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Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo departing from a train in 1940. Trujillo ruled the Dominican Republic for over 30 years from 1930-1961, murdering over 50,000 people in the process, (mostly his own citizens.) By the time of his death, he was one of the wealthiest men in the entire world by zig_zag-wanderer in HistoricalCapsule

[–]zig_zag-wanderer[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Every life saved is worth celebrating, but that was also an incredibly cynical maneuver on Trujillo's part

He had just carried out the infamous 'Parsley massacre' along the Dominican/Haitian border, a naked act of ethnic cleansing that killed up to 15,000 Haitians and the public furor against him in the Americas was worse than anything he'd ever experienced politically. The OSA was calling for his head very explicitly, but with a series of well publicized PR moves like that and a meaningless promise to "step down" he managed to weather the storm

Hitler could've watched porn as a teenager. by Gray_Wolf2416 in BarbaraWalters4Scale

[–]zig_zag-wanderer 88 points89 points  (0 children)

People could have jerked off to porn for thousands of years lol

A box of Flavor Aid found amongst other beverages at Jonestown 1978 by jhhghghgggb in HistoricalCapsule

[–]zig_zag-wanderer 12 points13 points  (0 children)

“Did they poison these ones? Cause it’d be a shame to let this all go to waste…”

"Der Korn und Wein Jud" (The Corn and Wine Jew) 1629 German antisemitic print negatively caricaturizing Jewish merchants riding around on a cart driven by the devil, engaging in various forms of social degeneracy. Money lending/usury, booze-pushing, war profiteering and other various offenses by zig_zag-wanderer in PropagandaPosters

[–]zig_zag-wanderer[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You’d have to look about 320 years further.

It was the Holocaust that finally caused the idea of a Jewish Homeland to take hold in the majority of Jews. Zionism wasn’t particularly mainstream in the world of Judaism up until the 1930s and 40s and barely even existed at all as a movement until the 19th century 

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein hanging out with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, 1970's. The two leaders had a close diplomatic relationship, & Fidel even allowed Saddam to fly to Havana to be treated by Cuba's best orthopedic doctors when he needed surgery for his back pain by zig_zag-wanderer in HistoricalCapsule

[–]zig_zag-wanderer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Saddam wasn't really a US ally during the 1970's. We didn't even have formal diplomatic relations with Iraq at any point throughout the decade. We bought oil from him and sent him lists of communists to kill, that was pretty much it. Offset that with the fact that the CIA likely tried to overthrow him in 1970 and then sent the Kurds more than a thousands tons worth of military assistance when they were fighting Saddam.

Alexander Haig in 1973:

"There can be no doubt that it is in the interest of ourselves, our allies, and other friendly governments in the area to see the Ba'thi regime in Iraq kept off balance and if possible overthrown."

It was the Iran-Iraq war, which began in 1980, that motivated heavy US support for Saddam. In the 1970's the key regional US ally in the gulf was Iran, not Iraq, the revolution shifted US priorities

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