The twentieth century has hosted some of the most warped, sick and charismatic leaders the world has ever known. Here are but ten. This list is not about ‘the best’, it is simply about who had the most impact in world politics.
10th: Idi Amin. Taking power of Uganda in 1971 he declared himself ‘His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular’. Additional to his extravagant title he was also suspected of acts of cannibalism and being clinically insane. Approximately 100,000 to 500,000 people died under his rule.
9th: Augusto Pinochet. Taking Power in 1973 in a military coup he declared himself the 30th president of Chile a year later. His economic policies ostensibly improved Chile’s economy after it had been crippled by three years of socialist rule, but not without tens of thousands of deaths and a sharp rise in economic inequality. What’s remarkable is that he walked away from power in 1990 after losing a referendum on extending his ‘mandate’ by eight years in 1988.
8th: Saloth Sar; better known as Pol Pot. Seizing power in Cambodia in 1975 and declaring it ‘Year Zero’, he oversaw the mass murder of approximately 20 per cent of Cambodia’s population. In an attempt to create a communist rural society, the vast majority of Cambodia’s urban population were expelled to work in agricultural communes leading to thousands dying from overwork and starvation. He was removed from power by a Vietnamese invasion in 1979.
7th: Saddam Hussein. The 5th President of Iraq, he held power for approximately 24 years. Praised by many as a leader who defied the West, he also sanctioned the mass murder of countless thousands of Kurds and other ethnic minorities. Though the approximate number of deaths is not known, the most widely excepted estimate is 500,000.
6th: Kim Il-Sung. Known in North Korea today as ‘The Great Leader’ he assumed power in 1948 and despite being dead today he is still officially North Korea’s head of state. With the political and military backing of Stalin, Kim Il-Sung was able to try to reclaim the entire Korean peninsula. Though he failed to achieve his goal he helped preserve the North Korean state and is worshiped like a god there today.
5th: Muammar al-Gaddafi. Taking power over Libya in 1969 he used its rich oil supplies to fund his ‘Arabic Socialist’ programmes. Furthermore Gaddafi is more than resilient by outlasting Ronald Reagan’s attempts to remove him from power as well as internal threats on his life. The government’s brutal response to recent protests has drawn widespread condemnation. At the age of 68 he remains in power to this day.
4th: Mao Zedong. Mao introduced mass collectivization and industrialization to China during what was termed ‘The Great Leap Forward’ from 1958 to 1961. It’s estimated between 35 to 45 million people died through violence and starvation, one of the most deadly mass killings in human history. In modern day China he is considered a national hero, promoted by the propaganda of the communist government there.
3rd: Benito Mussolini. Holding power from 1925 to 1943, Mussolini radically improved Italy’s economic strength only for it to be destroyed in losing the Second World War. He has often been seen as incompetent in relation to Adolf Hitler due to the inefficiency of Italy’s military as was seen by its poor invasion of Greece.
2nd: Adolf Hitler. In popular culture his political views and policies are seen as the closest thing to pure evil the world has ever seen. His views of superior Germanic ethnicity led him to sanction the mass murder of approximately 11 million people in concentration camps, including six million Jews.
1st: Joseph Stalin. General Secretary of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1953; through the course of his regime it is estimated that between 20 to 30 million died, and there are other figures which suggest higher. The cult around his personality infested Soviet political life and to this day he is still seen by many in a positive light in modern day Russia. Vladimir Putin simply said it was, “impossible to make a judgment in general” due to certain common opinions in Russia.
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