Worst Dictators Ever?

[The Last Conformist]

On quantity, I'd go with Stalin.

On sheer gruesomeness, and acknowledging his limited resources compared to the likes of Stalin or Hitler, Pol Pot is strong candidate. He took a truly wrecked country, and made the previous reign of terror look like paradise. As well as probably killing off a higher proportion of his country's population than anyone else has done. I know it's irrational, but I do feel that slaughtering your own people by the millions is worse than genocidizing strangers.

 

[WickedSmurf]

All in all, I'd also go with Stalin.

 

[lord_yoshi]

Qin Shihuang (The first [and only] emperor of Qin)
Pol Pot too.

 

[HannibalBarka]

Modern history: Stalin, Hitler and PolPot.
Through out history: for the biggest massmurderers I think of are:
The Mongol kings (Gengis Khan, Tamerlan, Hulago), The Crusaders, Kings of Spain, Portugal, France and England for the slavery and the massmurder of the Native Indians.

 

[philippe]

I would say all the assyrian kings. that were a bunch of mass-murders

 

[Stapel]

Originally posted by WillJ
Not to nitpick, but contrary to popular belief, Hitler wasn't elected.

??????
He was. Several times actually.

I guess you mean he wasn't elected directly. Big deal. Today, in all modern western democracies only France & USA elect their leaders...

 

[Perfection]

Lefty

Actually, I'd have to go with Hitler, Stalin was horrible but I think takes the cake as arose with the fascist movement while Stalin just took control of an already fascist regime

 

[Amenhotep7]

Shh! Big Brother-I mean-Lefty may be watching!

 

[Hayek]

Stalin.

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by Stapel
??????
He was. Several times actually.

I guess you mean he wasn't elected directly. Big deal. Today, in all modern western democracies only France & USA elect their leaders...

Hitler ran for President of Germany in 1932 and received 30% of the vote, forcing Hindenburg into a runoff election, and Hindenburg won. A deal was made to make Hitler chancellor, in exchange for political support. When Hindenburg died Hitler was next in line, and thus replaced him as President.

I guess you could sorta call that being elected, but not quite. It's like saying Harry S. Truman was elected President of the USA.

 

[Toasty]

I always find it funny how people would call Stalin worse than Hitler because he's communist.

There's no contest, really. It's Hitler. 16 million dead is an unfathomable number, and just because you can't imagine a number that big is no reason to let ideology skewer your judgement.

 

[stalin006]

seems that stalin is popular in this thread.

what is the real question?, the dictator that killed just for killing?, or simply sucked?

stalin might have killed millions but he did turned a backwards nation into a superpower.

mao?, he "killed" the most in history, but were result of innefective reforms in agriculture.

pol pot.....well.....he gets my vote, he didnt do anything at all, jsut kill to kill

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by Toasty
I always find it funny how people would call Stalin worse than Hitler because he's communist.

There's no contest, really. It's Hitler. 16 million dead is an unfathomable number, and just because you can't imagine a number that big is no reason to let ideology skewer your judgement.

Stalin lead to the deaths of 20 to 30 million people. And I'm pretty sure most figures hold Hitler's death toll at about 11 million, not 16 (not including indirect deaths, such as those of soldiers in WWII).

 

[The Last Conformist]

Rummel estimates Hitler's harvest to about 20 million, using a pretty liberal definition which includes millions of Eastern Europeans who died thanks to the Nazis wrecking health care and food distribution.

His estimate for Stalin is, IIRC, about 60 million.

 

[Achinz]

Originally posted by rmsharpe
Castro. [/B]

No comparision at all (ie to Pinochet) I'm afraid

 

[Goober]

Originally posted by The Last Conformist
Rummel estimates Hitler's harvest to about 20 million, using a pretty liberal definition which includes millions of Eastern Europeans who died thanks to the Nazis wrecking health care and food distribution.

His estimate for Stalin is, IIRC, about 60 million.

Well, while Stalin may have slaughtered more, I guess one could say that they were, for the mose part, his own countrymen. Hitler killed million of innocent Jews, solely for the reason that he wanted a reason to kill people. That, and he had to unite a nation behind a cause, and that was the extermination of Jews, nasty as that may sound.

I do not think we should look at sheer numbers of people dead, i think we should look at the state of the country left behind also. Hitler left behind a bombed out shell of a country, never to be trust again. Germany still suffers the repercussions of Hitler to this day. Stalin at least turned the Soviet union into something of a superpower, even through an absolutely brutal method. I would have to stick by Hitler being worse, although Stalin runs a close second.

Is the dictator of Japan durring WW2 on the list? I forget his name, that is why I have to ask.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Moderator Action: Moved to History...

 

[Sarevok]

Mao, Stalin, and Adolf Hitler

 

[Sims2789]

Hitler was the evilist. And the worst.

 

[Stefan Haertel]

Adolf Hitler
Josef Stalin
George W. Bush