  (Abridged) We present a cloud decomposition of $^{12}$CO (2--1) observations
of the merger and nearest luminous infrared galaxy, NGC 3256. 185 spatially and
spectrally resolved clouds are identified across the central $\approx$ 130
kpc$^{2}$ at 90 pc resolution and completeness is estimated. We compare our
cloud catalogue from NGC 3256 to ten galaxies observed in the PHANGS-ALMA
survey. Distributions in NGC 3256 of cloud velocity dispersions, luminosities,
CO-estimated masses, mass surface densities, virial masses, virial parameters,
size-linewidth coefficients, and internal turbulent pressures are significantly
higher than in the PHANGS-ALMA galaxies. Cloud radii are slightly larger in NGC
3256 and free-fall times are shorter. The distribution of cloud eccentricities
in NGC 3256 is indistinguishable from many PHANGS-ALMA galaxies, possibly
because the dynamical state of clouds in NGC 3256 is similar to that of nearby
spiral galaxies. However, the narrower distribution of virial parameters in NGC
3256 may reflect a narrower range of dynamical states than in PHANGS-ALMA
galaxies. No clear picture of cloud alignment is detected, despite the large
eccentricities. Correlations between cloud properties point to high external
pressures in NGC 3256 keeping clouds bound and collapsing given such high
velocity dispersions and star-formation rates. A fit to the cloud mass function
gives a high-mass power-law slope of $-2.75^{+0.07}_{-0.01}$, near the average
from PHANGS-ALMA galaxies. We also compare our results to a pixel-based
analysis of these observations and find molecular-gas properties agree
qualitatively, though peak brightness temperatures are somewhat higher and
virial parameters and free-fall times are somewhat lower in this cloud-based
analysis.
