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  1. The numerous Great Leaps Forward that all failed and caused mass starvation, plus the Cultural Revolution, make Mao the unfortunate holder of worst dictator ever. So wrote his personal doctor whose opinion I’m copying in The Private Life of Chairman Mao.

  2. Numbers vary…..

    “It is a competition between Hitler, Stalin and Mao Zedong. Hitler was resposible for 20-25 million deaths, Stalin the estamates vary from 20-60 Million and Mao 40-72 Million. So it looks like a tie between Mao and Stalin with Mao the probable biggest killer.”

    From another source…..

    Mao Ze-Dong (China, 1958-61 and 1966-69, Tibet 1949-50) 49-78,000,000
    Jozef Stalin (USSR, 1932-39) 23,000,000 (the purges plus Ukraine’s famine)
    Adolf Hitler (Germany, 1939-1945) 12,000,000 (concentration camps and civilians WWII)
    Leopold II of Belgium (Congo, 1886-1908) 8,000,000
    Hideki Tojo (Japan, 1941-44) 5,000,000 (civilians in WWII)
    Ismail Enver (Turkey, 1915-20) 1,200,000 Armenians (1915) + 350,000 Greek Pontians and 480,000 Anatolian Greeks (1916-22) + 500,000 Assyrians (1915-20)
    Pol Pot (Cambodia, 1975-79) 1,700,000
    Kim Il Sung (North Korea, 1948-94) 1.6 million (purges and concentration camps)
    Menghistu (Ethiopia, 1975-78) 1,500,000
    Yakubu Gowon (Biafra, 1967-1970) 1,000,000
    Leonid Brezhnev (Afghanistan, 1979-1982) 900,000
    Jean Kambanda (Rwanda, 1994) 800,000
    Suharto (East Timor, West Papua, Communists, 1966-98) 800,000
    Saddam Hussein (Iran 1980-1990 and Kurdistan 1987-88) 600,000
    Tito (Yugoslavia, 1945-1987) 570,000
    Fumimaro Konoe (Japan, 1937-39) 500,000? (Chinese civilians)
    Jonas Savimbi (Angola, 1975-2002) 400,000

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