The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History's 100 Worst Atrocities (114 page)

8.
East Germany: Reuters, "100,000 Died in E. Germany for Political Acts,"
Los Angeles Times, October 27, 1991 ("died in captivity or were executed for political offenses in 44 years").

9.
Romania: Alison Mutler, "AP Photos BUC101-103," Associated Press, October 23, 2000 ("Some 100,000 peasants, intellectuals and members of the pre-Communist government are believed to have perished in prison or while building the [Danube-Black Sea Canal]").

10.
Mongolia: "Expedition Unearths Mass Grave Dating to Communist Rule," Associated Press, October 22, 1991, AM cycle ("The death toll from that time has been widely estimated at 35,000"; estimates go as high as 100,000); "Mass Grave of Buddhist Massacre Reportedly Found in Mongolia," Associated Press, October 22, 1991, PM cycle.

11.
Czechoslovakia: "Thousands of People Killed by Former Communist Regime," CTK National News Wire, May 28, 1991 (260 executed; 9,000 to 10,000 killed during arrest and in prison; 1,800 disappeared without a trace).

12.
Albania: Jane Perelez, "Tirana Journal: A Stalinist Dowager in Her Bunker,"
New York Times, July 8, 1997 ("documents show that 5,000 political prisoners had been executed . . . during the 40-year period of Hoxha rule").

13.
Hobsbawm,
Age of Extremes, pp. 382–385.

14.
Ibid., pp. 471–495; Mazower,
Dark Continent, pp. 362–380.

Algerian War of Independence

1.
Johnson,
Modern Times, p. 500.

2.
Walter Laqueur,
Europe since Hitler: The Rebirth of Europe, rev. ed. (New York: Penguin Books, 1982), pp. 468–470.

3.
Horne,
Savage War of Peace, p. 538.

War in the Sudan

1.
The median of eight published estimates. See
http://www.necrometrics.com/20c300k.htm#Sudan
.

2.
The median of seven recent estimates. See
http://www.necrometrics.com/20c1m.htm#Sudan
.

3.
Estimates go as high as 400,000, but among large, impartial organizations that keep track of these things, 200,000 is preferred. "Q&A: Sudan's Darfur Conflict," BBC News, May 29, 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/africa/3496731.stm
(200,000); Human Rights Watch, "Q & A: Crisis in Darfur," January 29, 2007,
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/05/05/darfur8536.htm
(200,000); Sam Dealey, "An Atrocity That Needs No Exaggeration,"
New York Times, August 12, 2007; Alfred de Montesquiou, "As Darfur Violence Continues, Some Question Death Estimates," Associated Press, November 29, 2006.

4.
Berkeley,
Graves Are Not Yet Full, p. 211.

5.
Ibid., p. 214; Kaplan, "Microcosm of Africa's Ills; Sudan."

6.
Berkeley,
Graves Are Not Yet Full, p. 198.

7.
Ibid., pp. 201–202.

8.
"Country Profile: Sudan," BBC, June 1, 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/country_profiles/820864.stm
.

9.
"Prosecutor Accuses Bashir Forces of Murder, Rape, Pillage,"
allAfrica.com, March 2, 2009,
http://allafrica.com/stories/200903020185.html
; Robert Booth, "No Money, Not Enough Food, Rampant Sickness, Night-Time Raids. Darfur Today,"
Guardian, December 7, 2007; Hissa Hissa, "UN Envoy in Darfur Rebel Heartland to Muster Support for Peace Talks," Associated Press, December 8, 2007.

Vietnam War

1.
Dwight Eisenhower,
Mandate for Change (New York: New American Library, 1963), quoted in Simkin, "Vietnam War."

2.
Quoted in Michael O'Brien,
John F. Kennedy: A Biography (New York: Griffin, 2006), p. 859.

3.
Karnow,
Vietnam, pp. 313–327.

4.
Ibid., pp. 382–392.

5.
Boot,
Savage Wars of Peace, p. 298.

6.
Ibid., p. 308.

7.
Zinn,
People's History of the United States, p. 477.

8.
Ibid., pp. 478–479; Doug Linder, "An Introduction to the My Lai Courts-Martial," Famous Trials, 1999,
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/Myl_intro.html
.

9.
Nell Boyce, "Hugh Thompson: Reviled Then Honored for His Actions at My Lai,"
U.S. News & World Report, August 20, 2001, http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/heroes/thompson.htm.

10.
Michael D. Sallah and Mitch Weiss, "Rogue GIs Unleashed Wave of Terror in Central Highlands,"
Toledo Blade, October 19, 2003. Available at
http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2004-Investigative-Reporting
.

11.
Karnow,
Vietnam, p. 617.

12.
Davidson,
Vietnam at War, p. 552; Hanson,
Carnage and Culture, p. 400.

13.
Karnow,
Vietnam, pp. 558–559.

14.
Ibid., p. 616.

15.
Ibid.

16.
Ibid., pp. 617–621.

17.
Ibid., pp. 654–656.

18.
Ibid., pp. 666–669.

19.
Ibid., p. 674.

20.
Ibid., pp. 679–680.

21.
"Vietnam Discloses 1.1 Million Died in War, 600,000 Wounded," Associated Press, April 3, 1995; Keith B. Richburg, "To Vietnamese, Fall of Saigon Started the Peace; 20 Years after War's End, Victors Looking Forward,"
Washington Post, April 30, 1995.

22.
Obermeyer, Murray, and Gakidou, "Fifty Years of Violent War Deaths."

23.
Kimmo Kiljunen, ed.,
Kampuchea: Decade of the Genocide: Report of a Finnish Inquiry Commission (London: Zed Books, 1984), p. 30.

24.
Obermeyer, Murray, and Gakidou, "Fifty Years of Violent War Deaths."

The Cold War

1.
Totten et al., eds.,
Century of Genocide, p. 321.

2.
Edgar O'Ballance,
The Greek Civil War: 1944–1949 (New York: Praeger, 1966), p. 202.

3.
Obermeyer, "Fifty Years of Violent War Deaths."

4.
Vincent Cabreza, "43,000 Killed in 34 Years of Communist Rebellion,"
Philippine Daily Inquirer, January 29, 2003.

5.
"Refusing to Forget," PBS News Hour, October 16, 1997,
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/latin_america/july-dec97/argentina_10-16a.html
, citing Argentina Human Rights Information,
http://www.derechos.org/human-rights/argentina.html
: 30,000 disappearances.

6.
"Central America," in
Encyclopaedic Britannica, 15th ed., vol. 15, p. 692.

7.
Kohn,
Dictionary of Wars, p. 330.

Indonesian Purge

1.
The median of nineteen estimates. See
http://www.necrometrics.com/20c300k.htm#Indonesia
.

2.
Kathy Kadane, "U.S. Accused of Role in Massacre."

3.
Robert Cribb, "The Indonesian Massacres," in Samuel Totten et al., eds.,
Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2004).

4.
Karmini, "40 Years on, Indonesian Victims"; Lekic, "Controversy over Elusive Document"; Whiting, "Indonesia Still Dealing with Carnage."

Biafran War

1.
The median of fifteen published estimates. See
http://www.necrometrics.com/20c1m.htm#Nigeria
.

2.
Edgerton,
Africa's Armies, p. 107.

3.
Ibid., pp. 103–109; "Ojukwu Blames Civil War on Gowon"; Harden, "2 Decades Later, Biafra Remains Lonely Precedent."

Bengali Genocide

1.
The median of fifteen published estimates. See
http://www.necrometrics.com/20c1m.htm#Bangladesh
.

2.
Kiernan,
Blood and Soil, p. 574.

3.
Stockwin, "East Pakistan's Bloody Death."

4.
Christopher Hitchins,
The Trial of Henry Kissinger (New York: Verso Press, 2001).

5.
Robert Payne,
Massacre (New York: Macmillan, 1973), p. 55.

6.
Galloway, "We Are Mute and Horrified Witnesses to a Reign of Terror."

7.
Ibid.; Jahan, "Genocide in Bangladesh," in Totten et al., eds.,
Century of Genocide; Kiernan,
Blood and Soil, pp. 572–576; Stockwin, "East Pakistan's Bloody Death."

Idi Amin

1.
The median of fourteen estimates. See
http://www.necrometrics.com/20c300k.htm#Uganda
.

2.
Berkeley,
Graves Are Not Yet Full, p. 230.

3.
"Who Is This Man Field Marshal Idi Amin, Who Dares Do the Things He Does and Say the Things He Says," Associated Press, February 27, 1977; "Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada, Uganda's 'President for Life,' " Associated Press, April 11, 1979.

4.
Chirot,
Modern Tyrants, p. 392.

5.
"Ex-Ugandan Dictator Idi Amin, 80, Dies."

Mengistu Haile

1.
Fitzgerald, "Tyrant for the Taking" ("More than two million people have died in political purges and civil war, or from malnourishment that was abetted by government policies"); Rapoport,
Knives Are Out ("More than two million people . . . died because of resettlement, imprisonment, withheld famine relief, military losses and straight execution").

2.
Fitzgerald, "Tyrant for the Taking"; Henry, "Mengistu Leaves Ethiopia in Shambles."

3.
Fitzgerald, "Tyrant for the Taking"; Rapoport,
Knives Are Out.

4.
Sanchez, "Victory Tempered by Sorrow" (400,000); Henry, "Mengistu Leaves Ethiopia in Shambles" (500,000); Obermeyer, Murray, and Gakidou, "Fifty Years of Violent War Deaths" (579,000).

5.
Death toll of famine: 500,000 (Manthorpe, "Mengistu's Brutal Regime") or a million (Henry, "Mengistu Leaves Ethiopia in Shambles"; Sanchez, "Victory Tempered by Sorrow") or two million (Rapoport,
Knives Are Out).

Postwar Vietnam

1.
My estimate. That's 200,000 boat people (William Branigin, "Vietnam Demands U.S. Halt Rescues,"
Washington Post, August 3, 1979; Vu Thanh Thuy, "Boat People Defeat Sea . . . ,"
San Diego Union Tribune, July 20, 1986) plus 165,000 camp deaths ("Postwar Strife Survival: The Register Profiles O.C. Residents Who Once Were Prisoners in Vietnam's Re-education Camps,"
Orange County Register, April 29, 2001; Fidelius Kuo, "Fallen, but Not Forgotten: Washington's South Vietnamese Veterans,"
Northwest Asian Weekly, July 5, 1996), which includes 65,000 executions (Desbarats and Jackson, "Vietnam 1975–1982").