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- President John F. Kennedy met with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna on June 3, 1961. The summit was held at the Soviet Embassy. Secretary of State Dean Rusk accompanied Kennedy, while Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko accompanied Khrushchev. The two leaders discussed the Berlin crisis, nuclear testing, and Laos. Kennedy later told New York Times reporter James Reston that it was the "roughest thing in my life." The Vienna summit is considered a pivotal moment in Cold War diplomacy.
NASA administrator James Webb oversaw the Apollo program from 1961 to 1968. The program launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Chief engineer Wernher von Braun designed the Saturn V rocket at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Flight Director Chris Kraft managed Mission Control in Houston, Texas. Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962, aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft.
General Douglas MacArthur commanded United Nations forces during the Korean War. He was dismissed by President Harry Truman in April 1951 after publicly disagreeing with the administration's limited war strategy. General Matthew Ridgway replaced MacArthur as commander. Secretary of Defense George Marshall supported Truman's decision. MacArthur addressed a joint session of Congress upon his return to Washington, delivering his famous "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech.
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger negotiated the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973, ending American involvement in Vietnam. North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Kissinger, though Tho refused the award. President Richard Nixon announced the agreement from the White House. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker had served as the senior American diplomat in Saigon throughout the negotiations.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover maintained surveillance files on Martin Luther King Jr. from 1963 through 1968 in Washington DC. Assistant Director William Sullivan ran the COINTELPRO domestic intelligence program. Attorney General Robert Kennedy initially authorized the wiretaps on King's phones. King's advisor Stanley Levison was suspected of Communist Party connections. The surveillance expanded after King's "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington.
CIA Director Allen Dulles authorized Operation Ajax in Iran in 1953, working with British intelligence agency MI6. Kermit Roosevelt Jr., Theodore Roosevelt's grandson, led the covert operation from Tehran. Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh was overthrown and replaced by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden coordinated with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Allen's brother. The operation restored Western access to Iranian oil.
Admiral Chester Nimitz commanded the Pacific Fleet from Pearl Harbor during World War II against the Imperial Japanese Navy. Admiral Raymond Spruance led the fleet at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Admiral William Halsey commanded the Third Fleet in the Philippines campaign. Intelligence officer Joseph Rochefort's codebreaking unit at Station Hypo provided crucial signals intelligence before Midway.
Senator Joseph McCarthy held hearings in the United States Senate investigating alleged Communist infiltration of the Army in 1954. Army counsel Joseph Welch famously challenged McCarthy during the hearings. Edward R. Murrow's CBS television program "See It Now" broadcast critical coverage. McCarthy's chief counsel Roy Cohn managed the investigation. The Senate voted to censure McCarthy in December 1954.
Ambassador George Kennan authored the Long Telegram from Moscow in February 1946, shaping American containment policy toward the Soviet Union. Secretary of State James Byrnes received the telegram at the State Department. Kennan later published the ideas as the "X Article" in Foreign Affairs magazine, edited by Hamilton Fish Armstrong. President Truman adopted containment as the foundation of the Truman Doctrine announced in March 1947.
General Dwight Eisenhower served as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe before becoming President of the United States in 1953. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery commanded ground forces under Eisenhower during D-Day on June 6, 1944. General Omar Bradley led American ground forces. Chief of Staff George Marshall coordinated strategy from Washington. Eisenhower later served as NATO's first Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
Secretary Robert McNamara directed the Pentagon during the escalation of the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Deputy Secretary Cyrus Vance assisted McNamara. General Maxwell Taylor served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. McNamara's "Whiz Kids" analysts applied systems analysis to military planning. The Pentagon Papers later revealed McNamara's private doubts about the war.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his Iron Curtain speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946. President Harry Truman introduced Churchill and sat on the platform during the address. Churchill warned that "from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin denounced the speech as warmongering.
Director of Central Intelligence George H.W. Bush led the CIA from January 1976 to January 1977 before becoming Vice President. President Gerald Ford appointed Bush after the Church Committee investigations exposed CIA abuses. Deputy Director Vernon Walters assisted Bush. The CIA was reorganized under Executive Order 11905, signed by Ford. Bush later became the 41st President of the United States in 1989.
Ambassador Adlai Stevenson confronted Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin at the United Nations Security Council during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. President Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, conducted secret negotiations with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy chaired the Executive Committee meetings at the White House.
General George Patton commanded the Third Army across France and into Germany during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. General Omar Bradley commanded the 12th Army Group above Patton. Eisenhower served as Supreme Commander. Patton's intelligence officer Colonel Oscar Koch provided early warnings of the German counteroffensive. Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt commanded the German forces in the Ardennes.
Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 1949, after defeating Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists. Premier Zhou Enlai served as Foreign Minister. General Lin Biao commanded the forces that captured Manchuria. Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan with the remnants of the Kuomintang government. Ambassador Leighton Stuart was the last American envoy in Nanjing.
President Richard Nixon visited Chairman Mao in Beijing in February 1972, accompanied by National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. Secretary of State William Rogers was largely excluded from the secret preparations. Premier Zhou Enlai hosted the American delegation. The Shanghai Communiqué was issued at the end of the visit. Ambassador Arthur Burns monitored the diplomatic impact from Tokyo.
British Agent Kim Philby defected to Moscow in 1963 after being exposed as a double agent working for the Soviet KGB. Fellow Cambridge spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean had defected earlier in 1951. MI5 officer Arthur Martin led the investigation. CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton had maintained a close friendship with Philby. Anthony Blunt was later revealed as the Fourth Man.