Most evil dictator the USA was ever chums with? (Nominations Phase)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

Off the top of my head:

Pinochet, from Chile
Videla, from Argentina
Marcos, from the Phillipines
Suharto, from Indonesia
Reza Pahlavi, from Iran
Franco, from Spain
The House of Saud, from Saudi Arabia
The Duvaliers, from Haiti
Anastasio Somoza, from Nicaragua

Fell free to add any I forget. I'm not counting Saddam or Pol Pot because they ended up as "bad guys". I'm thinking dictators that were in cahoots with the US government for their entire stint at power.

And yes, Brazil had military dictators too, and they killed innocent people, but compared to the one above they were high school bullies.

[Snow]

1. The tag team of Chun Doohwan and Roh Taewoo from South Korea

during the late 70's into the 80's. They were the result of our dissatisfaction with Park Junghee, who was assassinated - supposedly not with US help, although the assassin's family was in the US and there was a US carrier standing offshore during the assassination with helicopters ready to go. Anyway, these two clowns were from the same province as Pak, were in the first 4-year graduating class of the Korean Military Academy, and replaced the perfectly decent president, Choi Kyuha, who had replaced Pak. Not strong enough to face the threat from the North and all that. Well, these guys were strong enough. The two of them put down the Kwangju rebellion, which had begun with student protests, killing many people - the count is still uncertain - using special troops who were soldiers without family, who therefore felt alienated from Korean society and who therefore were particularly ruthless and vicious. After that little episode, they imprisoned and tortured numerous dissidents, including Nobel Peace Prize nominee Hahm Sukhun and future president Kim Daejoong, who to this day has a limp from the torture he endured. When they were finally booted out of power, it was discovered that they'd done the usual dictator thing of looting the treasury, and they've finally been prosecuted for that, at least.

[cheezus]

2. Sharon

[MAlibdem]

28. elected popularly...

[NoPasaran]

3. A few more

Porfirio Diaz, Mexico
Numerri (sp?), Sudan
Karimov, Uzbekistan
Thieu, South Vietnam

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

25. Oh my. The guy from Uzbekistan.

That's a real, er, gem. Yikes.

[NoPasaran]

29. Actually I think the lunatic running Turkmenistan is worse

But he's not such a buddy of Bush* at the moment.

[TimMooring]

34. george bush (nt)

[Blue_Tires]

4. Pol Pot? n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

13. The USA wanted him to kick Vietnam's ass.

Thankfully, it was the other way around.

[mouse7]

18. I'll second Pol Pot. n/t

[BurtWorm]

5. I nominate: Dictators in Guatemala installed by the United Fruit Company

in the 1950s. They were pretty awful. I don't know if there's a single name that stands out.

Mabuto of Zaire is another human rights disaster we supported.

Not to mention these terrorists: the Contras, UNITA, RENAMO, the Mujahedeen.

[bobthedrummer]

7. Saddam Hussein

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/index.htm
:grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

24. Extragovernmental forces don't count, although I'm tempted to...

...make an exception just for UNITA. What a f***ed-up band of bastards.

[central scrutinizer]

6. Bautista in Cuba

nfm

[Sandpiper]

8. How about Ngo Dinh Diem

of South Vietnam?

[RandomKoolzip]

9. Definitely Pinochet.

I had family friends who went "missing" in Chile after Allende was cut down. CIA fuckers.

[AngryAmish]

10. That guy from Zaire - Mobutu Sese Seko(sp?)

One serious thief and tyrant.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. I don't know... he's kinda "not on our side" nowadays. (nt)

[AngryAmish]

20. Probably because he is dead.

Has been dead for several years.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. Agggh you're right. Wrong guy.

Mugabe, not Mobuto. Yikes. Major brain fart here. Sorry.

[AngryAmish]

11. Joe Stalin

Really, he was the medalist in this category. All others pale (except maybe Mao).

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. Doesn't qualify - was "bad guy" afterwards. (nt)

[AngryAmish]

19. No, always bad guy

Great Terror ('30s)
Ukranian Famine ('32-33)
collectivization ('27 on)

We made a deal with the devil, but we needed to do it to win the war.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. In this thread, I use "bad guy" as a shortcut to...

..."not chums with the USA anymore".

[AngryAmish]

27. Gotcha

I suppose I should have read the first post more closely. Sorry.

[Capt_Nemo]

12. Suharto, he has the highest body count

500000 in the 60s
plus 200000 in East Timor in the 70s and 80s

Since these are the most conservative estimates, this guy is responsible for the killing
of at least 700000!

[doni_georgia]

31. I 2nd Suarto - Guys you forgot Sadaam - we supported him for years! n/t

[NecessaryOnslaught]

37. O.G America since 1959

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030410-070214-6557r

[LTR]

16. Charles Taylor

I remember Pat Robertson loved the guy, and seemed to be joined at the hip.

Of course, Robertson is not part of the government. And thank God for that!

[LTR]

17. Antoher one - the Taliban

How much money were we sending over there prior to 9/11?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

21. No, same reason -- became bad guys, were kicked out by the USA

Well, maybe not in as thorough a fashion as they should, but still.

[salin]

26. El Salvadoran government during the eighties

(don't remember the name) - death squads and all. Several high profile murders of Catholic nuns and Bishop (Cardinal?) Romero brought the issue to the attention of the US public. At the same time our government would not recognize refugees from El Salvador as being/needing political asylum - and a movement was spurred in this country through churches to provide an underground sort of 'shelter' network.

[ulysses]

30. yeah.

I was going to say Pinochet, but I think I agree with you, salin. We've really covered ourselves in glory south of the border, haven't we?

[salin]

35. Not so stellar of a record.

and folks wonder why there remains some real mixed sentiments to the US and a bit of skepticism about roles and motives in contemporary "coups" (and attempted ones) such as in Venezueala and Haiti. Sadly our national self-image is a slightly different image than what is seen by some of our southern (nations) neighbors.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

32. Hitler. Just ask Prescott Bush, Henry Ford, and Joe Kennedy.

[thelocalkgb]

33. What Anastasio's son doesn't rate?

Not Luis, but Anastasio Jr., that kid was evil. I mean, come on, earthquake hits and he pockets the aid? Unless that's who you were talking about to begin with.

[NecessaryOnslaught]

36. Saddam Insaaaaaane

U.S. Shipments of Pathogens to Iraq
The Associated Press

Shipments from the United States to Iraq of the kinds of pathogens later used in Iraq's biological weapons programs, according to records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Senate Banking Committee and U.N. weapons inspectors:
ANTHRAX
Iraq admitted making 2,200 gallons of anthrax spores and putting some of them into weapons. U.N. inspectors said Iraq could have made three times as much anthrax as it acknowledged, and could not verify Iraq's claims to have destroyed all of its weaponized anthrax.
The American Type Culture Collection, a biological samples repository in Manassas, Va., sent two shipments of anthrax to Iraq in the 1980s. Three anthrax strains were in a May 1986 shipment sent to the University of Baghdad, which U.N. inspectors later linked to Iraq's biological weapons program. A 1988 shipment from ATCC to Iraq also included four anthrax strains.
BOTULINUM
Iraq admitted making 5,300 gallons of botulinum toxin, a deadly poison produced by the Clostridium botulinum bacteria, and putting some of it into weapons. Five warheads filled with botulinum toxin are missing.
ATCC sent six strains of Clostridium botulinum to the University of Baghdad in the May 1986 shipment. The September 1988 ATCC shipment to Iraq also contained one strain of Clostridium botulinum.
In March 1986, the CDC sent samples of botulinum toxin and botulinum toxiod (used to make a vaccine against botulinum poisoning) directly to Iraq's al-Muthanna complex, a center for Iraq's chemical weapons program and the site where Iraq restarted its dormant biological weapons program in 1985.
GAS GANGRENE
U.N. inspectors concluded Iraq could have produced hundreds of gallons of the germs that cause gas gangrene, though Iraq admitted producing just a fraction of that amount. Gas gangrene, caused by the Clostridium perfringens bacteria, causes toxic gases to form inside the body, killing tissues and causing internal bleeding, lung and liver damage.
ATCC sent three strains of Clostridium perfringens to the University of Baghdad in the May 1986 shipment and another three strains in the 1988 shipment.
OTHER
The CDC sent bacteria samples to Iraq's Atomic Energy Commission in 1985, 1987 and 1988. The commission was involved in Saddam's attempts to build a nuclear bomb and other weapons of mass destruction.
The CDC also sent bacteria samples to the Sera and Vaccine Institute in Amiriyah, Iraq, in 1988. The institute stored samples and did genetic engineering research for Iraq's biological weapons programs, U.N. inspectors found.

[JohnLocke]

38. The House of Saud!!!!!!