Most Ruthless leaders of all time

Business Insider ^ | October 7, 2015 | Elena Holodny and Amanda Macias

[Idaho_Cowboy]

One man's hero is another man's tyrant, a popular aphorism goes.

But while we can argue the validity and virtue of certain political agendas, the callous methods by which some leaders attain their goals are less up to interpretation.

After all, no matter how a historian tries to spin it, ordering a tower to be constructed out of live men stacked and cemented together with bricks and mortar is pretty brutal.

Business Insider put together a list of the most ruthless leaders of all time featuring men and women who employed merciless tactics to achieve their political and military agendas.

[Here the list of the names; detail at the link]

Qin Shi Huang

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (aka Caligula)

Attila the Hun

Wu Zetian

Genghis Khan

Tomas de Torquemada

Timur (aka Tamerlane)

Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (aka Vlad Drăculea or Vlad the Impaler)

Czar Ivan IV (aka Ivan the Terrible)

Queen Mary I (aka Bloody Mary)

Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed (aka the Blood Countess)

Maximilien Robespierre

King Leopold II of Belgium

Mehmet Talat Paşa

Vladimir Lenin

Benito Mussolini

Joseph Stalin

Adolf Hitler

Khorloogiin Choibalsan

Francisco Franco

Mao Zedong

Pol Pot

Idi Amin

Augusto Pinochet

[laplata]

There is no doubt in my mind that without our Second Amendment, Obama would certainly have already been put on that list.
_________________________________________
I agree
+++++++++

And at the rate we’re going, if Hitlery is “elected”, she would make the list.

[Dartman]

Does Kerry know his idol “Jenghis” is on this list?

[stormhill]

Kept the hordes (Muslims) at bay by impaling them and hanging them at the borders and walls.

So, you're saying sometimes you must show the barbarians you can be every bit as ruthless as they.
Gnarly

[laplata]

Didn’t it give you the creeps?

That’s interesting.

[laplata]

Neither Pinochet nor Franco belong on that list.

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I agree.

We need a Pinochet here. Temporarily, of course. IMO

[laplata]

Were you a diplomat?

[catfish1957]

Didn’t the History Channel have a documentary on something similar a number of years back? If I remember correctly Gengis Khan won (interesting descriptive) that dishonor.

[laplata]

I don’t think he made up the list.

[ctdonath2]

Oh how I would like to buy you a generous quantity of your beverage of choice and spend an evening listening to you elaborate on that post.

[dp0622]

Torquemada let’s face it, you can’t torquemada anything!

Actually, the American presidents during WWII could theoretically be up there and that would be fine with me.

But they did it for the good of the country and not themselves.

Dresden bombing and dropping atom bombs were pretty ruthless :)

No problem with the A bomb, a little bit of a problem with Dresden.

But i could be wrong.

and who made a tower out of live men!!! have to look that one up or go to the link

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Queen Mary I (aka Bloody Mary)
Remove this lady from your list please.

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Well it's not my list and if it were burning a mere 280 people wouldn't be enough to make my list; I'd save the honor for worser tyrants. I think they put on here so they didn't get accused of sexism.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

That’s a chart I’ll be hanging on to. Thanks

[Popman]

——Neither Pinochet nor Franco belong on that list. ——

Funny, I was thinking the exact thought...

[Slyfox]

I know it was Business Insider. I have spent the last few years reading every biography on Mary I and she doesn’t deserve to be on such a list.

[Chaguito]

Agree, especially on Pinochet. Not remotely in the class of the most ruthless. Very low body count.

[MuttTheHoople]

I disagree about Franco and Pinochet. They were tough and ruthless, and I probably wouldn’t want them to rule me. However, they were fighting Communists the whole time they were in power.

[laplata]

Sorry, I misunderstood. I agree with you that she doesn’t even come close to being on such a list.

[Chaguito]

Did you see Last King of Scotland? How would it compare?

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Surprised they didn’t make the list 10000 names ling so they xould squeeze on an evil founding father

[SES1066]

In the 'rankings' of these rulers, we have those who have killed hundreds (Mary I & Elizabeth Báthory) to those who killed tens of millions (Hitler, Stalin & Mao). Perhaps a better measure would be per capita deaths which would, I think, put Pol Pot at the top. Still it is those who were secure in their power who gave free exercise to sadism, cruelty and slaughter that I hold most evil; Timur the Lame, Elizabeth Báthory, King Leopold II, Talat Paşa, Hitler, Stalin, Mao & Pol Pot.