Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand
1754-1838
French Statesman
An excommunicated bishop Talleyrand became an extraordinary diplomat, serving first as Foreign Minister during the French Revolution and later under Napoleon until resigning in 1807. Then he intrigued with Tsar Alexander for Napoleon's defeat, and in 1814 became Foreign Minister to Louis XVIII.
At the Congress of Vienna he secured favourable terms for France. In
1830-4 he served as French ambassador to England.
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Biography
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Tecumseh
1768-1813
Indian Chief
The Shawnee chief Tecumseh (b. on Mad River, Ohio) organized a defensive confederacy of Indian tribes.
At that time, Harrison, governor of the Indiana territory, induced a number of individual tribes to give up great areas in the region that is now Indiana and Illinois.
At a council in Vincennes in 1810, Tecumseh demanded that land be returned to the Indians. After this demand was rejected he traveled to the Southwest to enlist support of Indian tribes.
When the War of 1812
broke out, Tecumseh joined the British as a brigadier general. He was killed at the battle of the
Thames in Ontario in 1813.
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Biography
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Josip Broz Tito
1892-1980
Yugoslav Statesman
Tito led Communist resistance to German occupation of Yugoslavia
1941-5 and established in 1945 the Federal People's Republic with
Soviet support.
In 1948 he broke with the USSR to pursue a neutralist
foreign policy and an independent version of Communism. He became
President of Yugoslavia in 1953.
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Biography
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Hideki Tojo
1884-1948
Japanese General
After a military career Tojo became Vice-Minister (1938-9), and
Minister of War (1940-4).
He was the leading member of the war faction in Japan and as Prime Minister (1941-4) he was responsible for the war in the Pacific. He resigned after the fall of Saipan.
After the war he was tried
by the Tokyo War Crimes Court, and found guilty and hanged.
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Biography
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Harry S. Truman
1884-1972
US President
Truman entered politics as county judge and in 1935 became US Senator.
He became Vice-President in 1944, succeeding as President after the death
of Roosevelt in 1945.
He ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; enunciated the Truman Doctrine (1948) on the 'containment' of the Soviet Union; inaugurated the Marshall Plan for the economic recovery of Western Europe; and supported the formation of NATO.
In 1950 he ordered the US engagement in Korea. In the course of the war he dismissed General MacArthur because of the laters desire to extend the war into China.
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Biography