Utterly Bizarre Obsessions of Seven Dangerous Dictators
From ice-cream & Doritos to defacing nude drawings.
Some people own the privilege of getting obsessed with what they want — like dictators. Getting obsessed with money, homes, and stocks is common, but sometimes successful ones settle for more weird obsessions, rather unique ones.
From getting obsessed with mundane things like food to losing control over crushes, world dictators have set the example of all.
Let’s dive deep into a dictator’s milk obsession and love for commenting on nude drawings. Many interesting ones have gorged themselves to the point that they owned crippling physical illness. Here are the details of some bizarre obsession of the dictators from history.
1. Fidel Castro’s obsession with milk and ice cream
Cuba‘s late dictator held an intense fascination for dairy products — precisely for milk and ice cream. His obnoxious love story with milk fanned out across his entire ruling period.
One will find stories studded with Castro’s conspicuous ice-cream consumption. His craze extended to the degree that he made an effort to make Cuba a leading market for dairy products.
Several biographers unrolled stories of Castro devouring dozens of ice cream scoops and that too in a sitting. His love for chocolate milkshakes was unconditional, and the CIA took advantage of such a unique craze — they planned to poison his milkshakes with botulinum toxin.
Howard Johnson’s ice cream topped his list; thus he ordered his Canadian ambassador for 28 containers of different flavors.
Cuba’s products didn’t satisfy his craving, so he got a city-block-sized ice-cream parlor constructed in Havana — interestingly, it ran from 10 till 2 AM.
Additionally, the unfavorable Cuban climate didn’t let cows produce much milk, which led Castro to order genetic engineering for breeding super Cuban cows.
Sadly, through this process, a cow made a massive quantity of milk, such that she soon died. Her eggs were kept safely and later used for cloning. Castro broadened his breeding experiments on mini-cows so that every Cuban household could own one — but his efforts failed.
2. Saddam Hussein's love for Doritos & that too in prison
Saddam Hussein’s obsession story is interesting because it took birth in prison. The guy always had a lavish taste, and his taste buds became hooked on American junk food in prison — particularly to Doritos.
The Pennsylvania National Guard troops shared how he quickly gobbled a family-size Doritos bag in under ten minutes. The guards reported how he would demand nothing else except Doritos, though he would consume Raisin Bran for breakfast in a while.
3. François Duvalier thought he killed JFK with Voodoo
Duvalier, or Poppa Doc, remained preoccupied with voodoo obsession during his 14 years tenure, allowing it to run and dictate his life. Haiti’s national religion, voodoo, made many people marry to bizarre superstitions.
Duvalier himself was very illusionary and mythical, carrying a belief of being guarded with voodoo spirit on the 22nd of each month. His overarching paranoia made him leave the presidential palace on the date none other than the 22nd of each month only — insanely creepy.
The most amusing aspect of Duvalier’s voodoo obsession surfaced when he claimed to be responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
According to Duvalier, he placed a voodoo curse on Kennedy who died because of his powers. Marking another level of his voodoo obsession, Duvalier sent a person to collect air from around Kennedy’s grave, later using it in his spells.
Duvalier, if used to get any air of anti-voodoo movements or civic organizations that promoted values contrary to voodoo, then he would ban them.
Once, he was told how a political rival transformed himself into a black dog with the use of a curse. Duvalier’s reaction? He got all the black dogs in Haiti killed.
Further, Duvalier’s also used voodoo power to extract the secret from a dead rebel’s severed head. Many believe Papa Doc survived at least six assassination attempts, owing to his voodoo powers. But, Duvalier ultimately died of illness in 1971.
4. Kim Jong-un paid the price for his Swiss cheese obsession
The North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a fascinating obsession until it worsened his health. The headlines of King Jong-un disappearing from public eyes made news in the Autumn of 2014.
No one knew the reason for his sudden vanishing until his chef revealed the cause to be “Swiss Cheese.” Kim Jong-un gorged on swiss cheese daily to gain weight to look like his dad — but the plan backfired. The cheese destroyed Jong — un’s health.
Sources revealed how Kim imported swiss cheese sandwiches and fondue in bulk to binge every day. Dissatisfied with the country’s cheese-makers, Kim had always praised Switzerland’s Emmentaler cheese.
His addiction increased his weight to over 300 pounds, getting both his ankles fractured and giving him severe gout problems. His stomach got him physically ill to the extent that he walked with a limp.
5. Kim Jong-il’s collection of 30,000 Hollywood Films
Like father, like son, but both owned a different obsession. Kim Jong II’s focus didn’t get him to pay for the price because, after all, it revolved around entertainment.
Jong-il’s obsession with Hollywood and Japanese films made him accumulate over 30,000 movies. His craze started as a teen boy when he used to be a regular visitor of Pyongyang’s main film studio.
But it stretched later, too, once he got on the throne. When in power, he used to send thousands of DVDs and tapes to Pyongyang in diplomatic pouches. His love particularly extended to the James Bond, Godzilla, and Rambo Franchises.
Many are not aware of how he produced, consulted, or wrote nearly 12,000 North Korean movies, making the North Korean film industry a huge giant.
What interesting surfaced was his case of kidnapping. The guy was known for abducting South Korean and Japanese actresses — particularly South Korean legend Shin Sang-ok whom he forced to remake the “socialist Godzilla” movie Pulgasari.
6. Joseph Stalin's obsessive act of commenting on men’s nude drawings
This one is fascinating. Uncle Joe is known for treating several obsessions, from owning a unique style of murdering his rivals to everything being soviet style.
But his most bizarre repeated act included defacing classical drawings of nude men. Not only he defaced them, but he also wrote notes and comments over them.
Several scholars claim how Stalin’s humor gets reflected through the notes he wrote overprints of 19th-zventury artists. Others argue that it was not a mere act of showcasing his humor.
Instead, it was Stalin’s way of disapproving the art style — anything he found contradicting in communist eyes, he would leave comments over it.
Interestingly, all the comments he wrote were with pen and over nude men he didn’t know anything about. Wondering what he actually inked? His creativity ranged from simple doodles to veiled shots.
Analyzing the writing style, scholars concluded the defacement to be the act of Stalin’s last years of life. He had a whole collection of such drawings sold to a private collector and showcased in 2009.
7. Muammar al-Gaddafi’s serious crush on Condi Rice
Talking about the late Libyan strongman, Muammar al-Gaddafi, then his obsession was of a different type. Many who are already familiar with his colorful personality wouldn’t give a second thought digesting that he was obsessed with pretty African women.
The stories of his treatment of women are rather disgusting, but that is a different elaborated recurring chapter of his life for another time. Digging in specifics, Gaddafi’s roving eye fell hard on Condoleezza Rice. He used to call her Leeza.
His obsession was rather serious, as he kept Rice’s updated picture book with him, referring to her as his darling black African woman.
Gaddafi poured his wealth over Rice. Her tripoli visit to him got her $212,000 worth of gifts, including a massive ring, a locket with his picture within, a lute, and an autographed copy of his book.
Another way through which Gaddafi proved his obsession for Rice was his commissioning act — he commissioned a Libyan composer to write a song for her named “‘Black Flower in the White House.” Interestingly, Rice herself found Gaddafi’s obsession a little creepy, but she never minds.
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