Five-time Socialist Party presidential candidate and pioneer of industrial railroad unionism
At his 1918 sentencing he declared: "While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
The most iconic figure of American socialism and a pioneer of industrial unionism. After leading the American Railway Union through the Pullman Strike of 1894, he embraced Marxism in prison and helped found the Socialist Party of America (1901) and the IWW (1905). He ran for president five times, winning 6.0% in 1912, and from an Atlanta prison cell in 1920 he won over 914,000 votes, the high-water mark of American socialist electoral politics.
Career timeline
- 1875Joined Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen
- 1880–1893BLF Grand Secretary-Treasurer & magazine editor
- 1885Indiana State Representative (Democrat)
- 1893–1897Founder & president, American Railway Union
- 1901Co-founder, Socialist Party of America
- 1905Founding member, Industrial Workers of the World
- 1900–1920Socialist Party presidential candidate (5 campaigns)
- 1919–1921Imprisoned, Atlanta Federal Penitentiary
US president whose Fourteen Points and League of Nations failed to win the Senate’s ratification
Born in Virginia, he was president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey before winning the presidency in 1912, and in his first year imposed racial segregation across the federal bureaucracy. In April 1917 he asked Congress to declare war over unrestricted submarine warfare, and in January 1918 set out the Fourteen Points, with a League of Nations and self-determination. At the Paris Peace Conference he presided over the drafting of the League Covenant but conceded much to the other powers to get it. A stroke in October 1919 incapacitated him, and his refusal of a compromise sank the Senate’s ratification of the treaty. The Palmer Raids of the Red Scare came in the same years. He received the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize and died in 1924.
Career timeline
- 1902–1910President of Princeton University
- 1911–1913Governor of New Jersey
- 1913–1921President of the United States
- 1918Announced the Fourteen Points
- 1919Paris Peace Conference; chaired the League Covenant committee
The American colonel who brought General Electric turbines and dam-building expertise to the Soviet Union's showcase construction site
At the 1932 Dneprostroi dedication: "The practical experience of American methods thus acquired will be a lever in raising the living standards of this country."
A self-taught dam engineer, Hugh Lincoln Cooper made his name by taming the Horseshoe Rapids at Niagara (1907) and spanning the Mississippi at Keokuk (1913), rising to become America's foremost hydroelectric builder. In 1926 the Soviet government invited him as chief consultant for Dneprostroi; he supplied General Electric turbines, supervised every phase of construction, and delivered Europe's largest power station eight months ahead of schedule in 1932. That September the USSR awarded Cooper and five other American engineers the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the first time the decoration went to a foreigner. He remained an anti-communist all his life, but without his dam there would have been no flagship achievement for the First Five-Year Plan.
Career timeline
- 1907Completed Toronto Power Generating Station, Horseshoe Rapids, Niagara
- 1913Completed Keokuk Dam and power plant, Mississippi River
- 1914Consultant, Aswan Dam power conversion (interrupted by WWI)
- 1917–1918Supervising engineer, US Army Corps of Engineers; colonel
- 1919Completed Lake Zumbro Hydroelectric Plant, Minnesota
- 1924Completed Wilson Dam, Alabama (later part of TVA)
- 1927–1932Chief consultant, Dneprostroi (DneproGES), USSR
- 1932Awarded Order of the Red Banner of Labour (first foreign recipient)
General who led the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia in 1918–1920 and kept it strictly neutral in the Russian Civil War
Born in Texas in 1865, the son of a Baptist minister, he graduated from West Point in 1889, fought in the Philippine–American War and served on the Army General Staff. In 1918 he was given the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia on the direct orders of President Wilson and reached Vladivostok in September. Ordered to stay strictly apolitical, he concentrated on keeping the railway running and on the evacuation of the Czechoslovak Legion, and refused pressure to help Kolchak’s Whites. He condemned the killing and robbery committed by the soldiers of Semyonov and Kalmykov and suspected Japan of planning to annex eastern Siberia. The last American soldiers left on 1 April 1920. He retired in 1928, wrote the memoir America’s Siberian Adventure, and died in New Jersey in 1940.
Career timeline
- 1889Graduated from West Point
- 1899–1902Served in the Philippine–American War
- 1909Assigned to the General Staff in Washington
- 1918Promoted brigadier general; commander of the 8th Division
- 1918–1920Commander of the American Expeditionary Force, Siberia
- 1928Retired from the army
An entomologist who carried scientific expertise into international relief
“Can we stop with feeding children alone while their natural protectors are allowed to die?”
Vernon Kellogg was an entomologist and science administrator whose work at Stanford advanced zoology and the institutionalization of scientific research in the United States. His wartime service with Herbert Hoover's relief work in Belgium brought him into postwar international humanitarian operations. After inspecting the Volga famine zone in 1921, he reported to Washington that relief could not be limited to children while their parents and other adults died, helping support the American Relief Administration's expansion. His career shows a scientific specialist becoming an agent of administrative and ethical judgment in the face of mass starvation.
Career timeline
- 1867–1894Raised in Kansas, he studied biology and entomology at the University of Kansas, Stanford University, and the University of Leipzig.
- 1894–1920Professor of zoology at Stanford, where he established the department and researched insect taxonomy and evolution.
- 1915–1916Directed the American Commission for Relief in Belgium, organizing aid for wartime refugees and civilians.
- 1917–1920Published on relief and war and continued supporting Hoover's food and international relief work.
- 1921.09As an ARA special investigator, accompanied the first food train and inspected the Volga famine zone.
- late 1921Briefed Hoover in Washington on the need to expand relief to adults as well as children.
- 1921–1933Served as the National Research Council's first permanent secretary and helped organize scientific research and public science.
"Capitalism cannot reform itself": father of the modern Negro liberation movement who joined the Communist Party at 93
"Communism will triumph. I want to help bring that day." — from his 1961 application to join the Communist Party USA, submitted at age 93
American sociologist, historian, Pan-Africanist, and the single most important African American intellectual of the 20th century. A co-founder of the NAACP, he edited its magazine The Crisis for 24 years, shaping the direction of the black civil rights movement, while his books The Souls of Black Folk and Black Reconstruction in America transformed American sociology and historiography. He viewed capitalism as the root cause of racism and pursued a synthesis of Marxism and Pan-Africanism. In 1961, at age 93, he joined the Communist Party USA; invited by Kwame Nkrumah, he settled in Ghana to begin work on the Encyclopedia Africana, and died there in 1963.
Career timeline
- 1895–1897Wilberforce University; University of Pennsylvania researcher, published The Philadelphia Negro (1899)
- 1897–1910Atlanta University professor; published The Souls of Black Folk (1903); founded Niagara Movement (1905)
- 1910–1934NAACP co-founder, editor of The Crisis; organized Pan-African Congresses
- 1934–1944Atlanta University professor; published Black Reconstruction in America (1935)
- 1944–1948NAACP Director of Special Research; attended UN founding conference
- 1950–1951Peace Information Center chair; indicted under FARA, acquitted
- 1961–1963Joined CPUSA; emigrated to Ghana, began Encyclopedia Africana
An American diplomat who pressed for free trade and international institutions
On November 26, 1941, he delivered the Outline of Proposed Basis for Agreement Between the United States and Japan to the Japanese ambassador.
Cordell Hull was a Democratic politician and diplomat who helped shape U.S. free-trade policy and a multilateral international order. He promoted lower trade barriers and the Good Neighbor policy in the 1930s, while often working in tension with Franklin D. Roosevelt, who retained final control over foreign policy. In the 1941 negotiations with Japan, Hull delivered the November 26 Outline of Proposed Basis for Agreement, the last major diplomatic document before the Pacific War. Afterward, his work for the United Nations earned him the 1945 Nobel Peace Prize.
Career timeline
- 1893–1897Member, Tennessee House of Representatives
- 1907–1921U.S. Representative
- 1921–1924Chairman, Democratic National Committee
- 1923–1931U.S. Representative
- 1931–1933U.S. Senator from Tennessee
- 1933–1944United States Secretary of State
- 1945Delegate, United Nations Conference on International Organization
Master of famine relief and the 31st president, broken by the Great Depression
'Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!', Hoover's reply when asked whether feeding Russia would not help Bolshevism.
A mining engineer who made a vast fortune, Hoover built his public fame on famine relief across two world wars before becoming the 31st president of the United States in 1929. During the First World War he headed the Commission for Relief in Belgium and the U.S. Food Administration ('food czar') in feeding millions, and after the war he refashioned the American Relief Administration (ARA) into a private body directing relief across Eastern Europe and Russia. When famine struck the Volga in 1921 he answered Gorky's appeal at once and personally drove the Riga agreement, securing the ARA's autonomy in distribution and Soviet gold payments and feeding more than ten million people a day at the operation's peak. He struggled as president amid the Great Depression but remained active in retirement, chairing reform commissions for the Truman and Eisenhower administrations.
Career timeline
- 1874Born into a Quaker family in West Branch, Iowa
- 1895Graduated from Stanford; made a fortune as a mining engineer in China, Australia and beyond
- 1914–1919Chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, feeding occupied Belgium
- 1917–1919Director of the U.S. Food Administration, celebrated as the 'food czar'
- 1919–1923Director of the American Relief Administration, leading relief in Eastern Europe and Russia
- 1921.08.20Conclusion of the Riga agreement, setting the terms of Volga famine relief
- 1921–1928Secretary of Commerce
- 1929–193331st president; lost reelection amid the Great Depression
The five-star chief of staff who warned Roosevelt the Yalta Poland deal was 'so elastic' it could stretch from Yalta to Washington
Leahy told Roosevelt: 'This is so elastic that the Russians can stretch it all the way from Yalta to Washington without ever technically breaking it.' Roosevelt answered: 'I know, Bill, but it is the best I can do for Poland at this time.'
William Leahy was a Fleet Admiral of the US Navy who served as Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman during World War II, functioning as the de facto first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. After serving as CNO, Governor of Puerto Rico and Ambassador to Vichy France, he was recalled in 1942 and spent the war coordinating Allied grand strategy as the nation's most senior officer. At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, he read the Poland agreement and told Roosevelt: 'This is so elastic that the Russians can stretch it all the way from Yalta to Washington without ever technically breaking it.' Roosevelt replied, 'I know, Bill, but it is the best I can do for Poland at this time.' Though he later condemned the atomic bomb, he did not oppose its use at the time; after the war he rejected plans that relied on nuclear first use.
Career timeline
- 1875Born in Hampton, Iowa, the son of Irish immigrants
- 1897Graduated from the Naval Academy; served on USS Oregon in the Spanish-American War
- 1927–1931Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance; first of his Academy class to reach flag rank
- 1937–1939Chief of Naval Operations; oversaw fleet expansion and war preparations
- 1939–1940Governor of Puerto Rico; developed military bases and New Deal public works
- 1940–1942Ambassador to Vichy France; failed to restrain Pétain's collaboration with Germany
- 1942–1949Chief of Staff to the President and de facto JCS chair; attended Yalta and Potsdam
- 1950Published his war memoir, I Was There
An international relief commander amid famine
In October 1921, Haskell cabled Hoover that starvation would peak in winter and strike sixteen million people.
William N. Haskell was a U.S. Army officer who combined military command with postwar international relief administration. Appointed by Herbert Hoover, he directed the American Relief Administration’s operations in Soviet Russia from 1921 to 1923, organizing the large-scale distribution of food and medical supplies during the famine. His task required negotiating both the controls and the cooperation of Bolshevik officials while sustaining the speed and administrative accountability of relief. He later held senior commands in the New York National Guard and directed civilian-defense work, extending his career across military and state administration.
Career timeline
- 1901Graduated from West Point; cavalry officer
- 1905Graduated from the Army Staff College
- 1906–1907Served in U.S. operations in the Philippines
- 1916–1917Temporary colonel, 69th New York Infantry
- 1918–1919Field artillery with the AEF; temporary colonel and Distinguished Service Medal recipient
- 1919–1921Chief of the ARA Armenia Mission
- 1921–1923Director for Russia, ARA; directed famine relief
- 1926–1940Major general and commander of the New York National Guard
- 1944–1945Director of the U.S. Office of Civilian Defense
The relief administrator who turned aid into diplomacy
On August 20, 1921, he signed the Riga agreement as the American Relief Administration's Director for Europe.
Walter Lyman Brown was a relief administrator and practical diplomat who handled European operations for Herbert Hoover's American Relief Administration after the First World War. As famine deepened in 1921, he negotiated in Riga with Maxim Litvinov, securing the terms under which the ARA could enter Soviet Russia and reach famine-stricken areas. The agreement presented aid as humanitarian action, but also embodied a compromise between American anti-Bolshevism and the Soviet government's demands for control and sovereignty.
Career timeline
- 1919–1921Director for Europe, American Relief Administration
- 1921.08American signatory to the Riga agreement
- 1921–1923European coordination of Russian relief operations
- 1921.12American signatory to the Riga implementation agreement
- 1923Participated in the conclusion of ARA operations in Russia
The only American to head the Army, the State Department, and the Pentagon, organizer of Allied victory and architect of the Marshall Plan
At Harvard's commencement on June 5, 1947, Marshall received an honorary degree and delivered a speech of under 1,200 words — barely twelve minutes — sketching a recovery plan directed 'against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.'
Marshall was the only American to serve as Army Chief of Staff (1939–45), Secretary of State (1947–49), and Secretary of Defense (1950–51): the 'organizer of victory' who presided over the fortyfold expansion of the U.S. Army. At Harvard on June 5, 1947, he proposed a massive aid program to reverse Europe's economic collapse and contain Soviet pressure; the Marshall Plan channeled $13 billion over four years, stabilizing Western Europe's industrial base and currencies while reshaping U.S. Cold War strategy. As Secretary of State he clashed openly with Truman over the recognition of Israel, and as Defense Secretary during the Korean War he approved MacArthur's dismissal, reasserting civilian control of the military. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953, the only career soldier ever to do so.
Career timeline
- 1880Born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the youngest child of a coal and coke businessman
- 1902Graduated VMI, commissioned 2nd lieutenant, posted to the Philippines
- 1917–1918WWI: planned the Cantigny and Meuse-Argonne offensives as 1st Division G-3
- 1939–1945Army Chief of Staff: expanded the Army from 189,000 to 8 million, directed Allied strategy
- 1945.12–1947.01Special envoy to China; failed to broker a Nationalist-Communist coalition
- 1947–1949Secretary of State: launched the Marshall Plan and pushed for NATO's creation
- 1950–1951Secretary of Defense during the Korean War; approved MacArthur's relief and rebuilt the Pentagon
- 1953Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
The physician who organized medical relief amid famine
Beeuwkes recorded famine relief not only as feeding kitchens, but as the restoration of hospitals and sanitary networks.
Henry Beeuwkes was an American physician and public-health administrator who treated international relief as a problem of clinical care and sanitary organization. As medical director of the American Relief Administration in Russia from 1921 to 1923, he coordinated hospital support, medical supplies, vaccination, and epidemic response alongside food distribution. His 1926 account documented how famine relief extended beyond feeding kitchens into the repair of medical and sanitary services. He later worked in yellow-fever research and military medical administration.
Career timeline
- 1909Joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps
- 1917–1918Served as a military physician on the French front in World War I
- 1921–1923Medical Director for Russia, American Relief Administration
- 1925–1927Led the Rockefeller Foundation West Africa Yellow Fever Commission
- 1926Published American Medical and Sanitary Relief in the Russian Famine, 1921–1923
- 1942–1945Commanding officer of Valley Forge General Hospital
UN commander who conceived the Inchon landing and overruled the unanimous opposition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
"There is no substitute for victory": farewell address to Congress, 19 April 1951.
Douglas MacArthur was an American five-star general who led the Allied forces to victory in the Pacific War and governed occupied Japan as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. Appointed commander of UN forces after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, he conceived and drove through the Inchon landing against the unanimous opposition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reversing the course of the war. When China entered the war, MacArthur pressed for an expanded campaign including bombing Manchuria, clashing openly with the Truman administration and leading to his dramatic dismissal in April 1951. His removal remains the Cold War's sharpest constitutional confrontation over civilian control of the military.
Career timeline
- 1930–1935Chief of Staff, U.S. Army
- 1935–1941Field Marshal and Military Advisor, Philippine Army
- 1941–1945Commander, U.S. Army Forces Far East / Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area
- 1945–1951Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Japan
- 1950–1951Commander, United Nations Command, Korean War
- 1952–1964Chairman, Remington Rand
Free-trade champion who built the world's largest cotton firm, then set the Marshall Plan in motion with his memo on Europe's collapse
In his memo to Secretary Marshall on May 27, 1947, Clayton wrote: 'Without further prompt and substantial aid from the United States, economic, social and political disintegration will overwhelm Europe.'
Clayton left school at thirteen and rose from stenographer to build Anderson, Clayton & Company into the world's largest cotton trading firm. A Democratic free-trader, he was named Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in 1944 and Under Secretary in 1946; returning from Europe in May 1947, he sent George Marshall his memo 'The European Crisis,' warning that 'without further prompt and substantial aid from the United States, economic, social and political disintegration will overwhelm Europe.' The memo became the direct catalyst for the Marshall Plan announcement, and Charles Bohlen drew heavily on Clayton's language when drafting the speech. In retirement he championed free trade and Atlantic alliance, co-founding the Atlantic Council with Christian Herter in 1961.
Career timeline
- 1880Born on a cotton farm near Tupelo, Mississippi
- 1904Co-founded Anderson, Clayton & Company in Oklahoma City as a cotton brokerage
- 1916Moved headquarters to Houston; firm grew into the world's largest cotton trader
- 1918Served on the Cotton Distribution Committee of the War Industries Board
- 1940–1944Served successively with the RFC, Export-Import Bank, and Surplus War Property Administration
- 1944–1946Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs; economic adviser at the Potsdam Conference
- 1946–1947Under Secretary for Economic Affairs; his 'European Crisis' memo catalyzed the Marshall Plan
- 1961Co-founded the Atlantic Council with Christian Herter
From leading the Great Steel Strike of 1919 to longest-serving leader of American communism
“The only party that genuinely represents the interests of the workers is the revolutionary party.” — Pages from a Worker's Life, 1939
From leading the Great Steel Strike of 1919 to becoming the CPUSA's longest-serving leader. He rebuilt the party after Browder dissolved it in 1944 and authored major Marxist histories including History of the Communist Party of the United States.
Career timeline
- 1901Joins Socialist Party of America
- 1909Joins the IWW; Spokane free-speech fight
- 1912Founds the Syndicalist League of North America
- 1917–1918Organizes Chicago packinghouse workers; wins 8-hour day
- 1919Leads the Great Steel Strike of 250,000 workers
- 1920Founds the Trade Union Educational League
- 1921Joins Communist Party after 3rd Comintern Congress
- 1924First presidential campaign on Communist ticket
- 1929Becomes CPUSA Chairman; founds the TUUL
- 1935Elected to ECCI Presidium
- 1944–1945Fights Browder's dissolution; rebuilds CPUSA as General Secretary
- 1948Indicted under Smith Act; trial postponed
- 1957Retires as CPUSA Chairman Emeritus
- 1961Dies in Moscow; state funeral in Red Square
The only four-term president, who carried America through depression and war and spent his last strength at Yalta
Returning from Yalta, Roosevelt addressed Congress on March 1, 1945 seated — the first time he publicly conceded to the disability he had hidden all his public life.
Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States, the only one elected to four terms, who led the country through the Great Depression and the Second World War. His New Deal redefined the role of the federal government, and after Pearl Harbor he drove the Allied war effort under a Europe-first strategy. At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, already gravely weakened by congestive heart failure and hypertension, he staked his personal diplomacy with Stalin on two overriding goals: Soviet entry into the Pacific war and the founding of the United Nations. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage two months later, and his Yalta agreements (praised for securing the UN and criticized for conceding Eastern Europe) remained a flashpoint of Cold War historiography.
Career timeline
- 1882Born into the wealthy Roosevelt and Delano families in Hyde Park, New York
- 1913–1920Assistant Secretary of the Navy, drove naval expansion during the First World War
- 1921Diagnosed with polio, permanently paralyzed from the waist down
- 1929–1932Governor of New York, pioneered unemployment relief during the Depression
- 1933–194532nd president, led the New Deal and the US war effort
- 1943.11Met Stalin for the first time at the Tehran Conference
- 1945.02.04–11Yalta Conference: secured Soviet entry into the Pacific war and the UN Security Council framework
- 1945.04.12Died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Warm Springs, Georgia
Roosevelt's "assistant president" who, as Secretary of State, designed the Potsdam reparations compromise
After Byrnes took the oath as Secretary of State, Truman said, "Jimmy, kiss the Bible." Byrnes did so, then handed it back to the President and told him to kiss it too. Truman did, as the room laughed.
James F. Byrnes was a Democratic politician from South Carolina who, as senator, steered New Deal legislation through Congress; as director of war mobilization, earned the nickname "assistant president"; and as Truman's Secretary of State, designed the reparations framework at Potsdam. At Potsdam, Byrnes negotiated the compromise with Molotov whereby each occupying power would extract reparations from its own zone, while the USSR would receive 15% of western-zone industrial equipment in exchange for food and raw materials and an additional 10% without payment. Passed over as Roosevelt's running mate in 1944 and later sidelined by Truman as their relationship soured, Byrnes returned to elective politics as governor of South Carolina, where he championed "separate but equal" schooling against desegregation.
Career timeline
- 1911–1925U.S. Representative, South Carolina
- 1931–1941U.S. Senator, South Carolina
- 1941–1942Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
- 1942–1943Director, Office of Economic Stabilization
- 1943–1945Director, Office of War Mobilization
- 1945–1947U.S. Secretary of State
- 1951–1955Governor of South Carolina
The 33rd president who framed the Cold War with the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
On his Oval Office desk sat a sign reading 'The buck stops here,' and from the atomic bomb to MacArthur's dismissal, he lived by it.
Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, who succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt and ordered the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. In March 1947 he declared the Truman Doctrine (that 'it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures') and in April 1948 he signed the Marshall Plan into law, building the institutional framework for Western Europe's reconstruction and the containment of Soviet power. When North Korea invaded the South in 1950, he led the UN military response and later fired General Douglas MacArthur, reasserting civilian control of the military at the cost of his own popularity. Widely reviled at the end of his presidency, Truman was posthumously rehabilitated as a 'near great' president whose Cold War architecture outlasted the Soviet Union.
Career timeline
- 1884Born in Lamar, Missouri, the son of a farmer and livestock dealer
- 1917–1918WWI: captain commanding an artillery battery in France
- 1935–1945US Senator from Missouri; chaired the Truman Committee on wartime waste
- 1945.01–04Vice President; succeeded to the presidency on Roosevelt's death, April 12
- 1945–195333rd president: atomic bombs, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO, Korean War
- 1947.03.12Declared the Truman Doctrine, requesting aid for Greece and Turkey
- 1948.04.03Signed the Economic Cooperation Act, launching the Marshall Plan
- 1951.04.11Fired General Douglas MacArthur over Korean War strategy
An aggressive commander of mobile warfare and military deception
In Fortitude South in 1944, Patton became the public face of a nonexistent First U.S. Army Group, staging a threat toward Calais.
George S. Patton was a U.S. Army general who emphasized armored mobility and aggressive offensive operations. He demonstrated strong battlefield leadership in North Africa and Sicily, yet repeated controversy over striking soldiers and inflammatory statements damaged his command standing. In Fortitude South in 1944, he was presented as commander of the fictitious First U.S. Army Group, helping persuade Germany that Calais was the real invasion target and keeping reserves away from Normandy after D-Day. He later led the Third Army across France and into Germany, but after the war was removed as military governor of Bavaria for anti-Soviet statements and criticism of denazification.
Career timeline
- 1909Second lieutenant, U.S. Army Cavalry
- 1916Served in the Pancho Villa Expedition and as Pershing's aide
- 1917–1918Organized and commanded the tank school in France; commanded the 304th Tank Brigade
- 1942Commanded the Western Task Force in Operation Torch, landing in North Africa
- 1943Commanded the U.S. Seventh Army in the Sicily campaign
- 1944Presented as commander of the fictitious First U.S. Army Group in Fortitude South
- 1944–1945Commanded the U.S. Third Army in the advance through France and Germany
- 1945Military governor of Bavaria; later commanded the U.S. Fifteenth Army
The admiral who reorganized Pacific power through intelligence and mobility
After becoming convinced of Japan's target, he concentrated available forces for the defense at Midway.
Chester W. Nimitz was a U.S. Navy admiral who rose from submarine and logistics specialist to command the Allied maritime war in the Pacific. Made commander of the Pacific Fleet after Pearl Harbor in 1941, he combined intercepted Japanese communications with operational judgment, concentrated available forces at Midway, and approved the command structure for the Guadalcanal counteroffensive. His leadership converted American superiority in intelligence, matériel, and mobility into sustained operations, while leaving intact the immense human cost of island warfare and blockade. As Chief of Naval Operations after the war, he oversaw demobilization while backing the transition to nuclear-powered submarines.
Career timeline
- 1905Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and entered the Navy
- 1917–1918Chief of staff, Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet
- 1939–1941Chief of the Bureau of Navigation
- 1941–1945Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas
- 1942Deployed forces for Midway and approved the command structure for the Guadalcanal counteroffensive
- 1944Appointed fleet admiral, the U.S. Navy's highest rank
- 1945–1947Chief of Naval Operations
- 1947–1966Remained on active duty as fleet admiral, advising the Navy and supporting postwar U.S.-Japan reconciliation
The American journalist who chronicled the Russian and Chinese revolutions from the inside, founder of Moscow News
"We are undertaking the most tremendous move ever made by labor in this country, a move which will lead — NO ONE KNOWS WHERE!" — editorial on the eve of the Seattle General Strike, 1919
American left-wing journalist and communist. After earning a Chicago PhD, she covered the Seattle General Strike (1919), moved to the USSR in 1921, and co-founded Moscow News (1930). In 1946 she interviewed Mao Zedong in Yan'an, drawing the famous 'paper tigers' declaration. Expelled from the USSR as a spy in 1949, she was rehabilitated in 1955 and settled in China as an honoured 'foreign friend,' chronicling Mao's China through the Cultural Revolution. With over 30 books, she was an unmatched eyewitness to the century's great communist revolutions.
Career timeline
- 1885Born in Friend, Nebraska, daughter of a progressive Congregationalist minister
- 1908PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago — dissertation: The Social Psychology of Prayer
- 1916–1918Elected to Seattle School Board; recalled for supporting the IWW and opposing WWI
- 1919Editor, Seattle Union Record; covered the Seattle General Strike from the inside
- 1921Travelled to USSR with AFSC famine relief; settled as Moscow correspondent for International News Service
- 1930Co-founded and edited Moscow News, the USSR's first English-language newspaper
- 1931Married Soviet agronomist Joel Shubin (d. 1942)
- 1937–1938War reporting from the Spanish Civil War and China's anti-Japanese base areas
- 1946Interviewed Mao Zedong in Yan'an; recorded the famous 'paper tigers' remark
- 1949Arrested by Soviet authorities, expelled as an 'American spy'; rehabilitated in 1955
- 1958–1970Settled permanently in China; honoured as a 'foreign friend' of Mao and Zhou Enlai
- 1970Died of a heart attack in Beijing; memorial attended by Zhou Enlai and Guo Moruo
An operational commander of the carrier age
At the Coral Sea, he forced the Port Moresby invasion force to withdraw.
Frank Jack Fletcher was a United States Navy admiral who commanded carrier task forces in the Pacific War. In the Coral Sea he helped stop Japan’s advance toward Port Moresby, and at Midway he was the tactical commander when American forces sank four Japanese carriers. His cautious handling of scarce carriers preserved naval power, while his withdrawal during the Guadalcanal landings remained a subject of debate.
Career timeline
- 1902–1906Midshipman, U.S. Naval Academy
- 1914Served at Veracruz, awarded the Medal of Honor
- 1918–1919Commanding officer, destroyers Benham and Gridley
- 1933–1936Aide to the Secretary of the Navy
- 1939–1941Commander, cruiser divisions, rear admiral
- 1942.01–05Commander, Task Force 17, Battle of the Coral Sea
- 1942.06Officer in tactical command, Battle of Midway
- 1942–1945Commander of U.S. naval forces in the North Pacific
A cool-headed carrier commander at Midway
“Calm, collected, decisive, yet receptive to advice; ... boldly seizing every opening.”
Raymond Spruance was a United States Navy admiral who directed carrier operations in the Pacific during the Second World War. At Midway in 1942, he commanded Task Force 16, built around Enterprise and Hornet, and played a central role in the destruction of four Japanese fleet carriers. Known for measured decisions and calm command, he later led the Naval War College and served as ambassador to the Philippines.
Career timeline
- 1907Graduated from the United States Naval Academy
- 1913–1922Commanded destroyers and served with the Pacific Fleet
- 1935–1938Instructor at the Naval War College
- 1938–1939Commanding officer of USS Mississippi
- 1942Commanded Task Force 16 at the Battle of Midway
- 1943–1945Commander of the Central Pacific Force and Fifth Fleet
- 1946–1948President of the Naval War College
- 1952–1955United States ambassador to the Philippines
