Basic Information
Name: Indira (nee Nehru) Gandhi
Nickname: "That Woman" (yikes)
Born: November 19, 1917
Died: October 31, 1984
Nationality: Indian
Hometown: Allahabad, India
WORK & EDUCATION
Occupation: Third Prime Minister of India (1966-1977,1980-1984)
Education: All over the place; Viswa Bharati University, University of Oxford, Badminton School, Somerville College
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Parents: Jawaharlal and Kamala Nehru
Siblings: None
Spouse: Feroze Gandhi
Children: Rajiv and Sanjay
Friends: The Soviet Union, Yoga Guru Dhirendra Brahmachari,
Foes: Richard Nixon, Electoral Oversight Committees, Her Own (Sikh) Bodyguards
Name: Anastasio Somoza García
Nickname: General Somoza, "Tacho" (which translates to "dumpster" or "garbage bin". No, we're not kidding.)
Born: February 1, 1986
Died: September 29, 1956
Nationality: Nicaraguan
Hometown: San Marcos, Nicaragua
WORK & EDUCATION
Occupation: President and Dictator of Nicaragua from 1937-1956
Education: Pierce College
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Parents: Anastasio Somoza Reyes and Julia García
Siblings: None
Spouse: Salvadora Debayle Sacasa
Children: Two sons Luis Somoza Debayle and Anastasio Somoza Debayle, and a daughter Lillian Somoza Debayle de Sevilla Sacasa.
Friends: Suck-ups and sycophants
Foes: Anyone who wanted to claim power in Nicaragua
Analysis
The juxtaposition of comparing Reagan and Thatcher, and then General Somoza and Indira Gandhi, is pretty interesting. Somoza and Gandhi are both legendary for their unorthodox and arguably unethical methods of gaining and maintaining despotic power in their respective countries.
For a little background, Indira Gandhi was the third prime minister of India, and so far, the only female one. Her father had been the first prime minister, and she learned many of her diplomatic skills working for him as a glorified hostess.
Her time as the prime minister started out on a positive note (she was hailed as a hero for her agricultural reform), but later on was found to be rife with corruption and overreaching authoritarian tendencies. She became known for brutally weeding out anyone with opposing viewpoints from her government, and wiping out anyone who dared to express public dissent. Only a year after Le Guin gave her Left-Handed Address, Gandhi was assassinated by two of her own bodyguards in an act of vengeance for how she had mishandled the Sikh uprising in India.
Like Gandhi, political positions also ran in Somoza's family. Through various means of right-place-right-time, bribery, and massive voting fraud, Somoza became the president of Nicaragua in 1937. His first act as President included amending the Constitution to centralize all power in his own hands. For the next twenty years, Somoza ruled Nicaragua in various roles (when he was ousted from the presidency, he made sure an elderly uncle was appointed so he could rule behind the scenes. Very Game of Thrones-esque.)
He, too, was assassinated, (in 1956 by a disgruntled poet), and then like Gandhi, his sons took over running the country.
So when Le Guin puts these two dictators together to compare, she's once again making the point that you cannot differentiate a public speaker by their gender. Both Somoza and Gandhi were ruthless and corrupt, and if you were to put their speeches side by side, it would be very difficult to distinguish one from the other.
We think she chose these particular examples to express this point on global scale. It's not just the United States that teaches women to speak like men in order to obtain power. Nor is it just the Western world. By illustrating Somoza and Gandhi's similarities, she is showing that this was a commonly accepted practice worldwide.