Assassination

Murder is a crime and a sin. Decent and law-abiding people know it. But only a few moral codes around the world absolutely prohibit killing. The Jains of India do, and the Baha’i, and the Quakers. The Moriori of the South Pacific were perhaps the most strictly peaceful people in recorded history. They were invaded in the 1830s by another tribe of Pacific islanders, enslaved and exterminated.

Gandhi opposed murder, but apart from his teaching, the Hindu aren’t consistently peaceful. Christianity allows citizens to defend their homes and their nation, and to kill enemies if necessary. It would be an odd addition to Christian doctrine to approve killing common enemy soldiers but prohibit killing the leader at the top of the enemy organization.

It is reasonable to say that it is possible to imagine conditions when a good citizen might resort to assassination.

The most obvious test case is Hitler. If you had a time machine, it would be obligatory to go back in time and kill Hitler. To kill Hitler, and stop the genocide and world conflagration that he caused would be an obvious benefit to mankind, and an act of benevolence.

But killing Hitler isn’t a simple proposition. Supposing you could do it, when would be the right moment? Some commenters point out that killing “baby Hitler” before he did anything evil would be wrong, but that waiting until millions of people had died would not stop the evil. There are some who caution that altering the past creates a risk of unanticipated bad consequences. But refusing to alter probably the very worst thing that has ever happened in all of human history out of fear that something else bad might happen is too pessimistic. If you get a time machine, use it to kill Hitler.

Hitler is far from the only historical tyrant or monster who is considered eligible for a righteous assassination by people of good conscience. All of the people listed below actually were assassinated. 

• Athenian traitor Alcibiades (404 BC)

• Roman tyrant Caligula (41)

• Roman tyrant Commodus (192)

• Bohemian warlord Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein (1634)

• Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin (1916)

  Turkish strong man Jamal Pasha (1929)

• Italian duce Benito Mussolini (1945)

• Liberian military dictator Samuel K. Doe (1990)

 All of these men had consolidated power around themselves and thwarted any possibility of peaceful dissent. Rasputin had the fanatical devotion of the Russian Tsarina. Wallenstein had assembled a private army, loyal to him alone. None of them were going to surrender power. All of them were wrecking their country, and were determined to continue spreading misery as long as they could. Samuel Doe got away with it for 10 years, then was overthrown and tortured to death. He must have thought, as he sat naked on the ground, surrounded by his enemies and bleeding from wounds, that if he had been content with a few stolen millions he could have lived a long, peaceful life in exile. But he chose to stay and continue misruling the country until the enemies came for him.

These were some of the worst people to ever live. Not all cases were as clear cut as these. Below are three more former leaders, all kings, who were not assassinated, but were deposed and then killed.

• Edward II (1327) deposed and died mysteriously in prison, unless he escaped to Europe

• Louis XVI of France (1793) arrested, tried, convicted and guillotined

• Ludwig II of Bavaria (1886) deposed, then drowned and/or shot while trying to escape

These killings were probably unjustified. Ludwig of Bavaria was harmless — just a silly sybarite who bankrupted the kingdom building pretty castles. Louis XVI betrayed France, but they already had him off the throne and in a prison cell. That could have been enough. Concerning Edward, we don’t know for sure if the hot poker thing is true or not. (Look it up!)

Assassination has never been justified in American history, because our political and legal processes offer more peaceful and orderly way to replace leaders and achieve change. The few assassinations that have occurred in American history were all tragic and stupid. But assassination belongs on the list of possible citizens’ actions. History teaches us that.