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Backed by the United States

Dictators backed by the United States (or, as some have called them, “Friendly Dictators“) often rise to power through bloody CIA-backed coups and rule by terror and torture. Their troops may receive training or advice from the CIA and other U.S. agencies. “Anti-communism” is their common battle cry and a common excuse for political repression.

Friendly Dictators usually grow rich, while their countries’ economies go down the drain. U.S. tax dollars and U.S. backed loans have made billionaires of some; others are international drug dealers who also collect CIA paychecks. Rarely are they called to account for their crimes.

• Chiang Kai-Shek, President of Taiwan
• Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea
• Park Chung Hee, President of South Korea
• Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam
• Mohammed Zia Ul-Haq, President of Pakistan
• Halie Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia
• Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia
• P. W. Botha, President of South Africa
• General Samuel Doe, President of Liberia
• Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire
• Hassan Ii, King of Morocco
• Ferdinand Marcos, President of the Philippines
• Sir Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei
• General Sitiveni Rabuka, Commander of the Armed Forces of Fiji
• General Suharto, President of Indonesia
• Mohammad Reza Pahlevi, Shah of Iran, King of Kings
• Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq
• Antonio De Oliveira Salazar, Prime Minister of Portugal
• General Francisco Franco, President of Spain
• Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany
• George Papadopoulos, Prime Minister of Greece
• Turgut Ozal, Prime Minister of Turkey
• Fulgencio Batista, President of Cuba
• Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic
• François & Jean Claude Duvalier, Presidents-for-Life of Haiti
• Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, General of El Salvador
• Alfredo Cristiani, President of El Salvador
• Anastasio Somoza, Sr. and Jr., Presidents of Nicaragua
• Sr. And Jr., General Efrain Rios Mont, Presidents of Guatemala
• Vinicio Cerezo, President of Guatemala
• Carlos Castillo Armas, President of Guatemala
• Roberto Suazo Cordova, President of Honduras
• General Manuel Noriega, Chief of Defense forces, Panama
• General Humberto Branco, President of Brazil
• Colonel Hugo Banzer, President of Bolivia
• General Jorge Rafael Videla, President of Argentina
• Alfredo Stroessner, President-for-Life of Paraguay
• General Augusto Pinochet, President of Chile

Others

This article needs to have better references

• Hirohito
• Takugawa
• Jiang Zemin
• Musharraf
• Zai Ul-Haq
• King Fahd
• Nicholas the Great
• Catherine the Great
• George Papadopoulos

References

• Friendly Dictators Index