Forgotten Great Leaders of
world
Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao
The role model international level leader ship of
yester years is rare phenomenon these days. Not that there are none, but the
kind of statesmanship, the way they represented their country and region individually
and collectively, the way they exhibited extraordinary commitment to the cause
for which they were fighting, is absent in the present day world leaders.
Unfortunately those great personalities are hardly remembered by present day students
of political science and or contemporary history not to speak of general youth.
Whether it was a summit, a conference, an international meet or any such thing
that used to take place anywhere in the world was all with lot of enthusiasm
which too is absent these days. For instance take the Non-Aligned Movement that
was founded in Belgrade in
1961, conceived by Jawaharlal Nehru, Sukarno, Nasser,
Nkrumah and Tito. All five
leaders were prominent advocates of a middle course for states in the developing world between the western and eastern blocks in the Cold War. Does the present day
generation ever attempted to read this contemporary history? The Geneva Summit of 1955, the UN General Assembly sessions, the Commonwealth
Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM),
the Afro–Asian Conference also known as the Bandung
Conference, the Geneva Conference of
1954 and many more such international summits and peace conferences of yester years
are seldom remembered.
To name few among yester years’ international politicians
and statesmen we have Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi, John
Fitzgerald Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, Charles de Gaulle , Golda Meir, her predecessor David Ben-Gurion, Marshal Tito, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Chou En-lai and Mao,
Yasser Arafat , Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Willy Brandt , Sukarno, Kwame Nkrumah, Fidel Castro and Ho-Chi-Minh.
Jawaharlal Nehru, Sukarno, Nasser, Nkrumah and Tito
Jawaharlal Nehru first Prime Minister of India from 15 August 1947 to
27 May 1964 was
a champion of pacifism and a strong supporter of the United
Nations. He pioneered the policy of non-alignment and co-founded the Non-Aligned
Movement of nations professing
neutrality between the rival blocs of nations led by the US and the USSR. In
1954 Nehru signed with China the Five
Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, known in India as the Panchsheel.
Indira Gandhi was the third Prime Minister of India who served from 1966 to 1977 and then
again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. Indira Gandhi presided over a
period where India emerged with greater power than before to become the
regional supremacy of South Asia with considerable political, economic,
and military developments.
John Fitzgerald
Kennedy was 35th President of the
United States from January 20, 1961 to
November 22, 1963 until he was assassinated. Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of
the Berlin Wall, the African-American Civil Rights Movement and increased U.S.
involvement in the Vietnam War.
Nikita Khrushchev was Premier
of Soviet Union from March 14, 1953 to October 14, 1964. Khrushchev sought to find
a lasting solution to the problem of a divided Germany. In November 1958, he
gave the United States, United Kingdom and France six months to conclude a
peace treaty with both German states and the Soviet Union. If one was not signed,
Khrushchev stated, the Soviet Union would conclude a peace treaty with East
Germany.
Charles de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first president from 1959 to 1969. De Gaulle secured a permanent seat on the
United Nations Security Council for France in 1945. He
withdrew France from NATO military command and twice vetoed
Britain's entry into the European
Community. De Gaulle was convinced that a strong and independent France could
act as a balancing force between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Golda Meir was the fourth Prime Minister of Israel and was in office from March 17, 1969 to June 3, 1974. She was described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics. In 1969 and the early 1970s, Meir met with many world leaders to promote
her vision of peace in the Middle East. Golda Meir’s predecessor David
Ben-Gurion was an Israeli statesman and founding father. He was the main
founder and the first Prime Minister of Israel from 17
May 1948 to 26 January 1954 and again from 3 November 1955 – 26 June
1963. Ben-Gurion led Israel
during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War,
and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces.
Marshal Tito
was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, serving
in various roles from 1945 until his death in 1980. He gained international
attention as the chief leader of the Non-Aligned
Movement, working with Jawaharlal
Nehru, Gamal Abdel Nasser,
Nkrumah and Sukarno. He became the first Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned
Movement. He was the Prime
Minister (1943–63), President (later President for Life) (1953–80) of the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia.
Gamal Abdel Nasser was the second President of Egypt, from 23 June 1956 to 28 September 1970 until his death. Nasser's retaliatory move to nationalize the Suez Canal Company in 1956 was acclaimed within Egypt and
the Arab world. Nasser formed the United Arab Republic with Syria. All Arab heads of state attended his
funeral. Jordanian King Hussein and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat cried openly,
and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya fainted from emotional distress twice.
Chou En-lai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of
China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976. He advocated peaceful coexistence with the West after the stalemated Korean War.
He participated in the 1954
Geneva Conference. He helped devise policies regarding the bitter disputes with
USA, Taiwan, Soviet Union, India and Vietnam. Chou’s
leader Mao Tse-tung founded the People's Republic of China in 1949. He
was also one of the founders of the Chinese Communist party in 1921, and was
regarded, along with Karl Marx and Lenin, as one of the three great theorists
of Marxian Communism. Mao’s
contribution to history has changed the world itself.
Yasser Arafat was a Palestinian leader and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
He was 1st President of the Palestinian National Authority from 5 July
1994 to 11 November 2004. Arafat spent much of his life
fighting against Israel in the name of Palestinian self-determination. Originally opposed
to Israel's existence, he modified his position in 1988 when he accepted UN Security Council Resolution.
Sirimavo Bandaranaike was Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
several times, from 1960 to 1965; from
1970 to 1972; from 1972 to 1977 and from 1994 to 2000.
Willy Brandt was a German statesman and politician and chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1969 to 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts to achieve
reconciliation between West Germany and
the countries of the Soviet bloc.
Sukarno was Indonesia's first president and was in
office from 1945 to 1967. The early 1960s saw Sukarno veering Indonesia to the
left by providing support and protection to the Indonesian Communist Party. He
embarked on a series of aggressive and assertive policies based on anti-imperialism to increase Indonesia's international
prestige.
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana. Overseeing the nation's
independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the
first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana. He was a
founding member of the Organization
of African Unity and was the
winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963.
Ho chi Minh was a
Vietnamese communist revolutionary leader who was prime
minister (1945–1955) and president (1945–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North
Vietnam). He led the Viet Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-ruled Democratic Republic of
Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French
Union in 1954.
Fidel Castro held power longer than any national
leader other than Queen Elizabeth. His personal control over a Communist
revolution made him perhaps the most important leader in Latin America since
its 19th century wars of independence. Since January 9, 1959, he became Cuba's unchallenged leader. On
19th February, 2008, Fidel Castro announced he would neither seek nor accept a
new term as either president or commander-in-chief of Cuba.
May be many
more such leaders in the past…but where are such leaders today? End
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