populism vs. Marxism (was RE: Frank Sinatra)

[Brad De Long]

>Brad replies to Wojtek:
>>>criterion that matters in evaluating them is the 'whose thug?'  -- for
>>>every national leader's closet hides plenty of skeletons.  I do not think
>>>these figures are any more or less reprehensible than Rosevelets, Trumans,
>>>Nixons, or Reagans.
>>
>>Surely the magnitude of the body count matters?
>
>By the body count, how do FDR, Truman, Nixon, Reagan, etc. fare? Anybody
>ever counted?
>
>Yoshie

It depends on what you do with wars: whose "fault" is the death of roughly
ten million Germans in World War II?

I think the place to draw the line is at setting whole cities on fire.
Bombing railroads and districts with tank factories in them is not a war
crime. Trying to set whole cities on fire is.

By that count Truman gets roughly 200,000 skeletons--say, one-fourth of a
Suharto. Roosevelt gets half a Suharto. By my (rough) count Reagan gets
perhaps a tenth of a Suharto, and Nixon and Johnson together make it up
into the Suharto range.

Pinochet gets maybe a tenth of a Suharto. Ho Chi Minh is maybe a Suharto
and a half.

Castro I don't know enough about, but I suspect he is in the tenth-Suharto
range. Kim Il Sung is probably in the three Suharto range. Pol Pot is also
in the three Suharto range--but he gets extra points for "enthusiasm" given
Cambodia's small population base.

Lenin and Chiang Kai-Shek are in the roughly ten Suharo range.

The servants of the Showa Emperor make it up to the 10-20 Suharto range.

Mao, Stalin, and Hitler are in the 30-60 Suharto range.