Worst dictators that never were

Worst would-be dictator

  • Hermann Goering (Germany)

    Votes: 9 5.4%
  • Lavrentiy Beria (USSR)

    Votes: 47 28.1%
  • Luckner Cambronne (Haiti)

    Votes: 3 1.8%
  • Heinrich Himmler (Germany)

    Votes: 95 56.9%
  • Vuong Van Dong (South Vietnam)

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • Zhang Xueliang (China)

    Votes: 2 1.2%
  • Junio Valerio Borghese (Italy)

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • Other

    Votes: 9 5.4%

  • Total voters
    167

The Vulture

Banned
Title. All of these are people who made an attempt at succeeding a totalitarian dictator. Which one do you feel would have been the worst for their country and the world in general?
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Actually, Beria probably wouldn't have been the monster many make him out to be. He actually indicated that he planned on liberalizing the USSR after Stalin's death. This was one of the main reasons so many of Stalin's potentates turned against him; they were terrified that he might upset the balance of power within the Soviet Union...and of course that he would kill them. Which he most likely would have.
 
Actually, Beria probably wouldn't have been the monster many make him out to be. He actually indicated that he planned on liberalizing the USSR after Stalin's death. This was one of the main reasons so many of Stalin's potentates turned against him; they were terrified that he might upset the balance of power within the Soviet Union...and of course that he would kill them. Which he most likely would have.

I do remember his son writing a book defending him, saying that Beria helped kill Stalin to stop him from starting WWIII.

However, this is Beria's son, who obviously wants his dad to look good. Plus I've heard some truly sick, awful things about Beria.

Still, given some of the things some AHers think Himmler might do (human sacrifices beneath the Brandonberg Gate), he could be pretty bad too.
 
Himmler.

Add up the fact that he was obviously one of the masterminds behind the Final Solution and the fact that his routine episodes of cowardice and megalomania and his LACK of charisma may mean that you have an even deadlier forumla.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
I've heard some truly sick, awful things about Beria.

Oh, of this there's no doubt. He was a serial rapist, a sadistic murder and torturer, a bit of a psychopath, and played host to a variety of other demonic vices...which is one of the reasons Stalin's courtiers were so wary of him. But these (largely) private failings probably would not have greatly affected the policies he implemented in the USSR. I mean, he didn't really want a Cold War with the West (or at least not as much as the Stlalin-Kaganovich-Molotov crowd) and was harshly rebuked when he suggested that the Soviet bloc accept Marshall Plan aid and that Poland be allowed to have free and fair elections.

Beria's one of those curious monsters of history. An undoubted sociopath, but...well, I don't really know how else to say it, one of the "good ones." Or at least, the kind of sociopath who ultimately had great potential to do good by his people, unlike Hitler and Stalin, who were (respectively) the messianic and insecure sorts sociopaths.
 
Himmler. Beria was a close second for me though, the guy's day job was bad enough without the fact that he liked to rape underaged girls in his spare time.
 
Beria was a Paedophile and a serial rapist. As well as that, he personally enjoyed torturing his victims.

Even Himmler, for all his horrors, would be appaled by Beria.
 
The question is not "Who would you least like to be locked in a torture celler with?", but "Who could have inflicted the most misery, had they become a [succesful] leader?" When I say succesful, I mean that Himmler taking over the Reich for three hours and then being blown up isn't so bad. And yes, the answer is Himmler, Himmler, Himmler.
 
Himmler would have been as bad as Hitler, but note that I say "as" bad, in fact, given the fact that he lacked Hitler's charisma I think that he may not have lasted as long as his counterpart.

Beria on the other land...

You know how in For All Time when Andrei Chikatilo becomes Soviet Premier? While I don't really see Beria as being on that sort of level, there is little doubt that the man was a sociopath, regardless of what was made up to discredit him post-Stalin he would have been a disaster as leader. Stalin may have had a great deal of blood on his hands, but he never enjoyed the killings or took the same personal interest in them as Beria did.

Frankly, I'm shuddering just thinking about it.
 
Himmler might be just as irrational as Hitler, but I don't think he would have been as impulsive. He's more of a cold, calculating type-- obsessed with the occult.
 

maverick

Banned
Himmler might be just as irrational as Hitler, but I don't think he would have been as impulsive. He's more of a cold, calculating type-- obsessed with the occult.

Himmler is a moron and a lunatic...and about as intelligent and charismatic as you'd expect a chicken farmer to be.

Heydrich would be way worse...although Himmler was the guy who took his little daughter to visit freaking concentration camps
 
Heydrich is actually the "worst" , as he as the most competent and intelligent among those named, and he was a very goal oriented sociopath rather than someone who tortures for kicks.

A lot more people would die at his hands, solely because of his efficiency.
 
You’re really asking two separate questions because for instance while Cambronne would be absolutely horrible for Haiti but on the global stage he’d be pretty insignificant. Goering really shouldn’t be even on the list because while he was certainly scum if you get him in early enough he’d likely end up being a boon to the world and even possibly Germany compared to OTL that is. Really it comes down to Himmler and Beria I think both are nightmares but I’d give the edge to Beria because he was the more competent of the two which means he’d probably last longer thus able to do more damage.
 
but I’d give the edge to Beria because he was the more competent of the two which means he’d probably last longer

You mean besides the fact that pretty much every one who mattered in the Soviet Union hated that guy?
 
Top