10 Times History Warned Us About Dangerous People

10 Times History Warned Us About Dangerous People

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today were looking at early incidents in the reigns of fearsome political figures that should've set off alarm bells worldwide.

Osama bin Laden

The al-Qaeda leader rose to global infamy as the architect of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York City. However, 9/11 wasnt the first time that the militant leader was registered as a threat by the global intelligence community. Bin Laden, who had long harbored a grudge against the United States, was incensed by President George H.W. Bushs failure to pull American troops from Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Southern Watch. As such, bin Laden issued two fatwas against the U.S. in 1996 and 98, condemning American support for Israel and its sanctions on Iraq. In the fatwas, he swore to exact vengeance on the U.S., which he would do just three years later.

Benito Mussolini

Among the most notorious and reviled figures of the Second World War is Italian dictator Mussolini, whose longtime title was quite literally the Duke of Fascism. The prime minister, who held that title for nearly two decades before the start of the war, was an early adopter of propaganda. Governing under the fascist Spazio vitale doctrine, Mussolini turned Italy into an oppressive police state in the mid-1920s, consolidating immense amounts of executive power and establishing a cult of personality around himself. Mussolinis tactics of suppressing dissent and turning himself into a godlike figure would prove disturbingly prescient with regard to the rise of fascist regimes in the 30s.

Saddam Hussein

He may not have been hiding any weapons of mass destruction, but the 5th president of Iraq was controversial for a host of other reasons. A polarizing figure in the Middle East for his resistance to American imperialism and authoritarian tendencies, Husseins later activities were presaged by the 17 July Revolution. The revolution was a nonviolent coup that successfully unseated the sitting administration and installed a Baathist government that would more forcefully address their grievances with Israel. Hussein played an important if not central role in planning out the coup, and became Iraqs next president after taking over from his cousin, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.

Idi Amin

In 1971, the administration of second Ugandan president Milton Obote was overthrown by Amin, Obotes military commander. Amin had previously learned that Obote would fire him for embezzlement from the army, and was empowered by Israeli government forces to take action. Installing himself as the third president of Uganda, Amin presided over one of the most oppressive and despotic regimes in history. Before that, though, Obote charged Amin with ousting Mutesa II of Buganda, Obotes predecessor. Amin thus led the Battle of Mengo Hill, forcing Mutesa into exile, foreshadowing the brutal violence that would define his leadership style.

Slobodan Miloevi

You dont become the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes for nothing. Miloevi, who served as the president of Serbia from 1991 to 97, has been described as an opportunist who took advantage of the bloody Yugoslav Wars with the intention of building up the Serbian empire. This, of course, came at the expense of the previous Yugoslav republics, like Slovenia and Croatia. Miloevis fomenting of Serbian nationalism, while not a formative tenet of his early political career, could be traced back to his anti-bureaucratic revolution. This constituted a series of 1988 protests that, per the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, led to the ousting of the respective provincial and republican governments; the new governments were then supportive of, and indebted to, Slobodan Miloevi.

Kim Il Sung

Before Kim Jong Un, before Kim Jong Il, there was Kim Il Sung. While his respective grandson and son played integral roles in building up the North Korea we know and fear today, there wouldve been no modern-day North Korea without its first supreme leader. Although he was unsuccessful in his goal of unifying the North and South following the Korean War, Kim collectivized all of the nations industry and built up an ironclad cult of personality around himself. According to defected North Korean leader Hwang Jang-yop, one of Kims earliest acts as dictator was dispensing with students who had gone abroad to the Soviet Union and had become critical of his rule.

Mao Zedong

Widely considered the father of the modern-day Peoples Republic of China, Maos legacy is intensely complex. On one hand, his Great Leap Forward initiative was a failure and quickly morphed into the Great Chinese Famine, resulting in countless deaths. On the other hand, he improved Chinas standing on the world stage and is credited with bringing the country into the 20th century. That said, it should have been clear that Maos ruthless ambition had the potential for disastrous ruin from the time of the Siege of Changchun, in which the Mao-led Peoples Liberation Army forcibly captured the city by starving it, leading to the deaths of 160,000 civilians.

Pol Pot

The head of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodias communist movement, the dictator born Saloth Sâr is responsible for some of historys most disturbing war crimes and human atrocities. From 1975 to 79, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge carried out the Cambodian genocide, which saw the systematic killings of as many as 3 million people in a rapid-fire attempt to imitate the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Shortly before establishing himself as the leader of Cambodia, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge achieved a major goal by conquering and evacuating Phnom Penh, where nearly 3 million people were evacuated and forced to relocate. Along the way, some 20,000 people died, a tragic sign of what was to come.

Joseph Stalin

Heres a name thatll send a chill down your spine. The General Secretary of the Soviet Unions Communist Party initially collaborated with Adolf Hitler to allow Germany to invade Poland, before Hitler betrayed him and Stalin turned to the Allies. However, maybe it shouldnt have been shocking to the world community that Stalin would work with Hitler. Stalins attempts to rapidly impose what he called socialism in one country engineered the necessary conditions for a devastating famine from 1932 to 1933; estimates suggest that as many as 9 million people died as a result of his actions and policies. This is without even mentioning Stalins Great Purge of 1936 to 38, in which his regime executed up to a million people who Stalin deemed as subversives.

Adolf Hitler

While its unlikely that we need to bring you up to speed on World War II, the deadliest conflict in history, its important to remember one thing about the Führers totalitarian regime: Hitler didnt forcibly conquer Germany, he was elected (that is, after a failed coup détat of the Weimar Republic in 1923). He did this by seizing on low German morale in the aftermath of the Great Depression, specifically attempting to appeal to those affected most by it. Taking advantage of public fears of the spread of communism, Hitler promised a return to German greatness and a thriving economy. While the rest is quite literally history, Hitlers fearsome rise to power stands as a stark reminder of how demagoguery is born.

Which historical moment in our video shocked you the most? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!