Iraq lost Bush’s War, and Saddam Hussein was executed. Other than that, when was the last time a Head of State was executed after a war? There have been assassinations (e.g., Ngo Dinh Diem in Vietnam and Nicolae Ceauşescu in Romania), but what I’m talking about is a war between two countries where the victorious side tries and executes (directly or through proxy) the HoS of the losing side.
This of course had very little to do with him losing the war, insofar as he was likely to be held up to war crimes/humanity trials in the event of falling out of power anyways.
We did hang the losers on the German side of WW2 in many cases.
True, but they weren’t the Heads of State. Karl Dönitz was the president of Germany for about three weeks, after Hitler snuffed himself, and was executed; but I’m excluding him for the purposes of this thread since he was not the HoS responsible for the war. I’m also excluding Mussolini because he was lynched.
That makes sense. What about Montezuma II and Vercingetorix, then? There were admittedly no nationstates in their respective times, but they were the de facto rulers of their nations.
I think Vidkun Quisling, Minister-President of Norway under German occupation during WWII, qualifies.
Didn’t it happen regularly in Africa?
It’s uncertain exactly how Montezuma died. Spanish accounts say he died after having been hit by stones thrown by his countrymen who felt he was complicit with the conquerors. Some native accounts allege he was killed by the Spanish, but this would have been more of an assassination than a formal execution.
A better example would be the Inca Emperor Atahualpa, garrotted by the Spanish on various trumped-up charges after he was captured.
Another possible example is Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, an Austrian put in power by the French and captured and executed by the Mexicans in 1867 after they withdrew. This is perhaps better considered a civil war than a war between two countries, however.
In what time period? Certainly some recent heads of state have been executed after coups or civil wars, but I’m having trouble thinking of any executed after a war between two African countries.
No, he wasn’t. Dönitz served out a ten-year prison sentence and died in 1980.
Ceauşescu and his wife were tried, but as it was clearly a show trial with the outcome never in question it may not count. (On the other hand, can we really say Saddam’s trial was fair?)
:smack: I was thinking of Jodl, who was not president but was hanged.
I stand corrected.
though technically he wasnt head of state when the war ended being deposed in 1944.
Mohammad Najibullah though again he wasnt quite head of state any more when the Taliban took over
Soviet - Afghan War?
yep probably the most clear cut was the soviets killing of Hafizullah Amin in 79 when they “invaded” afghanistan. It is slightly murky as Amin sort of invited them in prior, but they decided he wasnt the right man for the job.
Imre Nagy, the Marxist but anti-Soviet Prime Minister of Hungary (head of government) during the 1956 Revolution, was convicted of treason and executed in 1958.
Anton Mussert, the collaborationist leader of the Netherlands, was executed in 1946.
Pierre Laval, the collaborationist President of Vichy France was executed in 1945.
Laval was only the prime minister, Henri Pétain was the sead of state. M. Pétain was sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life in prison on account of his advanced age and record from World War One.
I hadn’t even realized Henri was one of Pétain’s (many) first names. He’s usually known as Philippe Pétain.
Not exactly sure if this fits the OP’s criterion, but it’s an interesting story, so what the hell.
After Mussolini was overthrown in 1943, the Nazis installed him as head of state of a puppet government. By 1945, the Allies were marching up through Italy, and Italian fascists and Marxists had joined forces to drive the Nazis out. Mussolini was captured by Marxist troops and was executed by their commander.
So it wasn’t a formal execution by the other side, but he was executed by troops fighting against his troops.
most of these are coups