| A | B |
|---|
| Joseph Stalin | Leader of the Soviet Union (1920s-1953)- committed to securing control of Eastern Europe as a buffer for the USSR- very paranoid- initiated the Berlin Blockade |
| Harry Truman | President (1945-1953)- Democratic- dropped the bomb on Japan, Berlin Airlift, Truman Doctrine and containment, Korean War, etc.- Fair Deal- shot down by Republican-dominated Congress, civil rights initiatives (ex: desegregation of military), Election of 1948 |
| George Kennan | Expert on Russia and the Soviet Union- authorized the "Long Telegram"- believed communism was naturally aggressive and must be contained- architect of the theory of containment |
| George C. Marshall | Secretary of State under Harry Truman- behind the Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe to 1) stop communism, and 2) revive trade |
| Chiang Kai-shek | Leader of the Chinese Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War- supported by the U.S.- fled to Formosa (Taiwan) after being defeated |
| Mao Zedong | Leader of the Chinese Communists in the Chinese Civil War- won and became leader of Red China |
| Richard Nixon | California Congressman who earned fame in HUAC and the Alger Hiss Case rooting out communists- became Ike's V.P.- loser of the 1960 Election- eventually won in 1968- POTUS during late stages of Vietnam and Watergate Scandal |
| Alger Hiss | State Department official who was accused of formerly being a communist by Whittaker Chambers- he claimed he had never been one- implicated by the "Pumpkin Papers"- convicted of perjury |
| Whittaker Chambers | Accused Alger Hiss (State Department official) of being a communist- helped implicate Hiss with the "Pumpkin Papers" |
| The Rosenbergs | Couple who was accused of selling atomic secrets of the Soviets, tried, convicted, and executed for treason- Julius and Ethel |
| Joseph McCarthy | Wisconsin Senator whose name is synonymous with the Red Scare of the post-World War II era- 1950 claimed to have a list of 205 Communists in government- ruined many people's careers- finally brought down in the televised Army-McCarthy hearings |
| Douglas MacArthur | American general during WWII, commanded the post-war occupation of Japan and established good relations with Hirohito, played a major role in the Korean War, was relieved of command by Truman because he insisted on bombing China and expanding the war- he returned home a hero |
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | POTUS during much of the 1950s (1953-1961)- grandfatherly image, WWII hero, ended the Korean War, Interstate Highway Act, massive retaliation/"more bang for the buck", Suez Crisis, Hungary, CIA covert ops, Sputnik, U-2 |
| John Foster Dulles | Eisenhower's Secretary of State- proponent of "massive retaliation" of using nuclear weapons to respond to Soviet aggression- MAD |
| Yuri Gagarin/Alan Sheppard | The first men in space for Russia and the U.S. respectively- the Soviets won the race |
| Neil Armstrong | The first man on the Moon (July 1969)- "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" |
| Fidel Castro | Communist leader of Cuba- (1959-present). Successfully avoided CIA-sponsored assassination plots (Operation MONGOOSE) and was a major player in the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis |
| John F. Kennedy | POTUS (1961-1963)- barely won the 1960 Election despite his youth and Catholic faith, won largely because of televised debates w/Nixon- foreign policy: Bay of Pigs, Berlin Wall, Cuban Missile Crisis, flexible response- domestic policy: New Frontier, etc.- assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963 |
| Nikita Khrushchev | Soviet leader after the death of Stalin (1953-1964), established better relations with the U.S. (ex: visiting the U.S.) but at other times rattled sabers (anger about U-2 and "We will bury you"), was removed from power for looking weak in his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis |
| Jonas Salk | Researcher who won the race to develop a vaccine for polio |
| Benjamin Spock | Pediatrician known for his child-rearing advice books- "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Childcare" |
| William Levitt | The builder most known for the rise of suburbia- mass produced cheap houses- ex: Levittown |
| Betty Friedan | Author of The Feminine Mystique (1963)- the beginning of the feminist movement- one of the founders of the National Organization for Women (NOW)- called the suburban home a "comfortable concentration camp" |
| Hugh Hefner | Founder of the men's magazine "Playboy" |
| Alfred Kinsey | Researcher who studied human sexuality- wrote Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953) |
| Ray Kroc | Did not found McDonald's but soon bought it out and led McDonald's to world domination |
| Lucille Ball | Famous television actress who starred on "I Love Lucy" who co-starred next to her real life husband: Desi Arnaz |
| Elvis Presley | The most famous rock 'n roll artist of the period- perhaps of all time, popular because of the music and his good looks- really took off after being on "The Ed Sullivan Show" |
| J.D. Salinger | Author- "Catcher in the Rye" (1951)- classic novel about discontented youth- main character Holden Caulfield |
| Joseph Heller | Author- "Catch 22" (1961) |
| Andy Warhol | Painter and filmmaker of the 1960s |
| Jackson Pollock | Abstract expressionist painter of the early 1950s- splatter technique |
| Arthur Miller | Author of "The Crucible"- saw the parallels of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism |
| William H. Whyte | Critic of the 1950s- author of "The Organization Man" (1956) |
| David Riesman | Critic of the 1950s- Columbia professor- author of "The Lonely Crowd" which argued Americans were losing their individuality |
| C. Wright Mills | Critic of the 1950s- author of "The Power Elite" |
| Sloan Wilson | Critic of the 1950s- author of "The Man in Gray Flannel Shirt" |
| Michael Harrington | Author of "The Other America" (1962) which exposed the hidden poverty of the post-war period- inspired LBJ's Great Society and War on Poverty |
| Jack Kerouac | Beat author who wrote "On the Road" (1957) and "The Dharma Bums" |
| Allen Ginsberg | Beat poet who wrote "Howl" |
| James Dean | Actor who personified the bad boy of the 1950s in "Rebel Without a Cause" |
| Strom Thurmond | Southern Democrat who broke away from the Democratic Party because of its stance on civil rights- ran against Harry Truman in the Election of 1948 as a "Dixiecrat" |
| Jackie Robinson | Broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball- first African-American to play in the Major Leagues |
| Earl Warren | Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1953-1969)- 2nd most important behind John Marshall- appointed by Ike- Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Brown II (1955), Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), Miranda v. Arizona (1966), etc. |
| Kenneth Clark | Sociologist whose study "Give Me the Colored Doll" provided a compelling argument about the psychological impact of segregation upon African-American children |
| Thurgood Marshall | NAACP attorney who participated in several cases chipping away at Plessy (1896) and Jim Crow- ex: Brown v. Board of Education (1954)- 1st African-American appointed to the Supreme Court |
| Emmett Till | 14 year-old African American boy from Chicago who was lynched in Mississippi for allegedly saying "Bye Baby" to a white woman |
| Rosa Parks | African-American woman who initiated the Montgomery Bus Boycott when she refused to yield her seat in December 1955 |
| Martin Luther King Jr. | Leader of the Civil Rights Movement- nonviolent approach influenced by Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau- assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis (April 4, 1968) |
| Orval Faubus | Governor of Arkansas who resisted the integration of Central High School in Little Rock |
| James Meredith | 1st African-American to integrate Ole Miss- was protected by federal marshals sent by JFK |
| George Wallace | Governor of Alabama who resisted integration and won electoral votes in the South as a independent candidate in the Election of 1968 |
| Medgar Evers | Field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi- assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith |
| Bull Connor | Police chief of Birmingham, Alabama who was known for his white supremacy and making Birmingham the most segregated city in America |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | JFK's Vice President, took over after the assassination- the Great Society, War on Poverty, and Vietnam highlighted his presidency |
| Malcolm X | Black Muslim who preached black separatism, influenced by Marcus Garvey- assassinated by fellow members of the Nation of Islam |
| Muhammad Ali | Initially born Cassius Clay, converted to Islam and changed his name, conscientious objector to the Vietnam War- a symbol of black power |
| Stokely Carmichael | Black power advocate who led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)- rival of Martin Luther King Jr. |
| Huey Newton/Bobby Seale | Founders of the Black Panthers |
| James Earl Ray | Assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 |
| Lee Harvey Oswald | Assassinated John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963- the Warren Commission concluded he was the lone gunman |
| Barry Goldwater | Staunch conservative who wrote "Conscience of a Conservative"- Republican candidate for POTUS in 1964 but was defeated in a huge landslide by LBJ |
| Ho Chi Minh | Communist leader of North Vietnam- a true Vietnamese nationalist who led the fight against the Japanese then the French and finally the Americans |
| Ngo Dinh Diem | President of South Vietnam- urbane and Catholic who was out of touch with most South Vietnamese- corrupt but an ally of the U.S. against the Viet Cong and Ho Chi Minh- 1963 was assassinated by a CIA-sponsored plot |
| Robert Kennedy | JFK's younger brother and Attorney General- Democratic candidate for POTUS in 1968 until he was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in June, would have likely won the election |
| Hubert Humphrey | LBJ's Vice President- Democratic candidate in 1968 who lost the election in part because he was associated with LBJ and he was committed to continuing the war 1 |
| Tom Hayden | Leader of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)- the Port Huron Statement |
| Mario Savio | Leader of the Free Speech Movement at Cal-Berkeley |
| Joan Baez/Bob Dylan | Famous folk singers of the 1960s- ex: "Blowin' in the Wind" |
| Jimi Hendrix | Rock musician- known for his performance at Monterrey Pop Festival and Woodstock- "Purple Haze", "All Along the Watchtower" |
| William Westmoreland | General who commanded U.S. forces in Vietnam for a good part of the war |
| Lt. William Calley | Commanded the platoon who participated in the My Lai Massacre (1971) |
| Pol Pot | Communist leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia- responsible for the purges that killed about 1/6 of Cambodia's population |
| Daniel Ellsberg | Military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers which revealed many lies about the Vietnam War |
