Worst Leaders of the 20th Century

1. Idi Amin

Country: Uganda

Years in power: 1971-1979

Brief summary: Ordered persecution of minority tribes; expelled all Asians from country; between 100,000 and 300,000 Ugandans tortured or killed; personally involved in Palestinian hijacking of French airliner to Entebbe and held Israeli citizens hostage; was known to randomly kidnap young women and girls for sexual indulgence.

2. Nicolae Ceasescu

Country: Romania

Years in power: 1968-1989

Brief summary: Illegally used powers for personal wealth gain while most of country lived in deep poverty; put many relatives in high government positions; economic programs lead to severe shortages of consumer goods; leveled entire neighborhoods and villages to build extravagant personal palaces and retreats; security forces killed thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators.

3. Adolf Hitler

Country: Germany

Years in power: 1933-1945

Brief summary: Began dismantling German democracy immediately after being elected chancellor; authorized persecution of Jews and all other minorities who were branded as inferior; primary instigator of World War II; responsible for Holocaust which killed nearly 6 million Jews as well as millions of Slavs and gypsies; relocated millions from occupied countries, especially Poland and the Soviet Union, to Germany for forced labor.

4. Saddam Hussein

Country: Iraq

Years in power: 1979-2003

Brief summary: Tortured and killed many political opponents and possibly tens of thousands of others; most high government positions were occupied by relatives; used chemical weapons to destroy entire Kurdish villages; sent troops into Kuwait, who thoroughly robbed and pillaged the country, leading to the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

5. Kim il-Sung

Country: North Korea

Years in power: 1948-1994

Brief summary: Handpicked by Josef Stalin to rule the country when it was under Soviet influence; had absolute control over all aspects of North Korean life; fashioned himself as a demigod and all households, shops and offices were required to have a portrait of him on the wall; sent entire families to prison labor camps for insulting him; shut North Korea off from the rest of the world, leading the country to extreme poverty; instigated the Korean War when he sent armies into South Korea with the goal of uniting the Korean Peninsula under his rule.

6. Mao Zedong

Country: China

Years in power: 1949-1976

Brief summary: Forced millions of Chinese to live in rural communes and work on farms; jailed or murdered political rivals; launched economic policy called the Great Leap Forward, leading to the deaths of more than 20 million; fashioned himself into a cult figure with statues of himself in the main square of almost all major cities; completely occupied Tibet and brutally crushed all opposition to Beijing’s rule there, leading to the exile of the Dalai Lama.

7. Benito Mussolini

Country: Italy

Years in power: 1922-1943

Brief summary: Abolished all political parties after seizing power; jailed or killed hundreds of political opponents; deported many Jews to Germany and to their deaths; dragged Italy into alliance with Germany during World War II, leading the country to ruin and defeat.

8. Augusto Pinochet

Country: Chile

Years in power: 1973-1990

Brief summary: Disbanded Congress and restricted political parties and labor unions; stifled opposition through force and torture; jailed many political opponents; more than 3,000 Chileans were murdered or mysteriously disappeared.

9. Pol Pot

Country: Cambodia

Years in power: 1976-1979

Brief summary: He and Khmer Rouge attempted to turn Cambodia into an agrarian state; expelled nearly all foreign diplomats; outlawed religion and education; murdered all intellects and religious leaders; forced nearly entire Cambodian population into rural farming communes with appalling living conditions and meager food rations; murdered nearly 2 million Cambodians through starvation, torture, disease and overworking.

10. Josef Stalin

Country: Soviet Union

Years in power: 1922-1953

Brief summary: Had history rewritten to indicate he had been a close associate of Vladimir Lenin, who, in fact, was really said to have despised him; regularly had people shot and killed out of sheer paranoia; purged Soviet Union’s military of over 70 percent of its officers on suspicion of plotting to overthrow him; orchestrated a famine which killed nearly 7 million Ukrainians; other various purges lead to the deaths of nearly 20 million.

ActionSammy,

(Feel free to comment, question or criticize me at actionsammy@yahoo.com. And be sure to look for my upcoming first book, First Degree Lust, an action/romantic/mystery/thriller, in Spring 2010.)