Here are my candidates for the Top Ten Evil People in the 20th century:
1. Mao Tse Tung (China) killed 35 million people 1949-1976
2. Joseph Stalin (USSR) killed 20 million people 1929-1953
3. Adolph Hitler(Nazi Germany)-killed 11 million people 1939-1945
4. Kim Il Sung (North Korea) killed 3 million people 1948-1994
5. Mohamed Suharto (Indonesia) killed 2 million people 1967-1998
6. Pol Pot (Cambodia)- killed 1.4 million people 1975-1979
7. Theoniste Bagosara (Rwanda) killed 1 million people April-July 1994
8. Saddam Hussein (Iraq) killed 2 million people 1979-2003
9. Ante Pavelic (Croatia) killed 300,000 people 1941-1944
10. Idi Amin (Uganda)-300,000 1971-1979
There are many more that could be candidates for this list. The number of deaths cited are either from Wikipedia or from MORE or LESS or from Genocide Watch.
While I attempted to discriminate between wars, conflicts, poor policies, etc., it just became too difficult to separate the figures I found with the causes. For example, the failure of policies that result in starvation could be excluded in some cases and not in others. I attributed failed policies of ideologies to be just as deadly as bullets and bombs.
Having said that, I will leave the ultimate judge of the ten most evil people in the 20th century to a person who has the time to meticulously research the individuals. They will need to wend their way through categories and classifications like failed policies, gulags, disappearances, mass murders, and civil wars. For any one person named, the figures vary widely as killers do not always keep good records. (imagine that.)
This post represents my candidates for the top ten evil people in the 20th century.
And finally, you will find people on this list who are not on the country list. This is because a disparity exists in different sources and how the numbers are excluded or included. If you wish a definitive source, you will have to create it. I could not find one.
20 responses so far ↓
kindlingman // November 12, 2006 at 6:17 am
A commenter on the Top Ten Evil Countries post asked about Vietnam. This led me to thinking that perhaps Ho Chi Minh should be on my Top Ten Evil People of the 20th Century list, too. Because North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam, we could rightly attribute the Vietnam Conflict deaths to Ho Chi Minh. The deaths from the Vietnam Conflict was around 5.3 million: 1 million NVA, 2 million NV civilians, 2 million SV civilians, 230,000 SV Army, and 58,000 Americans.
This would place Ho Chi Minh in the fourth position here and North Vietnam in 3rd position for Top Ten Evil Countries. I will amend this ranking when I move this posting to a page in the future.
Stephen // November 14, 2006 at 1:59 am
This is a fascinating post and is obviously horrendous in regards to the sheer volume of deaths. When you consider the loss of one relation and then multiypy this by millions, instead of it becoming more painfull it is almost made acceptable.
What did surprise me is I was unaware of the number of people killed by Mao, is life so valueless?
cathy // November 15, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Ya know….#7 killed 1 million in 4 months….if he continued at that rate for the same number of years as #1….he might have tripled #1’s numbers. Scary.
Philip Graham // February 13, 2007 at 10:41 am
I think that marilyn manson should be on this list. He may not have killed anyone directly but he is responsible for uncountable murders and suicides. He is sick and deranged and has one of the worlds most deliberately evil minds. If you dont belive me, dont just take my word for it. visit http://www.johnnyleeclary.com/manson.htm and it may convince you that the infamous name of marilyn manson should make the list. Thankyou for reading
jose cuarvoe cuarvo // March 28, 2007 at 9:19 am
George W Bush Should be the #1 Person
kindlingman // March 29, 2007 at 4:01 am
That would not fit the facts. One cannot compare Bush to Mao, or Stalin, or Hitler. Bush may not be a good president but he is certainly no systemic , systematic, destroyer of human life. If you think so, then you know too little about Mao, Stalin, and Hitler. I would suggest that you go read about them before comparing President Bush to their ilk.
Aamy // April 8, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Unfair list…. Lists all…. But left out one important nominee in the list…. I think the first place shud go something like this – 1. US Govt – killed > XXX million people (hard to estimate but surely on the top list) – right from the ages they started killing the Red Indians….
Ben Maulis // April 27, 2007 at 3:41 pm
All evil men indeed. Two of them are still alive. God didn’t see fit to destroy them with a flood or hurl brimstone upon them from heaven, at least not yet. Nevertheless, the Word of God tells us that he “has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness.”
What about you? Are you ready for that day? Whether you are ready or not, you can be assured that, “it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.”
Publicly Preaching the Salvation and Judgment of Christ
https://www.maulis.com/video_gallery.html
kindlingman // April 28, 2007 at 6:28 am
Aamy:
This is a list about people not governments AND I would like to see some evidence of policies and numbers killed that would prove this.
Ben:
If I read you correctly, God permits evil men to live and destroy other men. But that is okay because the evil men will be judged after they are dead (along with men who were not evil).
In many Christian religious beliefs, the punishment for adultery or murdering tens of millions people is the same: separation from God.
Do you think it reasonable that the same God who gave us the Earth and all of its diversity can only think of one punishment to offer?
Perhaps the role of mankind is to prevent evil by its members. Perahps we should be less concerned with our own moral code and more concerned with preventing others from making evil.
Borealis // May 3, 2007 at 8:29 am
As far as I’m concern, the USA is not perfect but it’s the best there is. I am an immigrant. I have survived: earthquakes, floods, droughts, hurricanes, war, socialism and a stroke. God is merciful!
How about understanding our power to vote, getting informed before we vote and taking an active roll so that we can force our politicians to draw the right foreign policies. How about taking some responsibility and stop pointing fingers. As an adult, if you want something done, get involve. In a democracy, there is a direct connection between voting and policy. And while we are at it, let’s learn some geography and read some foreign news, maybe learn a second language. The brain doesn’t hurt when we store information.
kindlingman // May 3, 2007 at 8:50 pm
I agree with you, Borealis. Stop by again.
James Singletary // May 7, 2007 at 8:07 am
It’s crazy how someone could kill that many people. I just cant believe it. I come to tell you that sadly the past is the past. We need to make a change now. If we could stop the preaching of hatetread and shutdown these evil music producers.(no matter how much money there bringing in.
James Singletary // May 7, 2007 at 8:09 am
It’s crazy how someone could kill that many people. I just cant believe it. I come to tell you that sadly the past is the past. We need to make a change now. If we could stop the preaching of hatetread and shutdown these evil music producers.(no matter how much money there bringing in). It would stop a lot of evil thoughts
kindlingman // May 7, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Thanks for your comments, James.
Hatred strong enough to kill people comes from three sources IMO : mental instability (nature) , indoctrinated beliefs (nurture), and emotional stress ( the breakdown of nurture barriers to killing.)
To the extent that preaching hatred impacts items two and three, I agree with you. However, I am not certain that music producers are inherently evil because they permit the preaching of hatred, yet they may be assigned a level of evil. I believe that evil is composed of malice, maleficence, and morality (or immorality). While the producrs may bear some burden of root cause, they themselves may not accuratey be described evil based soley upon producing music.
Thanks for stopping by.
Weekend Fisher // June 2, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Y’know, whoever is officially responsible for the Armenian genocide got a free pass. That was World War I, but the death count was somewhere 1 – 2 million, depending on the estimator. So I think this list has some holes in it.
Take care & God bless
WF
ReasonableCitizen // June 3, 2008 at 4:58 am
Thanks for letting me know. I will look into that.
RC
JW // August 3, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I think you might wish to consider the Sino-Japanese war begun in 1937. The KMT lost 3.2 million soldiers. It might be the war that everyone forgot in part because it happened “over there” and in part because it was for a time subsumed into WWII. The atrocities were savage.
See wiki.
ReasonableCitizen // August 3, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Yes, I think there are a number of areas that need improving in this list. I have not taken the time to do that but perhaps later this year I will get this done and re-post the whole list.
Thanks for stopping by.
Karan Govind // June 11, 2009 at 8:50 am
GEORGE W. BUSH
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI
AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD
KIM JONG-IL
Karan Govind // June 11, 2009 at 8:50 am
OSAMA BIN LADEN