Favorite Third World dictators

Cambodia inbetween the acts

Lon Nol, the only South East asian leader with the guts to take on the reds. Anyone with a chief aide called Major I.M. Wrong, I kid you not, can't be all that bad. He understood the threat from the Vietnamese and the Kymer Rouge alike.
 

Tellus

Banned
I actually once had a thing for Saddam Hussein until the Bushes ruined that for us all. :p

The whole secular dictatorship in a sea of radical theocracies thing keeping together such a disparate country as Iraq, with a fetish for technological progress... seemed promising. The Iran-Iraq war could have Hussein easily pictured as fighting the good fight as well; the Americans sure thought so back at the time. It really went downhill after Kuweit though.

If it wasn't for the Osirak bombing, and Irak became a nuclear power, it would have probably become a good friend of the west, in an Saudi Arabia kind of way. Id love to peek in that ATL and see what become of that "monster" Saddam there.
 
His Excellency President for Life Field Marshal Al Hadji Dr. 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

He could contend with anyone in the insanity levels, I would reccommend everyone to watch his movie, where he mentions among other things that he can see the future in his dreams and has had numerous people executed because he forsaw that they would try and depose him.
 

Goldstein

Banned
.... i have always had sort of a soft spot for Francisco Franco, yeah he was a fascist, but unlike mussolini, could stand up to Hitler.

Francisco Franco wasn't a fascist, he was a catholic integrist and reactionary, who used fascist institutions and façade out of personal interest. He stood up to Hitler because of the international interests of the Cold War.

Besides, I personally don't understand how Franco could result appealing to anyone. His personal traits were pathetic, he had no charisma and he was a sad and grey man even for dictatorial standards.

As for my favourite third world dictator... I've always felt some morbid fascination for the figure of Mobutu Sese Seko. Of course, not that i like him, but I don't believe in the possibility of a benevolent autocracy anyway...
 
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Really? One of those gents was into killing people with his secret police apparatus, while the other was a fairly illiberal-but-non-murderous PM of Singapore.

I have some time for Harry Lee, in the same way I have time for all Indian PMs or the current presidents of Indonesia and South Africa. Marcos, AFAIC, must go into the 'degenerate tyrant' column.

Well, when democracy brings you craptastic dictator wannabes like GMA, people start to nostalgize the dictator, especially if like Marcos he did do some economic good (at first) and most of all, stability or the appearance thereof.

It tells you about the sad state of the Old Country when a lot of people would rather bring the old regime back if only for the relative stability.
 

Valdemar II

Banned
Tito, while a not a pleasant figur, he did succed in keeping the Yugoslavian nationalities, from killing each other for 50 years.
 

Tellus

Banned
Tito, while a not a pleasant figur, he did succed in keeping the Yugoslavian nationalities, from killing each other for 50 years.

Doh of course. Didn't realize he was available at first, but its true he wasn't in the soviet bloc. Tito would definitely be high on my list. Middle finger (and death threat!) to Stalin, keeping Yugoslavia together, good record, his country did better than pro-Soviet Balkan states. One of the "Leaders of the 3rd world". Played both sides. My kind of guy. :)
 
...Her husband had been suckered into endorsing Martial Law and the New Society and Marcos played with him as his successor.

Excuse me, but I find this bit interesting. Would you be so kind as to post a link to your references?

Fransisco Cojuanco said:
Well, when democracy brings you craptastic dictator wannabes like GMA, people start to nostalgize the dictator, especially if like Marcos he did do some economic good (at first) and most of all, stability or the appearance thereof.

It tells you about the sad state of the Old Country when a lot of people would rather bring the old regime back if only for the relative stability.


What? whoever said anything about the typical Filipino "nostalgizing" the Marcos regime, less so bring it back?

Dunno where you're coming from (and i dunno if you're Filipino/have Filipino blood), but the general sentiment here is waay different from what you're thinking. we don't want another dictator, ever again, and that's why gma got criticized during the latest spate of bombings here; people are all up in their arses, thinking that gma sponsored this so she has a cause to declare martial law. mind you, even i don't rule out that possibility.

i actually do have sort of a soft spot for our own ol' dictator. was an intelligent man, but in the end it doesn't forgive the crimes he has committed against us and many people i know
 
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Sihanouk of course!

He was king of Cambodia twice, sovereign prince twice, prime minister twice and president once!

Half the time he had no real power, but when he did he was quite good for a dictator

(except for the obvious mistake of giving support to the Khmer Rouge :eek: )
 
Is this political Third world? (Not NATO or Soviet allied) Or Economic Thrird World (Dirt poor)?

If it's economic then probably Qaddafi as well, his quotes are pretty funny.

If it's out of the political, well who isn't involved with the US, EU, Russians, or Chinese anymore?

If historical counts, then Robert the Bruice, a monarch is a dictator of sorts after all, and he somehow managed to get the reputation as a freedom fighter, after fighting for the English in two of his five conflicts!
 
Bob Denard.

Edit: Depending on the definition of 3rd world, Gustav Vasa.
 
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Well, if i had to choose, i would proabaly have to pick Pinochet. Sure, some marxists went missinng, nether to turn up again, but at least he gave up power and stopped the country from turning into a Socialist Shithole.
 
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Suharto of Indonesia. Took office by overthrowing his predecessor and slaughtered up to a million people in the process. Proceeded to treat his Chinese minority as an all purpose scapegoat and whipping dog with anti-chinese pogroms that stopped just short of a final solution. Multiple counts of Genocide in Borneo, East Timor and West Irian. Two counts of invading and occupying foreign territories for extended periods of time, still getting away with one. One of histories great Kleptocrats stealing and amassing an estimated 30 billion dollars. And everyone else in the world, Canada, the United States, everyone, just kept kissing his ass.

I mean, sure a guy like Pinochet was an ignorant murderous thug who murdered thousands of people, tortured tens of thousands more, whose soldiers poured gasoline on children and lit them on fire and who had women raped by dogs, who lined his own pockets while mismanaging his economy, who was so ignorant and out of touch that he finessed himself out of power with a mismanaged referendum, and spent the last years of his life pretending to be senile in order to avoid responsibility for his actions. I'm not taking away anything from the accomplishments of the Pinochets and Amins or the other deserving cockroaches.

But Suharto? He killed hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, he stole, raped, bullied, lied. And the world loved him for it. He's one of those guys who, when they die we have to build new deeper levels of hell, cause the old ones just aren't bad enough.
 
Suharto of Indonesia. Took office by overthrowing his predecessor and slaughtered up to a million people in the process. Proceeded to treat his Chinese minority as an all purpose scapegoat and whipping dog with anti-chinese pogroms that stopped just short of a final solution. Multiple counts of Genocide in Borneo, East Timor and West Irian. Two counts of invading and occupying foreign territories for extended periods of time, still getting away with one. One of histories great Kleptocrats stealing and amassing an estimated 30 billion dollars. And everyone else in the world, Canada, the United States, everyone, just kept kissing his ass.

I mean, sure a guy like Pinochet was an ignorant murderous thug who murdered thousands of people, tortured tens of thousands more, whose soldiers poured gasoline on children and lit them on fire and who had women raped by dogs, who lined his own pockets while mismanaging his economy, who was so ignorant and out of touch that he finessed himself out of power with a mismanaged referendum, and spent the last years of his life pretending to be senile in order to avoid responsibility for his actions. I'm not taking away anything from the accomplishments of the Pinochets and Amins or the other deserving cockroaches.

But Suharto? He killed hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, he stole, raped, bullied, lied. And the world loved him for it. He's one of those guys who, when they die we have to build new deeper levels of hell, cause the old ones just aren't bad enough.

Let us not forget Nelson Mandela's relationship with Suharto.

for sheer body count though in terms of 3rd world dictators, no-one can beat Mao. Hell, even Stalin can't beat him.
 
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