Post-WWII
66 leaders
Harry S Truman
The thirty third President who made some of the momentous decisions in history. Truman authorized the atomic b...
Dwight D Eisenhower
The thirty fourth President and Supreme Allied Commander during World War II. Eisenhower planned and commanded...
John F Kennedy
The thirty fifth President and first Catholic to hold the office. JFKs presidency was marked by the Cuban Miss...
Lyndon B Johnson
The thirty sixth President who succeeded Kennedy and passed the most sweeping domestic legislation since the N...
Richard Nixon
The thirty seventh President, the only one to resign from office. Nixons presidency saw the opening of relatio...
Gerald Ford
The thirty eighth President and the only one never elected as president or vice president. Ford was appointed ...
Jimmy Carter
The thirty ninth President who has had the longest and most active post presidency in American history. Carter...
Margaret Thatcher
The first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the longest serving of the 20th century. Thatcher tr...
Clement Attlee
The Labour Prime Minister who defeated Churchill in 1945 and created the modern British welfare state. Attlees...
Charles de Gaulle
The founder of the French Fifth Republic and its first President. De Gaulle led the Free French forces during ...
Konrad Adenauer
The first Chancellor of West Germany, serving from 1949 to 1963. Adenauer was 73 when he took office and gover...
Willy Brandt
The Social Democratic Chancellor who transformed German foreign policy through Ostpolitik, seeking reconciliat...
Mao Zedong
The founder of the Peoples Republic of China. Mao led the Communist Party to victory in the Chinese Civil War ...
Deng Xiaoping
The leader who transformed Chinas economy through market oriented reforms while maintaining Communist Party co...
Jawaharlal Nehru
The first Prime Minister of independent India, serving from 1947 to 1964. Nehru was a secular socialist who sh...
Fidel Castro
The Cuban revolutionary who established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere. Castro overthrew ...
Lee Kuan Yew
The founding father of modern Singapore. Lee led Singapore from a small British colony to one of the wealthies...
Golda Meir
The fourth Prime Minister of Israel and the worlds third female head of government. Meir was born in Kiev and ...
Barry Goldwater
The conservative Republican who lost the 1964 presidential election to Lyndon Johnson in a landslide. Goldwate...
Harold Wilson
The Labour Prime Minister who served two split terms from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976. Wilson was a brillian...
Edward Heath
The Conservative Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974. Heaths greatest achievement was taking Britain into the Eur...
Georges Pompidou
The second President of the Fifth Republic. Pompidou was previously De Gaulles Prime Minister. His presidency ...
Valerie Giscard dEstaing
The third President of the Fifth Republic. Giscard modernized French society by legalizing abortion, lowering ...
Nikita Khrushchev
The Soviet leader who attempted to de Staliize the USSR. Khrushchevs Secret Speech in 1956 denounced Stalins c...
Leonid Brezhnev
The Soviet leader during the era of stagnation. Brezhnev governed from 1964 to 1982, the second longest tenure...
Jawaharlal Nehru Detail
See Nehru main entry. Nehrus Non Aligned Movement positioned India between the US and Soviet blocs. He founded...
Indira Gandhi
The first and only female Prime Minister of India. Daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi was a powerful and con...
Juan Peron
The Argentine president who founded the Peronist movement. Peron and his wife Eva Duarte (Evita) created a pow...
Kwame Nkrumah
The first Prime Minister and President of independent Ghana, and the first leader of a sub Saharan African nat...
Jomo Kenyatta
The first President of independent Kenya. Kenyatta led Kenya to independence from Britain in 1963. He had been...
Muammar Gaddafi
The Libyan dictator who ruled for 42 years after seizing power in a military coup. Gaddafi nationalized Libyas...
Saddam Hussein
The Iraqi dictator who ruled through terror for 24 years. Saddam invaded Iran in 1980, starting an eight year ...
Queen Elizabeth II
The longest reigning British monarch, serving for over 70 years from 1952 to 2022. Elizabeth oversaw the trans...
Pol Pot
The Cambodian dictator responsible for one of the worst genocides in history. Pol Pots Khmer Rouge regime kill...
Pierre Trudeau
One of the most influential Canadian Prime Ministers, serving from 1968 to 1979 and 1980 to 1984. Trudeau patr...
Gough Whitlam
The Labour Prime Minister whose brief, transformative government from 1972 to 1975 ended 23 years of Liberal r...
Sardar Patel
The Iron Man of India who unified the nation after independence. Patel was Nehrus deputy but was more conserva...
Julius Nyerere
The first President of Tanzania, known as Mwalimu or teacher. Nyerere was a committed socialist who implemente...
Patrice Lumumba
The first Prime Minister of independent Congo, who was assassinated after just months in office. Lumumba was a...
Salvador Allende
The first democratically elected Marxist president in the Americas. Allendes socialist reforms included nation...
Augusto Pinochet
The Chilean military dictator who ruled from 1973 to 1990. Pinochet overthrew Salvador Allende in a violent co...
Sukarno
The founding President of Indonesia and leader of the independence movement against Dutch colonial rule. Sukar...
Suharto
The Indonesian President who governed for 31 years from 1967 to 1998. Suharto came to power after a coup attem...
Kim Il-sung
The founding leader of North Korea who ruled from 1948 to 1994. Kim Il-sung established a totalitarian communi...
Ruhollah Khomeini
The founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Khomeini led the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew the US ba...
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
The founder of Pakistan, known as Quaid-e-Azam or Great Leader. Jinnah was a brilliant lawyer who initially ad...
Olof Palme
The Swedish Prime Minister assassinated in 1986. Palme was a prominent international figure who opposed the Vi...
Eva Peron
The First Lady of Argentina known as Evita, who became more beloved than her husband Juan Peron. Evita came fr...
Ho Chi Minh
The Vietnamese communist leader who led the independence movement against France and the struggle against the ...
Ferdinand Marcos
The Philippine dictator who ruled from 1965 to 1986, including 14 years under martial law. Marcos and his wife...
Harold Macmillan
The Conservative Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963, known as Supermac. Macmillan famously told the British peop...
Clement Attlee Detail
See Attlee main entry. Attlee was so quiet that Churchill remarked that an empty taxi arrived at 10 Downing St...
Gough Whitlam Detail
See Whitlam main entry. The dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975 by Governor General John Kerr remains ...
Pierre Trudeau Detail
See Trudeau main entry. Trudeau was the most flamboyant Canadian leader, dating celebrities including Kim Catt...
Park Chung-hee
The South Korean military dictator who ruled from 1961 to 1979. Park seized power in a military coup and gover...
Daniel arap Moi
The second President of Kenya, who ruled for 24 years from 1978 to 2002. Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta and initi...
Alexander Dubcek
The Czechoslovak leader who attempted to create socialism with a human face. Dubceks Prague Spring reforms in ...
Gamal Abdel Nasser
The Egyptian President who was the foremost Arab leader of the 20th century. Nasser overthrew the monarchy in ...
Adolfo Suarez
The Spanish Prime Minister who guided the transition from Franco dictatorship to democracy. Suarez was chosen ...
Urho Kekkonen
The Finnish President who served for 25 years from 1956 to 1981. Kekkonen defined Finnish foreign policy durin...
Margaret Thatcher Detail
See Thatcher main entry. She was a grocers daughter from Grantham who became the most dominant peacetime prime...
Konrad Adenauer Detail
See Adenauer main entry. He was 73 when he became Chancellor and served until 87. Adenauer was mayor of Cologn...
Willy Brandt Detail
See Brandt main entry. His spontaneous kneefall at the Warsaw Ghetto Monument in 1970 was a powerful gesture o...
Lee Kuan Yew Detail
See Lee Kuan Yew main entry. He was called Harry by friends, reflecting his English education at Cambridge. Le...
Anwar Sadat
The Egyptian President who made peace with Israel and paid with his life. Sadat succeeded Nasser in 1970. He l...
Hafez al-Assad
The Syrian dictator who ruled from 1971 to 2000. Assad was an air force general who seized power in a coup. He...