favorite dictator/authoritarian ruler by decade?

[LostFellow]

1940s: A lesser Axis leader, like Quisling? I dunno.
1950s: Mao?
1960s: Macias Nguema
1970s: Idi Amin
1980s: Muammar Qaddafi
1990s: The military junta in Burma
2000s: Dick Cheney
2010s: Putin
2020s: TRUMP

Why?

Changed it to Enver Hoxha on second thought. The basic point is that they resisted US/Soviet imperialism and pursued neutrality in the early Cold War. They were commies, of course, which made them repugnant killers, but their international politicking was pretty solid.

The Sino-Soviet split didn't occur until the 60s, and the PRC and USSR were pretty lockstep in foreign policy in the 50s---why else do you think China intervened in the Korean War? And if anything, I'd argue that the Sino-Soviet split was particularly bad in its early conception; Soviet backed North Vietnam was far better than Mao-era backing of the the Khmer Rouge, and in hindsight, all factions who backed Pakistan (the US and China) in the Bangladesh Liberation War make a huge mistake. PRC neutrality imo was only "good" starting in the Deng-era (which eventually lead to rapprochement with Gorbachev but that's a different topic).

The correct answer for the 50s is Sukarno or Nasser, but that's from a lefty perspective.

[LostFellow]

Mao didn’t back the Khmer Rouge against the Vietnamese as he was already dead by then and neither Sukarno or Nasser (in Egypt, not Lebanon or Syria) were dictators

Mao himself and his policies were instrumental in funding the Khmer Rouge uprising through the 70s--over 90% of the aid they received was from China at the time, and the Cambodian Genocide was literally based on Mao-era policies and assisted by CCP officials. There is no reason to think that if Mao lived longer he wouldn't have definitely supported Cambodia over Vietnam in 1978, and my original comment is on the general comparison of the USSR backing (North) Vietnam and the PRC backing (Khmer Rouge-faction) Cambodia during the whole relevant period from the 50s to the 80s.

The gang of four and Deng continued the backing of Cambodia over Soviet-influenced Vietnam, but I'm inclined to believe that the failure of this is what led China to a relative thaw in aggressive foreign policy afterwards. Will admit my historical understanding here is not close to perfect though.

Of course, this is completely irrelevant if you want to believe the weird conspiracy that post-Mao China only wanted to support Cambodia over Vietnam in 1978 to get-in with the US (since Deng is an "impure capitalist" or something), despite this view completely ignoring history before 1978 and the PRC literally backing recognizing the Khmer Rouge first and the US literally trying (in maybe not the most productive ways) to stop the Khmer Rouge takeover in the early 70s.

Sukarno after 1959 was definitely authoritarian (title asks "dictator/authoritarian"), and so was Nasser. I never claimed they were dictators.