lost the presidential election to the Democratic candidate, Jimmy Carter. He remains the only person to serve as president without winning an election for president or vice president.

Gloria Steinem

(born March 25, 1934) An American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1971, she co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus which provides training and support for women who seek elected and appointed offices in government. Also in 1971, she co-founded the Women's Action Alliance which, until 1997, provided support to a network of feminist activists and worked to advance feminist causes and legislation.

Shirley Chisholm

(November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) An American politician who, in 1968, became the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. She represented New York's 12th congressional district, a district centered in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Throughout her career, she was known for taking "a resolute stand against economic, social, and political injustices", as well as being a strong supporter of black civil rights and women's rights.

Phyllis Schlafly

(August 15, 1924 – September 5, 2016) An American attorney and activist who was nationally prominent in conservatism. She opposed feminism, gay rights, and abortion, and campaigned against the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Jimmy Carter

(October 1, 1924 – December 29, 2024) An American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 1971 to 1975 as the 76th governor of Georgia and from 1963 to 1967 in the Georgia State Senate. As president, he pardoned all Vietnam draft evaders and negotiated major foreign policy agreements, including the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, and the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, and he established diplomatic relations with China. He created a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. He signed bills that created the Departments of Energy and Education. The later years of his presidency were marked by several foreign policy crises, including the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (leading to the end of détente and the 1980 Olympics boycott) and the fallout of the Iranian Revolution (including the Iran hostage crisis and 1979 oil crisis). He sought reelection in 1980, defeating a primary challenge by Senator Ted Kennedy, but lost the election to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan

Leonid Brezhnev

(19 December 1906 – 10 November 1982) A Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. He also held office as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 1960 to 1964 and later from 1977 to 1982. His tenure as General Secretary and leader of the Soviet Union was second only to Joseph Stalin's in duration. In the short term, his governance improved the Soviet Union's international standing while stabilizing the position of its ruling party at home. Whereas Khrushchev regularly enacted policies without consulting the Politburo, he was careful to minimize dissent among the party elite by reaching decisions through consensus, thereby restoring the semblance of collective leadership. Additionally, while pushing for détente between the two Cold War superpowers, he achieved nuclear parity with the United States and strengthened Moscow's dominion over Central and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, the country's massive arms buildup and widespread military interventionism under his leadership served to substantially expand Soviet influence abroad, particularly in the Middle East and Africa. By the mid-1970s, numerous observers argued that the Soviet Union had surpassed the United States to become the world's strongest military power.

Ronald Reagan

(February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) An American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989, and the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in the American conservative movement. The period encompassing his presidency is known as the ______ era. He won the Republican Party's nomination and then obtained a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election. In his first term as president, he began implementing "______omics", a policy involving economic deregulation and cuts in both taxes and government spending during a period of stagflation. On the world stage, he escalated the arms race, increased military spending, transitioned Cold War policy away from détente, and ordered the 1983 invasion of Grenada. His first term was also notable for his survival of an assassination attempt, a well-publicized fight with public-sector labor unions, an expansion of the war on drugs, and his slow response to the AIDS epidemic. In the 1984 presidential election, he was elected to a second term upon defeating former vice president Walter Mondale in one of the largest landslide victories in American history. Foreign affairs dominated his second term, including the 1986 bombing of Libya, the secret and illegal sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras, and engaging in negotiations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, which culminated in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

Margaret Thatcher

(13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) A British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the office. As prime minister, she implemented policies that came to be known as ________ism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady," a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.

Tip O’Neill

(December 9, 1912 – January 5, 1994) An American Democratic Party politician from Massachusetts who served as the 47th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987, the third-longest tenure in history and the longest uninterrupted tenure. He represented northern Boston in the House from 1953 to 1987. In the U.S. House, he became a protégé of fellow Boston Representative John William McCormack. He broke with President Lyndon B. Johnson on the Vietnam War in 1967 and called for Richard Nixon's resignation in light of the Watergate scandal. He quickly moved up the leadership ranks in the 1970s, becoming House Majority Whip in 1971, House Majority Leader in 1973, and Speaker of the House in 1977. With the election of President Jimmy Carter, he hoped to establish a universal health care system and a guaranteed jobs program. However, relations between Carter and Congress deteriorated, and Carter lost re-election in the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan, a conservative Republican. He became a leading opponent of President Reagan's conservative domestic policies, but he and Reagan found common ground in foreign policy, fostering the Anglo-Irish Agreement and implementing the Reagan Doctrine (despite considerable opposition to Reagan's support for the Contras in Nicaragua) during the Cold War.

Mikhail Gorbachev

(2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) A Soviet and Russian politician who was the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1985, and additionally as head of state from 1988. Ideologically, he initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism, but moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s.

Saddam Hussein

(28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) An Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until his overthrow in 2003 during the United States-led invasion of Iraq. He previously served as the vice president from 1968 to 1979 and also as the prime minister from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. A leading member of the Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction), he was a proponent of Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism. The policies and ideologies he championed are collectively known as Saddamism, a right-wing variant of Ba'athism.

Jesse Jackson

(October 8, 1941 – February 17, 2026) An American civil rights activist, LGBTQ rights activist, politician, and ordained Baptist minister. A protégé of Martin Luther King Jr. and James Bevel during the civil rights movement, he became one of the most prominent civil rights leaders of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and an ardent advocate and early supporter of LGBTQ rights in the United States. From 1991 to 1997, he served as a shadow United States senator for the District of Columbia.

Jerry Falwell

(August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007) An American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He founded Lynchburg Christian Academy, later renamed Liberty Christian Academy, in 1967, founded Liberty University in 1971, and co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979.

Sandra Day O’Connor

(March 26, 1930 – December 1, 2023) An American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. A moderate conservative, she was considered a swing vote. Before her tenure on the Court, she was an Arizona state judge and earlier an elected legislator in Arizona, serving as the first female majority leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. Upon her nomination to the Court, she was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate.

George H.W. Bush

(June 12, 1924 – November 30, 2018) The 41st president of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. He was the vice president under Ronald Reagan, and held various other positions. A member of the Republican Party, his presidency oversaw the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Gulf War. He was also the 43rd president of the United States. Foreign policy drove his presidency as he navigated the final years of the Cold War and played a key role in the reunification of Germany. He presided over the invasion of Panama and the Gulf War, ending the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in the latter conflict. Though the agreement was not ratified until after he left office, he negotiated and signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created a trade bloc consisting of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Domestically, he reneged on a 1988 campaign promise by enacting legislation to raise taxes that he justified as necessary to reducing the budget deficit. He championed and signed three pieces of bipartisan legislation in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Immigration Act and the Clean Air Act Amendments. He also appointed David Souter and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. He lost the 1992 presidential election to Democrat Bill Clinton following an economic recession, his turnaround on his tax promise, and the decreased emphasis of foreign policy in a post–Cold War political climate.

Boris Yeltsin

(1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) A Soviet and Russian politician who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to 1990. He later stood as a political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism.

Manuel Noriega

(February 11, 1934 – May 29, 2017) A Panamanian military officer and politician who was the de facto ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He never officially served as president of Panama, instead ruling as an unelected military dictator through puppet presidents. Amassing a personal fortune through drug trafficking operations by the Panamanian military, he had longstanding ties with American intelligence agencies before the United States invasion of Panama removed him from power.

Clarence Thomas

(born June 23, 1948) An American lawyer and jurist who has served since 1991 as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. President George H. W. Bush nominated him to succeed Thurgood Marshall. After Marshall, he is the second African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court and has been its longest-serving justice since Anthony Kennedy's retirement in 2018. He is widely considered to be the Court's most conservative justice.

Anita Hill

(born July 30, 1956) An American lawyer, educator and author. She is a professor of social policy, law, and women's studies at Brandeis University and a faculty member of the university's Heller School for Social Policy and Management She became a national figure in 1991 when she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, her supervisor at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, of sexual harassment.

Bill Clinton

(born August 19, 1946) An American politician and lawyer who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979 and as the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992. His centrist "Third Way" political philosophy became known as _______ism, which dominated his presidency and the succeeding decades of Democratic Party history. He presided over the second longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act but failed to pass his plan for national health care reform, and accepted a controversial compromise policy to his original plan to allow gay and lesbian servicemembers serve openly in the military. Starting in the mid-1990s, after Democrats were soundly defeated in the 1994 midterms, he began an ideological evolution as he became much more conservative in his domestic policy, advocating for and signing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act and Republican-led financial deregulation measures, while still championing liberal policy such as the State Children's Health Insurance Program. He appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court. In foreign policy, he ordered U.S. military intervention in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, eventually signing the Dayton Peace agreement. He also called for the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe and many former Warsaw Pact members joined NATO during his presidency. His foreign policy in the Middle East saw him sign the Iraq Liberation Act which gave aid to groups against Saddam Hussein. He also participated in the Oslo I Accord and Camp David Summit to advance the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, and assisted the Northern Ireland peace process.

Al Gore

(born March 31, 1948) An American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented Tennessee in both houses of the U.S. Congress, first as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1985, and then as a U.S. senator from 1985 to 1993. He was the Democratic nominee in the 2000 presidential election; he lost to George W. Bush despite winning the popular vote. He was the Democratic presidential nominee in the 2000 election, in which he lost the U.S. Electoral College vote by five electoral votes to Republican nominee George W. Bush, despite winning the popular vote by 543,895 votes. The election concluded after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in Bush v. ____ against a previous ruling by the Supreme Court of Florida on a re-count. He is one of five presidential candidates in American history to lose a presidential election despite winning the popular vote.

Ross Perot

(June 27, 1930 – July 9, 2019) An American businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive officer of Electronic Data Systems and ________ Systems. He ran an independent campaign in the 1992 U.S. presidential election and a third-party campaign in the 1996 U.S. presidential election as the nominee of the Reform Party, which was formed by grassroots supporters of his 1992 campaign. Although he failed to carry a single state in either election, both campaigns were among the stronger presidential showings by a third party or independent candidate in U.S. history.

Newt Gingrich

(born June 17, 1943) An American politician who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U.S. representative for Georgia's 6th congressional district serving north Atlanta and nearby areas from 1979 until his resignation in 1999. In 2012, he unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for president of the United States. As House Speaker, he oversaw passage by the House of welfare reform in 1996 and a capital gains tax cut in 1997. He played a key role in several government shutdowns, and impeached President Bill Clinton on a party-line vote in the House. A disappointing showing by Republicans in the 1998 congressional elections, a reprimand from the House for his ethics violation, and pressure from Republican colleagues resulted in him announcing that he would not run for the speakership in the upcoming Congress, and he resigned from the House on January 3, 1999, the same day his term as speaker ended.

Robert Dole

(July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) An American politician, attorney, and U.S. Army officer who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the U.S. Senate during the final 11 years of his tenure, including three non-consecutive years as Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate. Prior to his 27 years in the Senate, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969. He was also the Republican presidential nominee in the 1996 presidential election and the vice presidential nominee in the 1976 presidential election. In his role as Republican leader, he helped defeat the Clinton health care plan of 1993, proposed by Democratic president Bill Clinton.

Osama Bin Laden

(10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) The founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. A pan-Islamist and Islamic extremist, he organized and funded numerous jihadist or anti-Western militants and terrorist attacks worldwide. Al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks in 2001 against the United States directly killed 2,977 victims, and began America's global war on terror. His public beliefs led to his 1991 expulsion from Saudi Arabia, upon which he moved with al-Qaeda to Sudan. He helped start the Algerian Civil War (1992–2002). Sudan expelled him in 1996, and he moved with al-Qaeda to Afghanistan, soon governed by the Taliban. Al-Qaeda allied with them in the 1996–2001 Afghan Civil War. In 2011, U.S. troops killed bin Laden at his compound in Pakistan, and Ayman al-Zawahiri became al-Qaeda's emir. Polls show that Muslims at large have a negative view of him, although many Islamists consider him to be heroic. Elsewhere, he is overwhelmingly seen as a symbol of terrorism and mass murder.

Monica Lewinsky

(born July 23, 1973) An American activist. She became internationally known in the late 1990s after U.S. president Bill Clinton admitted to having had an affair with her during her days as a White House intern between 1995 and 1997. The affair and its repercussions (which included Clinton's impeachment) became known as the Clinton–________ scandal.

John McCain

(August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) An American politician and naval officer who represented Arizona in the United States Congress for over 35 years, first as a U.S. representative from 1983 to 1987, then as a U.S. senator from 1987 until his death in 2018. A member of the Republican Party, he was the party's nominee in the 2008 presidential election.

George W. Bush

(born July 6, 1946) An American politician, businessman, and former United States Air Force officer who was the 43rd president of the United States, serving from 2001 to 2009. The eldest son of the 41st president of the United States, he was the governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. In his first term, he signed a major tax-cut program and an education-reform bill, the No Child Left Behind Act. He pushed for socially conservative efforts such as the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, restrictions on same-sex marriage, and faith-based initiatives. He also initiated the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, in 2003, to address the global AIDS epidemic. The September 11 attacks during 2001 decisively reshaped his administration, resulting in the start of the war on terror and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. He ordered the invasion of Afghanistan in an effort to overthrow the Taliban, destroy al-Qaeda, and capture Osama bin Laden. He signed the Patriot Act to authorize surveillance of suspected terrorists. He also ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime, falsely claiming it possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and had ties with al-Qaeda. He later signed the Medicare Modernization Act, which created Medicare Part D. In 2004, he was re-elected president in a close race, beating Democratic opponent John Kerry and winning the popular vote.

Nancy Pelosi

(born March 26, 1940) An American politician who was the 52nd speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first female elected speaker and the first woman to lead a major political party in either chamber of Congress, heading the House Democrats from 2003 to 2023. Her 20 years as a House party leader are tied with Joe Martin's as the second-longest after Sam Rayburn. She is in her 20th term, having served in the House since 1987, representing California's 11th congressional district, which includes most of San Francisco. She is the dean of California's congressional delegation.

Barack Obama

(born August 4, 1961) An American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party. He previously served as a U.S. senator representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. He was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for efforts in international diplomacy, a decision that drew both praise and criticism. During his first term, his administration responded to the 2008 financial crisis with measures including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to address the Great Recession; a partial extension of the Bush tax cuts; legislation to reform health care; and the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a major financial regulation reform bill. He also appointed Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, the former being the first Hispanic American on the Supreme Court. He also oversaw the end of the Iraq War and ordered Operation Neptune Spear, the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the September 11 attacks. He downplayed Bush's counterinsurgency model by expanding air strikes and making extensive use of special forces, while encouraging greater reliance on host-government militaries. He also ordered the 2011 military intervention in Libya to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which contributed to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.