Saddam Hussein's Rise & Fall

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Perhaps one of the best-known modern dictators, Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq for nearly 30 years before eventually being overthrown in 2003 by the US Coalition. Known for his authoritarian rule, the use of chemical weapons against his own people, and multiple invasions of neighbouring countries - Saddam Hussein's legacy is a dark one. But how did he become President of Iraq in 1979, and what did the Iraqi people really think of him?

In the latest episode of our Iraq mini-series, reflecting on 20 years since the invasion of the country, James is joined by Dr Afzal Ashraf to examine just who Saddam Hussein was. Looking at the effect British Colonialism had on his early political career, the relationship between Iraq and the United States, and how lasting Cold War tensions defined this period - how did Saddam Hussein hold onto power for so long, and just who was helping him?

The senior Producer was Elena Guthrie. The Assistant Producer was Annie Coloe. Edited by Annie Coloe.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone welcome back to the history hit warfare
0:03.2	podcast I'm your host James Patton Rogers this episode is part of our
0:06.7	special series on the Iraq war marking 20 years since the start of the war
0:12.0	itself to cover the rise and fall of Saddam Hussein, we have brought in an old friend of the podcast, Dr. Afi Ashraf. Now, Afi was in the Royal Air Force during the Iraq War and he was actually based out of
0:27.8	Saddam's presidential palace once it had been taken over by Allied forces between 2004 and 2005.
0:35.6	And what Afi provides us is the geopolitics of Iraq
0:39.6	and how this made the leader, the dictator that was Saddam Hussein, really keen to learn more.
0:56.4	One thing I do know is that he was born into poverty and that his father died, I think think not long after he was born he died when he
1:05.5	was he was very young right well in fact he died before he was born and are you
1:10.6	absolutely right he was born on 28th of April 1937 in a village near Tikrit.
1:18.0	And that was one of the poorest readers in the country.
1:22.0	But it was a tribal society with strict violent codes as most
1:27.8	tribal societies had you know those codes were violent only to the disloyal even though he was born in poverty without a father
1:37.6	he was bought up in Baghdad by an uncle who put him through some basic education, obviously looked after him and paid for him and so on.
1:47.3	So it's one of those very difficult situations, but very typical situations.
1:54.0	And it's worth remembering that at that time,
1:57.6	it was virtually no infrastructure in that country.
2:02.0	And that's really worth bearing in mind because all of these things shape
2:06.1	this man when he comes to power in a way that I think is very surprising to most of us in the West because there is this image constructed of him.
2:16.0	But if we were to sort of very quickly, if you like encapsulate his life, born in 1937, became formerly president of Iraq in 1979, until of course the country was
2:27.9	invaded by the US-led coalition in 2003, and then three years later in 2006 he is executed but to be perfectly
2:36.7	honest he was effectively in power and we can discuss this in more detail later
	...

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