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People of the Revolution and the USSR
Activity
Affiliation
Position
Citizenship(set)
Background
Era
People of the Soviet Union
People of the wider world
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Maxwell Davenport Taylor Maxwell Taylor
A military strategist of the nuclear age
Military command · United States state institutions
1901–1987
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John Alexander McCone John Alexander McCone
CIA director who alone warned that Soviet missiles were coming to Cuba
Security, intelligence and policing · United States state institutions
1902–1991
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Llewellyn E. Thompson Llewellyn Thompson
The US Ambassador to Moscow who knew Khrushchev personally and, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, told Kennedy to ignore the second letter
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1904–1972
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Charles E. Eustis Bohlen Charles E. Bohlen
The State Department Soviet expert who turned Kennan's and Clayton's policy memos into Marshall's Harvard speech
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1904–1974
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George F. Kennan George F. Kennan
The American diplomat and historian whose 1946 Long Telegram and X article laid the intellectual foundations of containment
Scholarship and theory
1904–2005
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William H. Tunner William H. Tunner
Architect of large-scale airlift operations
Military command · United States state institutions
1906–1983
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Curtis E. LeMay Curtis LeMay
The Air Force general who firebombed Japan and urged nuclear war on his adversaries
Military command · United States state institutions
1906–1990
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James Webb James Edwin Webb
The administrator who organized Apollo
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1906–1992
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Ernest Gross Ernest A. Gross
An international lawyer who worked the UN’s procedures
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1906–1999
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Paul Nitze Paul Nitze
A Cold War strategist who moved between nuclear buildup and arms control
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1907–2004
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Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon B. Johnson
A Cold War president caught between reform and war
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1908–1973
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Edward Geary Lansdale Edward Lansdale
The Mongoose architect whose six-phase Cuba overthrow plan convinced the Soviets invasion was coming
Security, intelligence and policing · United States state institutions
1908–1987
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Burnett Bolloten Burnett Bolloten
A painstaking archival historian of the Spanish Civil War
Scholarship and theory
1909–1987
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Dean Rusk Dean Rusk
A Cold War diplomat who built containment through international coalitions
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1909–1994
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George Ball George Ball
The Under Secretary who stopped an airstrike on Cuba with the Pearl Harbor analogy, then alone opposed escalation in Vietnam
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1909–1994
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Raya Dunayevskaya Raya Dunayevskaya
From Trotsky's secretary to founder of Marxist Humanism
Social movements and organizing · Socialist Workers Party (United States)
1910–1987
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Gus Hall Gus Hall
Finnish-American labor militant and CPUSA General Secretary for 41 years, Moscow loyalist, four-time presidential candidate
Political and party leadership · Communist Party USA (CPUSA)
1910–2000
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Ronald Wilson Reagan Ronald Reagan
The Cold War's last American president, who genuinely believed in nuclear abolition but would not yield on SDI
Political and party leadership · United States state institutions
1911–2004
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Henry M. Jackson Henry M. Jackson
A hawkish Democratic senator who tied Soviet trade status to Jewish emigration
Political and party leadership · United States state institutions
1912–1983
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Richard Milhous Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon
The Cold Warrior who opened détente with Moscow and Beijing, then became the only U.S. president to resign
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1913–1994
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Gerald Ford Gerald Ford
The unelected president who steered détente into its final phase
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1913–2006
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Charles Vanik Charles Vanik
The congressman who made emigration a condition of trade
Economy, finance and planning · United States state institutions
1913–2007
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Gerard Smith Gerard C. Smith
A negotiator of the nuclear age
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1914–1994
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William Westmoreland William Westmoreland
US Army general who commanded American forces in South Vietnam from 1964 to 1968 and pursued a strategy of attrition measured by body count
Military command · United States state institutions
1914–2005
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Arthur Lundahl Arthur C. Lundahl
The founding father of photo interpretation whose analysts spotted Soviet missiles in Cuba and triggered the crisis
Security, intelligence and policing · United States state institutions
1915–1992
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Grace Lee Boggs Grace Lee Boggs
From first translator of Marx's 1844 Manuscripts to philosopher of Detroit's revolution
Social movements and organizing
1915–2015
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Robert McNamara Robert McNamara
The quantitative defense secretary who led the Vietnam War and helped prevent nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1916–2009
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John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy
The youngest U.S. president, who took the world to the brink of nuclear war and back
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1917–1963
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Arthur M. Schlesinger Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
A liberal historian who became an insider chronicler of power
Scholarship and theory
1917–2007
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McGeorge Bundy McGeorge Bundy
The National Security Advisor who chose not to wake the president on the first night of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Security, intelligence and policing · United States state institutions
1919–1996
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Walter Stoessel Walter Stoessel
A career diplomat who worked the front lines of détente
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1920–1986
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George Pratt Shultz George Shultz
The Secretary of State who pushed Reagan toward dialogue with Gorbachev and helped end the Cold War
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1920–2021
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Gail Halvorsen Gail Halvorsen
An airman whose small act of kindness became an international symbol
Military command · United States state institutions
1920–2022
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Gabriel Jackson Gabriel Jackson
An American historian who interpreted the Spanish Republic and Civil War
Scholarship and theory
1921–2019
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Richard Edgar Pipes Richard Pipes
The Cold War's leading conservative interpreter of Russian history who framed October as a coup
Scholarship and theory
1923–2018
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Henry Alfred Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger
The architect of détente who used 'linkage' to build the first framework for superpower arms control, the face of American realism
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1923–2023
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Martin Edward Malia Martin Edward Malia
A historian who forecast the Soviet collapse
Scholarship and theory
1924–2004
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Stuart Schram Stuart R. Schram
Pioneer of Mao studies, author of The Political Thought of Mao Tse-tung and editor of the ten-volume Mao’s Road to Power
Scholarship and theory
1924–2012
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George H. W. Herbert Walker Bush George H. W. Bush
The US president who declared the Cold War over with Gorbachev at Malta, yet whose caution nearly let history slip away
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1924–2018
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Jimmy Carter Jimmy Carter
The 39th U.S. president whose administration marked both the peak and the end of détente
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1924–2024
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Robert F. Francis Kennedy Robert F. Kennedy
The president's brother and attorney general who engineered the secret settlement of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Law and justice · United States state institutions
1925–1968
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Brent Scowcroft Brent Scowcroft
A cautious strategist at the Cold War's end
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1925–2020
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Robert Vincent Daniels Robert Vincent Daniels
A historian who traced revolutionary pluralism and the making of Stalinism
Scholarship and theory
1926–2010
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Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva Светлана Иосифовна Аллилуева
Stalin's only daughter and the Kremlin's first insider witness to defect to the West
Literature and arts
1926–2011
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Richard Heyser Richard Heyser
The U-2 pilot whose six-minute, 928-photo run over Cuba on 14 October 1962 revealed Soviet missiles and ignited the Cuban Missile Crisis
Military command · United States state institutions
1927–2008
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Ted Sorensen Ted Sorensen
Kennedy's speechwriter whose pen chose 'quarantine' over airstrikes at the nuclear brink
Government and administration · United States state institutions
1928–2010
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Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński
Carter's National Security Advisor who drew the Soviet Union into the Afghan trap
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1928–2017
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Jack Foust Matlock Jack Matlock
Reagan's NSC Soviet expert who assembled the 'Soviet 101' briefing papers and the last US ambassador to the USSR
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1929–
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Vladimir Treml Vladimir Treml
A scholar who quantified the Soviet economy's hidden flows
Scholarship and theory
1929–2018
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James Baker James Baker
The pragmatic diplomat who engineered the Cold War's final transition
Diplomacy and international organization · United States state institutions
1930–