Transcript Who`s Who in the Cold War

Who`s who?
Significant Individuals of the Cold
War
Joseph Stalin
• Ruler of the U.S.S.R.
from 1929-1953
• Best known for his
reign of terror,
violently imposing his
collectivisation and
industrialisation
policies on the Soviet
people.
Nikita Krushchev
• Khrushchev set out to make the Soviet system
more effective by curbing Stalin's worst
excesses.
• He encouraged reform thus leading to several
independence movements among Soviet
satellite nations in Eastern Europe. Though he
promoted change, Khrushchev would not
tolerate dissent: he supported sending tanks into
Budapest in 1956 to brutally suppress a
Hungarian rebellion.
• He was the first Soviet leader to advocate
"peaceful coexistence" with the West, and to
negotiate with the United States on reducing
Cold War tensions.
• He was ousted from power in 1964(shortly after
the Cuban Missile Crisis) and died in 1971.
Leonid Brejnev
• Succeeded Krushchev and was seen as a
strong traditional leader not very interested in
reform.
• A return to the old style of Soviet bureaucracy,
the KGB regained authority but was not as
ruthless as they were during Stalin’s reign.
• "Brezhnev Doctrine," asserted that Moscow
had a right to intervene in the affairs of other
socialist states.
• In 1972, Brezhnev and U.S. President Richard
Nixon signed the SALT treaty, freezing certain
U.S. and Soviet weapons systems. This was
part of the detente period.
• He approved the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
in 1979.
• He died in 1982
Yuri Andropov
• Andropov tried to improve the
efficiency of the Soviet economy.
• During Andropov's tenure, the
U.S.S.R. remained in the war in
Afghanistan. He also tried to persuade
the Europeans not to allow U.S.
President Ronald Reagan to station
Pershing missiles in Germany.
• It was also during Andropov's time as
Soviet leader that Soviet forces shot
down a civilian, South Korean airliner,
killing all 269 people on board. This
did not help with East-West relations.
• Many believed that he had the
potential for reform; however, illness
cut his time short and in 1984 he died
of kidney failure.
Konstantin Chernenko
• He led the Soviet Union from
1984 until his death just
thirteen months later.
• Chernenko represented a
return to the policies of the late
Brezhnev era.
• However, he supported a
greater role for the labour
unions, reform in education,
and trimming of bureaucracy.
Mikhail Gorbachev
• Gorbachev came to power in 1985.
• There were two key phrases of the
Gorbachev era:
« glasnost » (openness)
« perestroika » (reform)
• Gorbachev hoped to shift resources to
the civilian sector of the Soviet
economy and argued in favour of an
end to the arms race with the West.
• His reforms were not well-received by
Soviet hardliners and it did not help
that, economically, the Soviet Union
was suffering.
• 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner for
helping end the Cold War.
Harry Truman
• Harry Truman was the 33rd
president of the United States.
• He succeeded Roosevelt and
came to power in 1945. He
remained president until 1953.
During his time in office he had
to make significant decisions:
i.e. the ordering of atomic
bombs, the Korean War and the
Truman Doctrine.
Dwight Eisenhower
• The 34th president of the U.S.
(1953-1961)
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
obtained a truce in Korea and
worked incessantly during his
two terms to ease the
tensions of the Cold War.
• Coexistence
John F Kennedy
• "Ask not what your country can
do for you--ask what you can do
for your country.“
• 35th President from 1961-1963
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Bay of Pigs
• Construction of the Berlin Wall
• He was assassinated shortly
after 1000 days in office.
Richard Nixon
• 37th President from 1969-1974
• Brought down as a result of the
Watergate scandal.
• Nixon succeeded in ending
American fighting in Viet Nam
and improving relations with the
U.S.S.R. and China.
• Signed treaties with Brejnev to
limit nuclear proliferation.
• Think détente.
Jimmy Carter
• 39th president (1977-1981)
• Negotiated SALT II with the
Soviets
• Established relatively
diplomatic relations with the
People’s Republic of China and
the Soviets.
• SALT II suffered when the
Soviets invaded Afghanistan.
Ronald Reagan
• 40th president 1981-1989
• "peace through strength"
• During his time in office, considerable
sums were dedicated to defence
spending.
• His goal was to improve relations with
the Soviets; however there were many
tense moments.
• In meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev, he negotiated a treaty that
would eliminate intermediate-range
nuclear missiles.
Josep Tito
• Tito was the chief architect of the
"second Yugoslavia," a socialist
federation that lasted from World
War II until 1991.
• He was the first Communist
leader in power to defy Soviet
hegemony; he supported
independent streams of
socialism and was a promoter of
nonalignment between the two
hostile blocs in the Cold War.
Fidel Castro
• On January 1, 1959, Castro
triumphantly took power from
Flugencio Batista
Anwar Sadat
Ho Chi Minh
Mao Tse Tung