Much is being made of the capture and summary execution of Colonel Ghadaffi, about the fall of all such men and all the ‘Sic semper tyrannis’ that entails.
The Daily Mail even lists the downfall of The World’s Infamous Dictators …..and how they met their violent ends
It would seem being a dictator and tyrant is a pretty hazardous job or is it?
Yet they could only come up with six, of which one, Adolf Hitler committed suicide and another Saddam Hussein was executed after a trial according to the laws of his own country.
So I thought I’d take a look at how some of the other ‘Infamous Dictators’ ended their days.
| Name | Country Ruled | Where Died | Age at Death | Cause of Death |
| Idi Amin | Uganda | Saudi Arabia | 78 | Natural Causes |
| Jean-Bedel Bokkasa | Central African Republic | CAR after lavish exile in France | 75 | Natural Causes |
| Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier | Haiti | Haiti (in office) | 65 | Natural Causes |
| Erich Honecker | East Germany | Chile | 81 | Natural Causes |
| Zaire | Morocco | 66 | Natural Causes | |
| Augusto Pinochet | Chile | Chile | 91 | Natural Causes |
| Pol Pot | Cambodia | Cambodia (after exile in Thailand) | 72 | Natural Causes [still debated] |
| Paraguay | Brazil | 93 | Natural Causes | |
| Suharto | Indonesia | Indonesia | 86 | Natural Causes |
| Joseph Stalin | Russia | Russia (in office) | 74 | Natural Causes |
| Mao Tse Tung | China | China (in office) | 82 | Natural Causes |
| North Korea | North Korea (in office) | 82 | Natural Causes | |
| Spain | Spain (in office) | 82 | Natural Causes | |
| Enver Hoxha | Albania | Albania (in office) | 76 | Natural Causes |
| Marshall Tito | Yugoslavia | Yugoslavia | 87 | Natural Causes |
| Ferdinand Marcos | Philippines | Hawaii, USA | 72 | Natural Causes |
| Romania | Romania | 71 | Executed | |
| Iran | Iran | 86 | Natural Causes | |
| Still Going | ||||
| Name | Country Ruled | Where Now | Age | Circumstances |
| Jean-Claude’ Baby Doc’ Duvalier | Haiti | France | 60 | Free At Large |
| Ethiopia | Zimbabwe | 74 | Free At Large | |
| Manuel Noriega | Panama | Panama | 77 | Prison |
| Charles Taylor | Liberia | Netherlands | 63 | On trial for war crimes |
| Kim Jong-Il | North Korea | North Korea (in office) | 70 | Supreme Leader |
| Fidel Castro | Cuba | Cuba | 85 | In Office |
| Robert Mugabe | Zimbabwe | Zimbabwe | 87 | President |
So that’s an average age of 79 at death for some of the worst dictator's and tyrants of modern times, all of whom died pretty well taken care of.
So far from being the risky career choice that the MSM make out, being a brutal despot & tyrant is a pretty safe occupation
Makes you think
Yup, as you say, it's about knowing when to quit.
ReplyDeleteOld Gadaffi was offered free passage to Venezuela and turned it down, saying he'd fight to the death. Well he did, so what?
I'd add Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, who made it to 72 before natural causes took him; exiled to Hawaii with $5bn+ in the bank after being ousted by Cory Aquino. His wife Imelda (of shoes fame) is still doing well and has a fighting chance of the Filipino premiership herself.
ReplyDeleteA couple from me:- Mugabe, Castro, Chavez.
ReplyDeleteNot forgetting Ceausecu, who was 78, and his missus who met the same fate as Gaddafi.
Thanks for the suggestions, have added them to the list ( apart from Chavez as I think the jury is still out and he really doesn't compare to the rest)
ReplyDeleteThe point I was trying to make is that far from being the risky career choice that the MSM make out, being a brutal despot & tyrant is a pretty safe occupation
Good post but how the hell did you get the table into a blog post?
ReplyDelete@bucko
ReplyDeleteI use Windows Live Writer 2011 for composing blog posts.
Does all sorts of neat things, including being able to insert tables
And of course Ceausescu only came to a bitter end because his WEIRD policy on population control. He could probably have hung on for a lot longer otherwise... or made a safe escape to somewhere warm.
ReplyDeleteTa, I'll have a butchers at that
ReplyDeleteDidn't Baby Doc run out of money in Paris and return to Haiti this year, presumably hoping to be welcomed back into the heart of his people in their time of trouble? He was, if I recall correctly, promptly banged up.
ReplyDelete