5 Famous Leaders Who Were Shorter Than Napoleon

Hirohito (5 Feet, 5 Inches)

As the 124th member of his family to ascend to the throne, Emperor Hirohito came of age at a time when the emperor was regarded as a divine figure by the Japanese people. However, that image of infallibility was punctured by the end of World War II, thanks to a well-publicized 1945 photo of the 5-foot-5-inch Hirohito next to the 6-foot-tall U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, which underscored Japan's powerlessness to hold off the occupying forces. Soon after, under a new constitution drafted by the Allied forces in their postwar occupation of Japan, Hirohito was forced to formally renounce the divinity of his position, setting the nation on a new path where the emperor would serve as a symbolic head of state with no political power. 

Perhaps because of his less-than-imposing stature — a 1958 profile in The New York Times described him as of "average height" — Hirohito was later embraced as a man of the people as he made frequent public appearances over the following decades. And even as the first "human" emperor, he outlasted his predecessors by reigning as Japan's longest-serving monarch, from 1926 to 1989.

James Madison (5 Feet, 4 Inches)

As one of the Founding Fathers, James Madison stands tall in the annals of America's origin story. However, the 5-foot-4-inch Madison was not only shorter than the fellow Virginians who preceded him to the presidency — George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both 6 feet, 2 inches tall — but also the shortest of any of the 45 men elected to the highest office in the land. Furthermore, Madison was said to possess a weak speaking voice and a timid demeanor, which, together with his stature, prompted opponents to refer to him as "Little Jemmy." 

Yet, Madison made up for a lack of forceful presence with intellectual gifts and powers of persuasion that clearly made an impact on the other influential figures of his era. Although his presidential tenure was a mixed bag, Madison more than secured his place in history as the primary architect of the U.S. Constitution and its vital addendum, the Bill of Rights.

Francisco Franco (5 Feet, 4 Inches)

According to Franco: A Personal and Political Biography, Spanish general and dictator Francisco Franco underwent intense hazing as one of the youngest and smallest cadets at Spain's Infantry Academy, enduring such humiliations as being tied up and having his books hidden. But despite reaching a full adult height of just under 5 feet, 4 inches, the man once derisively known as "Franquito" (little Franco) became one of the most monumental leaders in the country's history. 

In 1926, after a steady climb in the army's ranks, Franco became the youngest general in all of Europe at age 33. With the victory of his Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, he went on to enjoy an uninterrupted 36-year run (from 1939 until his death in 1975) as Spain's iron-fisted ruler. Franco's rise in spite of relatively meager physical capabilities was characterized by the ruthlessness with which he dispatched political opponents, and the cleverness he showed with Spain officially remaining nonbelligerent during World War II, before cozying up to the winning Allied forces. And if Franco harbored any lingering insecurities about his height, the dictator made clear his grandiosity in death by having himself buried in a mausoleum beneath a towering 492-foot cross just outside Madrid. 

Kim Jong Il (5 Feet, 3 Inches)

The son of North Korea's first leader and "eternal president" Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong Il lived a life enveloped in secrecy and hyperbole. According to state literature, his arrival was foretold by the appearance of a swallow in the sky, and his birth immediately prompted the winter environment to change to spring. Later in life, he was alleged to have kidnapped a South Korean film director and his actress wife to force them to remake a propaganda version of Godzilla. The leader, who ruled North Korea from 1994 to 2011, also reportedly reinvented a version of the hamburger, and he supposedly recorded an array of breathtaking sporting achievements, including 11 holes-in-one in his first attempt at golf. 

The relentless mythologizing had its limits, however, as there wasn't much Kim could do to embellish a frame said to top off at around 5 feet, 3 inches. Still, Kim attempted to create the illusion of a taller presence by reportedly hiring short bodyguards, and near the end of his life he was photographed wearing platform shoes that added about 4 inches to his height.

Nikita Khrushchev (5 Feet, 3 Inches)

Given his rise to the Soviet Union's premiership in the wake of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, both of whom stood around 5 feet, 5 inches tall, there was little reason to think that limited height would impede the leadership capabilities of Nikita Khrushchev. By some accounts, he may have even benefited from being an inch or two shorter than Stalin, who supposedly harbored little reticence about eliminating the loyalists he viewed as threats to his supremacy. Regardless, Khrushchev's smaller stature — combined with a modest upbringing and lack of formal education — may have fueled a Sputnik-sized chip on his shoulder, as he became known for a confrontational style. 

This is often illustrated by an incident that may not have actually happened: his alleged shoe-banging at a 1960 United Nations conference. But Khrushchev famously did tell a 1956 gathering of Western diplomats, "We will bury you," and he later took part in a contentious meeting with U.S. President John F. Kennedy before igniting the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. Ultimately, the outsized combativeness against even would-be allies such as Mao Tse Tung contributed to his downfall, as Khrushchev was forced from power in 1964.

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