Conrad Black

20th-century assassins – How to be a Dictator reviewed

Frank Dikötter’s anecdotal ‘biography’ of the eight men who plagued the past century

Frank Dikötter has written a very lively and concise analysis of the techniques and personalities of eight 20th-century dictators: Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, Duvalier (Haiti), Ceausescu (Romania) and Mengistu (Ethiopia). As a comparative study of those individuals, it is enlightening and a good read. The title and parts of the foreword indicate that it aspires to be a guidebook of tactics for those aspiring to be dictators and to retain their status as such.

There are some weaknesses in this broader ambition. These eight men were not altogether uniform in their methods of obtaining power, retaining it, or losing it, and certainly not in their abilities. Stalin, Mao, Kim Il-sung and Duvalier died in office to great public lamentations. Kim’s grandson holds his position; an ostensible heir is in Mao’s old chair and, as the author remarks near the end, is embellishing and reinforcing his dictatorship much as Mao and some of the others did. Vladimir Putin, though not nominally a communist or remotely as powerful or brutal as Stalin, yet invokes aspects of his memory, especially in opposing Russia’s would-be westernisers and in purporting to rebuild Russia’s world influence. François Duvalier’s son and heir was sent packing (with full pockets), but only after plundering his poor country for a further 15 years.

Of the four who did not die while serenely in office, Mengistu fled into exile. Hitler, still supported, as far as can be judged, by German opinion, even in total defeat, at least had the dignity to commit suicide, jointly with his bride of 36 hours, and have their remains burned to avoid desecration of their corpses. Both Mussolini and Ceausescu were deposed and executed. Dikötter makes the point that all these men tried to claim some theoretical and public policy and rigour, though it is really only communism that has attracted serious and durable advocates.

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