Ruling in the 1960s Part I Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fidel Castro

Early in his Presidency, Castro spoke against communism, saying that he was for democracy. During the Eisenhower presidency, he was refused a meeting. He was Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and then became President from 1976-2008. Castro attended Catholic universities before graduating from the University of Havana with a degree in law.

He was well known (among other things) for his amazingly long and intense public speeches.

Answer: Lester B. Pearson

Pearson's minority government introduced universal health care, student loans, the Canada Pension Plan, the Order of Canada, and the current Canadian flag. During his tenure, Prime Minister Pearson also convened the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957. He got the Peace Prize for his efforts to mediate during the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis. Pearson would not support the British-French invasion of the Suez Canal because it did not have UN sanctions. He was also defending Canada which had not been called for its decision in spite of its Commonwealth role.

Answer: Paul VI

He was the first pope to make a trip to the Holy Land since the time of the apostle Peter. He was a pope who took active positions regarding social issues. He was pope from 1963 to 1978.

Answer: Ian Paisley

Paisley was the first minister of Northern Ireland. He was a huge, imposing figure who was passionately in defense of Protestants in Northern Ireland. He was also against the unification of Ireland. Some people say that he has helped keep the division in Ireland alive. He had to be expelled by force from a meeting for calling Pope John Paul II "the Antichrist.

Answer: Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco (El Generalissimo) was a small man physically who came from the region of Galicia in northwesterm Spain. He became the leader of a movement which fought liberals in one of the most bloody civil wars in the 1930s. Later, he controlled autocratically all of Spain through the forces of his Civil Guard, censorship, and years of anti-communism and pro-Catholic rallies and propaganda.

When he died in November 1975, SNL became world famous for this line: "Francisco Franco is still dead". That is a reference to his lingering final moments.

Answer: Sukarno

He was the first president of Indonesia from 1945 to 1967. He fought to help Indonesia gain independence from the Netherlands. He was part of the international movement for liberation against colonial regimes that were becoming important in the 1960s.

Answer: Golda Meir

Golda Meir (or Golda Myerson) became the fourth prime minister of the State of Israel, from March 1969 to June 1974. She was called the "Iron Lady" before that term was applied to Margaret Thatcher; David Ben-Gurion said that she was the "best man in government." By the time she was eight, she was given executive tasks: her mother put her in charge of the store in Wisconsin when she (her mother) had to go out.

Her determination and achievement were amazing. She entered high school not knowing English and graduated as valecdictorian.

Answer: Robert Menzies

When he retired in 1966, Robert Menzies had served the longest continuous term as primeminister of Australia. Menzies had the nickname of "Pig Iron Bob" because of his battle with longshoremen or waterside workers who would not load metal being sold to Imperial Japan. Sporadically, in his life, he was challenged by some who accused him of cowardice for not enlisting in World War I. Francisco Franco. For instance, while he was speaking in Williamstown, Victoria in 1954, a heckler shouted, "I wouldn't vote for you if you were the Archangel Gabriel" - to which Menzies coolly replied "If I were the Archangel Gabriel, I'm afraid you wouldn't be in my constituency." Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Menzies

Answer: Ho Chí Minh

Hồ Chí Minh is interesting in a variety of ways. He organized resistance to French colonial rule, he was the prime minster of Vietnam, and he was the President of North Vietnam from 1945-1969. He worked as a cook on a French steamship liner. In England and the United States, he started to read and was influenced by Karl Marx. His highly interesting life shows him at odds with some traditional Communist beliefs such as that he placed much emphasis on the lives of rural as opposed to urban people. Hồ Chí Minh actively worked for his beliefs until his death in 1969 before the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

After the war, Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honor.

Answer: David Ben-Gurion

Born David Gruen, he named himself Ben Gurion (or "son of the young lion"). Ben Gurion saw Zionism as a way of helping to develop the land and culture through collective labor and communities. Ben Gurion headed Zionist movements in Palestine. After World War II, he advocated the United Nations Plan of 1947 which called for the establishment of separate Jewish and Arab states in Palestine.

In May 1948, Ben Gurion declared the independence of Israel. He was the first prime minister of Israel from 1948-1953, and then again from 1955-1963.

He published "Israel: A Personal History" (1970) and "The Jews in Their Land" (1974).