The 1960s

Decolonization & Crisis

The decade of African independence saw dozens of new nations join the UN. The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink, while Kennedy's assassination and Hammarskjold's death marked profound losses.

Most Cited Figures (1960-1969)

U Thant took over as Secretary-General after Dag Hammarskjold's tragic death in a plane crash in 1961. Kennedy and Khrushchev dominated Cold War discourse, especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis. African leaders like Nkrumah and Nehru championed the Non-Aligned Movement.

RankPersonMentionsCategory
#1U Thant378UN Leader
#2Dag Hammarskjöld199UN Leader
#3John F. Kennedy195World Leader
#4Nikita Khrushchev147World Leader
#5Charles de Gaulle85World Leader
#6Patrice Lumumba72World Leader
#7Fidel Castro58World Leader
#8Kwame Nkrumah58World Leader
#9Jawaharlal Nehru47World Leader
#10Simon Bolivar41Historical Figure
#11Karl Marx32Economist
#12Abraham Lincoln28World Leader
#13Jomo Kenyatta27World Leader
#14Sukarno24World Leader
#15Raúl Prebisch23Economist
#16Gamal Abdel Nasser23World Leader
#17Haile Selassie21World Leader
#18Franklin D. Roosevelt17World Leader
#19Winston Churchill17World Leader
#20Ho Chi Minh16Historical Figure

Notable Quotations

"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment"
Mahatma GandhiCited by India (1968)
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"You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can"
Abraham LincolnCited by Libya (1967)
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"nothing that is done in Asia, in war or in peace, can be done without China"
Charles de GaulleCited by Congo, Brazzavile (1966)
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"the dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew"
Abraham LincolnCited by Chile (1964)
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"Since atomic war would divest any future of its meaning, it gives us complete freedom of action. We have nothing to lose except everything. So let"
Albert CamusCited by Canada (1963)
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