Key Players

Question 1

Franklin Roosevelt (2)

Answer 1

President of the USA until his death in April 1945.

He had a warm relationship with Stalin and the USSR.

Question 2

Josef Stalin (2)

Answer 2

Leader of the USSR until his death in 1953.

He had a warm relationship with Roosevelt but became cold towards the USA after Roosevelt’s death.

Question 3

Harry Truman (4)

Answer 3

President of the USA after Roosevelt.
He was naturally suspicious of the USSR and Communism.
He had a cold relationship with Stalin.
He issued the ‘Truman Doctrine’ in 1947 that commited the USA to containing the spread of 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.
‘Long Telegram’

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.
‘Novikov Telegram’

Question 6

George Marshall

Answer 6

He organised the Marshall plan in 1947/1948.

It gave money to European countries to help them rebuild and be put off Communism.

Question 7

Konrad Adenauer

Answer 7

Chancellor of West Germany.

Question 8

Dwight Eisenhower (2)

Answer 8

President of the USA in the 1950s.

He believed that building up lots of nuclear weapons was the best way to prevent a war between the USA and USSR.

Question 9

Nikita Khrushchev (2)

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 (2)

Answer 10

The USSR supported leader of Hungary in 1956.

He 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 that Nagy had changed things in Hungary too much.

Question 13

Fidel Castro (3)

Answer 13

Leader of Cuba after 1959.
Declared himself a Communist in 1961.
Asked the USSR to install nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962.

Question 14

John F. Kennedy (4)

Answer 14

President of the USA between 1961 and 1963.
His presidency was during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
He took the decision to blockade Cuba instead of bomb missile sites that were discovered there.
He wanted to be seen as a cold war warrior, someone who stood up to Communism.

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 (2)

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Richard Nixon (2)

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 (2)

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 (2)

Answer 23

Aggressive minded President who was elected in 1981.

He said that he was going to ‘win’ the cold war for the USA.

Question 24

Mikhail Gorbachev (3)

Answer 24

Leader of the USSR after 1985.
He introduced capitalist changes to the USSR.
Began to give people more freedom in the USSR.

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.