Pan-Latin American anti-imperialist hero who waged guerrilla war against US occupation of Nicaragua
“Let it not be permitted that the hands of traitors or invaders shall profane his remains.” — Sandino, 1927
Nicaraguan revolutionary and guerrilla leader. From 1927 to 1933, he led the Army in Defense of National Sovereignty (EDSN) against the US military occupation, becoming a symbol of anti-imperialist resistance throughout Latin America. Assassinated in 1934 by the US-trained National Guard under Anastasio Somoza, his legacy inspired the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), founded in 1961, which overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979.
Career timeline
- 1912Witnessed US intervention and General Zeledón's death — anti-imperialist consciousness formed
- 1921–1926Exile in Mexico — worked at Standard Oil refinery, exposed to Mexican revolutionary ideas
- 1926–1927Returned to Nicaragua — raised a militia of gold miners, joined the Constitutionalist War
- 1927.07Rejected the Espino Negro accord — launched guerrilla war against the US with the San Albino Manifesto
- 1927–1933Generalissimo of the EDSN — led six-year guerrilla campaign against US Marines
- 1929–1930Exile in Mexico — joined the EMECU spiritualist commune, sought Pan-American anti-imperialist solidarity
- 1933Peace accord with President Sacasa after US withdrawal — agreed to disarm
- 1934.02.21Arrested and executed by the National Guard after presidential palace talks — body never found
Korean revolutionary military leader who fought alongside Kim Il Sung in the Manchurian anti-Japanese guerrillas
Kim Il Sung kept a small safe in his office throughout his life. When Kim Jong Il opened it after his father's death in 1994, he found only one photograph inside — a faded picture of Kim Il Sung with Kim Chaek.
Beginning with the Korean Communist Party and Chinese Communist Party in 1920s Manchuria, he committed himself to armed anti-Japanese struggle and rose to command guerrilla operations in the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army alongside Kim Il Sung and Choe Yong-gon, the three known as the 'Manchurian partisan troika.' After returning to Korea in 1945, he became Kim Il Sung's closest comrade, leading the creation of the North Korean branch of the Communist Party and orchestrating the campaign to install Kim as paramount leader. When the DPRK was founded in 1948, he became its first Deputy Premier and Minister of Industry, directing postwar industrial reconstruction. He commanded Korean People's Army forces at the front during the Korean War and died of exhaustion in January 1951; the DPRK posthumously named a city, a university, and a steel complex after him.
Career timeline
- 1927Joined the Korean Communist Party; arrested and imprisoned in the Kando Communist Party incident
- 1930Joined the Chinese Communist Party; Secretary of the Dongjing District Committee
- 1933–1940Political commissar of the 3rd Route Army, Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army; Secretary of the North Manchuria Provincial Committee
- 1942–1945Political commissar, 3rd Battalion, 88th Special Brigade, Soviet Far East
- 1945–1946Led creation of the North Korean Branch of the Communist Party; first president of Pyongyang Academy
- 1946–1948Vice-chairman of the North Korean People's Committee; Political Committee member of the Workers' Party of North Korea
- 1948–1951Deputy Premier and Minister of Industry, concurrently Deputy Minister of National Defence
- 1950–1951Frontline commander of the Korean People's Army during the Korean War
The only Korean to complete the Long March, Eighth Route Army artillery commander who led the Korean Volunteer Army and the Yan'an faction
Of some thirty Koreans who set out on the Long March, Mu Chong alone survived to reach Yan'an.
He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1925 and became the only Korean to complete the Long March, rising to artillery commander of the Eighth Route Army. In northern China he organized the Korean Independence Alliance and the Korean Volunteer Army, serving as its commander-in-chief and emerging as the military leader of the Yan'an faction. After liberation he returned to North Korea, serving as KPA artillery commander and II Corps commander during the Korean War, but lost his power struggle with Kim Il Sung and was purged in December 1950 on charges of battlefield failure and murder. His downfall signalled the elimination of the Yan'an faction.
Career timeline
- 1925Joined the Chinese Communist Party
- 1934–1935Participated in the Red Army's Long March
- 1937–1940Artillery Commander, Eighth Route Army
- 1942Commander-in-Chief, Korean Volunteer Army
- 1946Second Secretary, Workers' Party of North Korea
- 1948Deputy Minister of National Defence, KPA 2nd Command
- 1950Commander, KPA II Corps
The history teacher who defeated two empires without ever attending a military academy
As a young history teacher at a Hanoi lycée, he would sketch detailed Napoleonic campaign plans on the blackboard. His students called him 'the General.' Fifteen years later he accepted the French surrender at Dien Bien Phu.
A history teacher with no formal military training who built the Viet Minh army and defeated France at Dien Bien Phu (1954), then the United States in the war that followed. As the first commander of a colonial liberation force to break a modern imperial army in pitched battle, he spent three decades building the People's Army into a mechanised combined-arms force and perfecting a people's war aimed at breaking the enemy's political will.
Career timeline
- 1941–1945Military commander, Viet Minh
- 1946–1947Minister of the Interior, DRV
- 1946–1980Minister of Defence, DRV / SRV
- 1951–1982Politburo member, Communist Party of Vietnam
- 1955–1991Deputy Prime Minister
- 1972Relieved as field commander (replaced by Văn Tiến Dũng); retained Defence portfolio
- 1982–1991Central Committee member
Founder of Angola's People's Armed Forces and its first Defence Minister
After the October 1976 plenum, Carreira officially declared that "for the MPLA, the only socialism that exists is the socialism of Marx, Engels and Lenin, scientific socialism."
First Defence Minister of independent Angola, founder and commander-in-chief of the People's Armed Forces (FAPLA), and the MPLA's military strategist second only to Agostinho Neto. After the October 1976 Central Committee plenum he officially declared that 'for the MPLA, the only socialism that exists is the socialism of Marx, Engels and Lenin, scientific socialism,' marking the party's adoption of Marxism-Leninism. He directed the suppression of the 1977 Nitista uprising and its military tribunals, but lost power after Neto's death in 1979 and spent his last years denouncing Angola's 'savage capitalism.'
Career timeline
- 1957Joined the independence movement
- 1961Deserted the Portuguese army, joined the MPLA
- 1971Secretary-General of the MPLA
- 1975–1980First Defence Minister of the People's Republic of Angola
- 1982Graduated from the Voroshilov General Staff Academy, first African officer to earn a general's diploma
- 1983–1986Commander of the People's Air Force of Angola
- 1987Ambassador to Algeria
The SACP leader who kept the revolutionary flame alive after laying down arms
“We are negotiating to create better conditions for socialism. I am a communist.” — Interview shortly before his assassination, 1993
General Secretary of the South African Communist Party and Chief of Staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, he led the left wing of the liberation movement from armed struggle through the turn to negotiations. His assassination by a far-right immigrant in 1993 nearly derailed South Africa's democratic transition, but instead galvanized the final agreement on the 1994 elections.
Career timeline
- 1957Joined ANC Youth League at age 15
- 1959–1961Studied English, Latin and classics at Fort Hare University
- 1961Joined the South African Communist Party
- 1962Joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)
- 1963Arrested; fled to Lesotho; adopted the name Chris
- 1967–1969Zimbabwean War of Liberation: joint MK-ZIPRA operations
- 1969Co-signed the 'Hani Memorandum' criticizing ANC/MK leadership
- 1974Elected to ANC National Executive Committee
- 1982MK Chief of Staff; directed guerrilla operations from Lusaka
- 1990Returned permanently to South Africa after ANC unbanning
- 1991.12Elected SACP General Secretary, succeeding Joe Slovo
- 1993.04.10Shot dead outside his Boksburg home by a far-right immigrant
