140 lines
9.5 KiB
Plaintext
140 lines
9.5 KiB
Plaintext
Here is an interesting article I found in the July 7 th 1986 Wall Street
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Journal, page 10. It's title is
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War Isn't This Century's Biggest Killer by R.J.Rummel
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Our century is noted for its bloody wars. WW1 saw 9 million people
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killed in battle, an incredible record that was surpassed within a few decades
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by the 15 million battle deaths of WW2. Even the numbers killed in
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20th century revolutions and civil wars have set historical records. In
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total, about 35,654,000 people have died in this century's international and
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domestic wars, revolutions, and violent conflicts.
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Yet, even more unbeliveable than these vast numbers killed in war is a
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shocking fact. The number of people killed by totalitarian or extreme
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authoritarina governments already exceeds that for all wars, civil an
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international. Indeed, this number already approximates the number that might
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be killed in a nuclear war.
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The table provides the relvent totals and classifies them by type of
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government (definitions provided by Freedom House, a New York based
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human-rights group) and war. By "killed" is meant the direct or indirect
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killing by government officials, or government acquiesence in the killing
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by others. Excluded from the totals are those people executed for what are
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conventionally considered criminal acts (murder, rape, spying, treason, and
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the like). Those included in the totals were killed apart from the pursuit
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of any continuing military action or campaign, or as part of any conflict.
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The Jews that Hitler slaughtered during WW2 are counted, since their
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merciless and systematic extermination was unrelated to and actually
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conflicted with Hitler's pursuit of the war.
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UNDERESTIMATION POSSIBLE
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The totals in the table are based on a nation-by-nation assessment and
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areminimum figures that may underestime the true total by 10% or more.
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Moreover, they do not even include the 1921-1922 Soviet famine and the
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1958-1961 Chinese famine, which caused about 4 million and 27 million deaths,
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respectively. The Soviet famine was mainly due to the imposition of a
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command argicultura economy and forced requistions of food by the government;
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the latter was sholly caused by Mao's destructive collectivization of
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agriculture.
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However, the table does include the Soviet government's planned starvation
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of the Ukraine that was begun in 1932 as a way of destroying Ukranian
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nationalism and breaking peasant opposition to collectivization. As many as 10
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million may have been starved to death or succumbed to to famine-related
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disease; I estimate eight million died. Had these people all been shot, the
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Soviet government's moral responsibility would have been no greater.
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The table lists 831,000 people killed by free democratic governments, a fact that should startle most readers. This figure includes the French
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massacres in Algeria before and during the Algerian War (36,000 killed
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minimum), and those Eastern Europeans killed by the Soviets. after the Western
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democracies forcibly repatriated them during and after WW2.
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It is apalling that the democracies, particularly Britian and the U.S.,
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turned over to Soviet authorities more than 2,250,000 Soviet citizens,
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prisoners of war, and Soviet exiles (who were not Soviet citizens) found in the
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Allied zones of occupation in Europe. Most of these people were terrrified of
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returning and refused to cooperate; often whole families preferred suicide. An
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estimated 795,000 of those repatriated were executed or died in or traveling to
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slave-labor camps.
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If a government is held to be held responsible for those prisoners who die
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in frieght cars or in camps from privation, surely those democratic governments
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that turned helpless people over to totalitarin rulers with the foreknowledge
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of their peril also should be held responsible.
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It is sad that hundreds of thousands of people can be killed by
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governments with hardly an international murmur, while a war killing several
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thousand people can cause an immediate world outcry and global reaction.
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Contrast the international focus on the relatively minor 1982 war between
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Britian and Argentina with the widescale lack of interest in Burundi's killing
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or acquiesence in the killing of some 100,000 Hutu in 1972, of Indonesia
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slaughtering a likely 600,000 people accused of being "communists" in 1965 and
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of Pakistan's eventual killing of from 1 to 3 million Bengalis in 1971.
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A most noteworthy example of this double standard is the Vietnam war. The
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international community was outraged ar the U.S. efforts to prevent North
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Vietnam from taking over South Vietnam and ultimately Laos and Cambodia. "stop
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the killing" was the cry, and eventually the pressure of forgeign and domestic
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opposition forced an American withdrawl. The overall number killed in the
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Vietnam War on all sides was about 1.2 million people.
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South Vietnam was eventually conquered by the North, and Cambodia was
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taken over by the communist Khmer Rouge, who in trying to recreate a primitive
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communist agricultural society slaughtered from 1 to 3 million Cambodians. If
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we take 2 million as the best estimate, then in four years the government of
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this small nation of seven million alone killed 64% more people than died in
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the 10-year Vietnam War. Overall, the best estimate of those killed by the
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victorious communists in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia is 2,270,000. And the
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killing still goes on.
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To view the double standard from another perspective, both world wars cost
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24 million battle deaths. But from 1918 to 1953, the soviet government
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executed, slaughtered, starved, beat or tortured to death, or otherwise
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killed some 39.5 million of its own people (estimates vary from between 20
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to 83 million). In China under Mao Tse-Tung, the communist government
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eliminated, as an average figure between estimates 45 million people. The
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number killed in just these two nations is about 84.5 million, or a lethality
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of 252% more than both world wars together. Yet, have the world community
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and intellectuals generally shown anything like the same horror or outrage
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over there Soviet and Chinese megakillings as has been directed at the much
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less deadly world wars?
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However, as large as the number of people killed by communist governments
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is, it is nearly the same as for other non-free governments. This is due to the
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masacres and widescale killing in the very small country of East Timor, where
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since 1975 Indonesia has eliminated (aside from the guerrilla war and
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associated violence) an estimated 100,000 Timorians of of a poplulation of
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600,000. Omittin the country alone would reduce the average killed by
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non-communist, non-free governments to 397 per 10,000, or signicantly less than
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the 477 per 10,000 for communist countries.
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In any case, we can still see from the table that the more freedom in a
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nation, the fewer people killed by government. Freedom serves as a brake on a
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governing elite's power over life and death.
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DEADLIEST SCOURGE
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This principle appeared to be violated in the two special cases mentioned
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above. One was the French government's mass killings in the colony of Algeria.
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There the Algerians were considered second-class citizens and lacked the right
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to vote in French elections. In the other case the Allied democracies acted
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during and just after wartime, under a regime of strict secrecy, to turn over
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foreigners to the Soviet Union. These foreigners, of course, had no rights as
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citizens that would protect them in the democracies. In no case have I found a
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democratic government carrying out maddacres, genocide and mass executions of
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its own citizens; nor have I found a case where such a government's policies
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have knowingly and directly resulted in the large-scale deaths of its people
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though privation, torture, beatings and the like.
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Absolutist governments (those that Freedom House would classify as not
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free) are not only many times deadlier that than war, but are themselves the
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major factor causing war and other forms of violent conflict. They are a major
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cause of militarism. Indeed, absolutism, not war, is mankind's deadliest
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scourge of all.
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In light of all this, the peaceful, nonviolent fostering of civil
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liberties and political rights must be made mankind's highest humanitarian
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goal. Not simply to give the grestest number the greatest happiness, not simply
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to obey the moral imperative of individual rights, but because freedom
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preserves peace and life.
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---------------
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Mr. Rummel is a professor of political science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
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20TH CENTURY KILLED, BY CAUSE
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CAUSE TOTALS AVERAGES
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(in millions) PER 10,000
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POPULATION
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GOVERNMENT 119.4 349
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Communist 95.2 477
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Other non-free 20.3 495
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" " omitting Indonesia 397
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Partially free 3.1 48
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Free .8 22
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WAR 35.7 22
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International 29.7 17
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Civil 6.0 26
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Note: all figures are rounded
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Source: Various historical materials |