These arent really fair comparisons. Tallness is a relatively recent thing brought along by greater food production and the absense of childhood diseases.
Most of the allegedly short people listed in this thread were average for their era because of the hard lives they lived. Look at the embarrisingly low height of most african nations right now. For example, nigeria is 5ft4in for men or kenya's 5ft 7 in. That is what black people have originally been, not the 6ft we see so commonly these days.
Another example would be tongans who were short and skinny when the British first landed in their islands. There are loads of field journals and even pics from the 20th century that document this. Their height and brolicness are recent developments.
Link->
Average human height by country - Wikipedia
Its no coincidence that most of the tall people in this list come from rich countrues with good healthcare. Something that wasnt the norm for most of humanity prior to the 1980s. So most of your pre 80s problem makers in society would have to be short, because that was the standard.