Some people I read about just now.....

[Fidel Castro]

Yes, yes I know, another really irritating oppinions post for you to graciously give up a few moments for. Whilst readin a book, these names were mentioned, and the author did not appear too keen on them. Rather than take his word on the matter (which for all I know is bull-shit) I thought the good people here at Che-lives would be able to provide oppinions on the following,

1 - Tito
2 - Ho Chi Minh
3 - Trotsky
4 - Pol Pot

The book that these are mentioned in is very vague about them, and dosn't appear to say much apart from brief summeries of their policies and background. I'll confess that I know nothing about Tito or Ho Chi Minh and have only heard about Trotsky and Pol Pot.

Thanks for your time,

[Morpheus]

Tito was leader of the Yugoslav Communist Party. He drove the Nazis out of Yugoslavia and established a Marxist-Leninist state in Yugoslavia. He imposed a one-party dictatorship. On the plus side, Yugoslavia was probably the freest of the Eastern Bloc countries.

Ho Chi Min was the leader of the Communist party in Vietnam. He kicked the French & Americans out and established a Marxist-Leninist one-party dictatorship.

Pol Pot was a genocidal dictator of Cambodia, who killed a gazillion people. He claimed to be a Communist. Vietnam invaded and kicked him out of power in 1979, then the US supported his attempts to kick the Vietnamese out and regain power.

Trotsky was commander of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. Co-founder of the USSR. Stalin had him killed. You can see some quotes from Trotsky at http://www.struggle.ws/russia/trotsky_quote.html

IMO, they were all tyrants. But I'm against all Marxist-Leninist regimes.

You can find more information on all these people at http://www.marxists.org

[RedAnarchist]

I agree with Morpheus about the first three, but Trotsky was not a tyrant.

[Uhuru na Umoja]

Regarding Tito you might want to look at the following link from I debate I once had with Cassius Clay. From that you should be able to see two different socialist perspective on him. Anyways here it is: previous debate on Tito (http://www.che-lives.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=5&t=5460&st=0#entry58565). Also you might want to glance at this thread (http://www.che-lives.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=5&t=5391&hl=tito) where we had a shorter discussion.

[Solace]

Tito Mania (http://www.che-lives.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=8&t=21015)

[Fidel Castro]

Good links on Tito, thanks. Not overly impressed with him myself, yet not really appauled either.

I was drudging through the book until I decided to read the information about the author, who it turns out is an ex-Conservative MP who was part of Thatcher's foreign comittee.........guess it's pretty worthless now, although I'll finish it now just because I hate reading half a book and stopping! Besides, at least his constant criticisms are backed up with some evidence!

[Comrade Zeke]

WOA WOA WOA! I am the one who always starts these very great discussions on Titio why didn't you ask me????

[yoshim]

before reading this post i had not heard of a single one of them. However now i am at least a bit more up to date on my history.

[crazy comie]

In my opinion pol pot is an extreamly evilman ho chi minh is a bit to authorotarian and tito is okay and trotsky is very intelligent and should have been leader of the rsfsr.

[Urban Rubble]

Ho Chi Minh is too authoritarian yet you're a Trot supporter ? Are you aware of how big a contradiction that is ? Trot was twice the authoritarian that Ho was, the guy wanted to shoot people for being late to work.

[Saddie-sad]

I feel so dumb...I didnt' really know who these people were. I've just recently been interested in politics so my intelligence is low on some matters. *blush*

[crazy comie]

Trot wanted to allow the soviets to continue acting as a democratic institution not execute pepole for being late tro work.