Are there others in modern times?
All the ones I think of the top of my head were not
Stalin
Lenin
Pol Pot
Hitler
Idi Amin
Pinochet
Mussolini ?
Mao
Ceausescu in Romania
My definition of ‘put to death’ excludes all those mentioned in the OP. I thought they all died without violent intervention except Hitler and, possibly, Pol Pot. Hitler committed suicide and Pol Pot may have taken the same route.
From what I have read Pol Pot was not put to death. He may have been killed by someone, but that seems unlikely from the reports.
My apologies.
I missed the word ‘not’ in the OP.
Not only was he (and his wife Elena) executed by firing squad in 1989, it was televised on live national television. Their bullet-ridden bodies were left on display in town for days.
I think it’s safe to say he was hated. And with good reason.
I went to Romania 5 years after. His stench still permeated the hospitals and orphanages.
Mussolini most certainly was put to death; his body (along with that of his mistress and a couple other schmos) was hung by its ankles on public display. Graphic photo link.
Mao, though, lived to be 82 and died of Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His body lay in state for a while afterward.
There have been a number of cases of dictators being put to death by succeeding dictators:
Mohammed Najibullah, the last of Afghanistan’s pro-Soviet leaders and by most accounts a pretty ruthless dictator, was eventually put to death by the Taliban (who were themselves ruthless dictators and also religious fanatics).
Samuel Doe overthrew–and killed–Liberian President William Tolbert (who was himself the last member of a century-long string of Presidents who ruled as part of a one-party state in Libera) and ruled as a ruthless dictator for ten years before being tortured and killed himself by a rival thug.
I don’t know how ruthless they were, but Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheamphong overthrew an elected government in Ghana; Colonel Acheamphong was subsequently deposed by Lt. General Fred Akuffo; then Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings overthrew General Akuffo, and had both Colonel Acheamphong and General Akuffo shot, along with an earlier military strongman, General Akwasi Afrifa.
I’m not sure if you would count them as ruthless dictators in their own right, but several collaborationist leaders were executed after WWII, including Vidkun Quisling (Norway), Jozef Tiso (Czechoslovakia), Ferenc Szálasi (Hungary), and Ion Antonescu (Romania). Philippe Pétain, the French collaborationist leader, was tried and sentenced to death after WWII, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison.
Hideki Tojo, the Prime Minister of Japan, was executed after WWII. He was ruthless enough, but calling him a dictator is iffy given that he served under Emperor Hirohito.
Does Julius Caesar count?
From what I’ve heard, the emperor was mostly a figurehead by this point, not unlike the British royalty. If Tojo qualifies as a dictator (and I’m not saying that he does; I don’t know one way or the other) the fact that he was nominally a servant of the emperor shouldn’t disqualify him.
Here are some executed dictators/Head of State who were executed and haven’t been mentioned yet.
Ion Antonescu WWII Romanian Facist dictator
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Reasonably nasty Pakistani President
Maurice Bishop President of Grenada. Ruthless (according to Ronald Reagan).
Pierre Laval Pro-Nazi Head of Vichy France
Arthur Seyss-Inquart Not exactly a ruthless dictator, but he was Chancellor of Austria. Ran concentrion camps in Holland.
Considering his fatal tendency to forgive his enemies, probably not.
Sorry, that wasn’t clear. I meant to say that Caesar probably wasn’t ruthless enough to count as a ruthless dictator.
I wouldn’t consider him a dictator in the sense that Hitler and Saddam were dictators. Certainly Sulla was a more bloodthirsty dictator than Caesar was.
I think the term “put to death” implies a judicial execution following due process of law. Mussolini was lynched without trial, I believe.
The Gauls, I’d imagine, would have felt quite differently.
Well, he’s hardly in ‘modern times’ anyway.
wasn’t Ceasar actually killed to prevent him becoming dictator ruthless or benevolent
Also, was Lenin considered ruthless?