Important individuals in the history of Superpower Relations 1941-1991

Question 1

Franklin Roosevelt

Answer 1

President of the USA until he died in April 1945. He had a good relationship with Stalin and the USSR.

Question 2

Josef Stalin

Answer 2

Leader of the USSR until his death in 1953. had a warm relationship with Roosevelt but became cold towards the USSR when Roosevelt died.

Question 3

Harry Truman

Answer 3

President of the USA after Roosevelt. He was naturally suspicious of the USSR ad Communism, he had a cold relationship with Stalin. He issued the ‘Truman Doctrine’ in 1947 that committed the USA to containing communism around the world.

Question 4

George Kennan

Answer 4

He wrote a telegram for the USA in 1946, accusing the USSR of being invaders of other countries.

Question 5

Nikolai Novikov

Answer 5

He wrote a telegram for the USSR in 1946, accusing the USA of being a country trying to dominate the world with its influence.

Question 6

George Marshall

Answer 6

He organised a plan in 1947/48, called the ‘Marshall Plan’ to send economic aid to European countries to help them rebuild and be put off of becoming communist.

Question 7

Konrad Adenauer

Answer 7

Chancellor of West Germany

Question 8

Dwight Eisenhower

Answer 8

President of the USA in the 1950’s. He thought building up loads of nuclear weapons was the best way to prevent an actual war happening with the USSR because it would make it pointless to use them

Question 9

Nikita Khrushchev

Answer 9

Leader of the USSR after 1956. He wanted peaceful coexistence with the USA, but not at the expense of the USSR looking weaker than the USA

Question 10

Rakosi

Answer 10

The USSR supported leader of Hungary in 1956, who was hated by the people of Hungary

Question 11

Nagy

Answer 11

The more laid-back leader of Hungary that the USSR replaced Rakosi with in 1956

Question 12

Kadar

Answer 12

The leader of Hungary that replaced Nagy when the USSR decided Nagy had changed things too much in Hungary

Question 13

Fidel Castro

Answer 13

Leader of Cuba after 1959, declared himself a communist in 1961. He asked the USSR to install nuclear missiles there in 1962

Question 14

John F. Kennedy

Answer 14

President of the USA between 1961-1963, during the Cuban Missile Crisis (in 1962). He wanted to be seen as a Cold warrior, someone who stood up to Communism. He decided to blockade Cuba instead of bomb missile sites that were discovered

Question 15

Ota Sik

Answer 15

A Czech Communist economist who said that Czechoslovakia needed more freedom with money than the USSR granted it

Question 16

Alexander Dubcek

Answer 16

A leader of Czechoslovakia, who in 1968 tried to change Communism in the country to being more about “socialism with a human face”

Question 17

Leonid Brezhnev

Answer 17

Leader of the USSR in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. He issued a doctrine after the Prague Spring that said there was only way of being a Communist and that was the USSR’s way

Question 18

Richard Nixon

Answer 18

President of the USA during detente. He worked to try and reduce tension with the USSR

Question 19

Hafzullah Amin

Answer 19

Leader of Afghanistan who was overthrown by the USSR following their invasion in 1979

Question 20

Babrak Kamal

Answer 20

The USSR-backed leader of Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan war

Question 21

Osama Bin Laden

Answer 21

Leader of the Afghan freedom fighters who fought against the USSR’s “Red” Army

Question 22

Jimmy Carter

Answer 22

President of the USA between 1977 and 1981. He issued the “Carter Doctrine” after 1979 that said the USA needed to once again contain the spread of Communism

Question 23

Ronald Reagan

Answer 23

Aggressive minded President who was elected in 1981. He said he was going to “win” the Cold War for the USA

Question 24

Mikhail Gorbachev

Answer 24

Leader of the USSR after 1985. He introduced capitalist changes to the USSR and also began to give people more freedom

Question 25

Erich Honecker

Answer 25

Leader of East Germany when the Warsaw Pact collapsed in 1989

Question 26

Boris Yeltsin

Answer 26

Became leader of Russia following the collapse of the USSR and the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991