All language subtitles for The.Dictators.Playbook.Series.1.Part.2.Saddam.Hussein.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

[loud explosions;
rapid gunfire]

(male narrator) 2003.

Following a swift
and lethal invasion,

U.S. led forces occupy Iraq.

One of the most brutal regimes
of the 20th century

has come to an end.

Ladies and gentlemen...
we got him!

[loud applause & cheering]

(narrator)
Iraq's former dictator,
Saddam Hussein,

has been captured
by U.S. Army Special Forces.

They found him on a farm,
near the city of Tikrit,

at the bottom of an 8-foot hole
in the ground.

(John Nixon)
It was quite a night,

there was a real buzz
in the station

and everybody was
very excited.

And I was part of the team

that went in to debrief
Saddam Hussein.

I remember thinking,
it's Saddam,

it's really him, I still
couldn't believe it.

At first he was very disarming.

You're expecting to get the
Butcher of Baghdad and instead

you're getting somebody who is
very charming, very personable.

Over time though,
I would have this to say,

the more you got to know Saddam,
the less you liked him.

And the more you got to see
another side of him, which was,

could be a very nasty
and brutish

and kind of a horrible
and frightening figure.

Saddam was so ruthless,
so brutal.

So violent in all sorts of ways.

[chanting]

(Natasha Ezrow)
He was one of the most murderous
leaders, really, in history.

And he got away with it.

He still was able to instill
in his public

complete loyalty to him.

(narrator)
Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq
with an iron fist

for almost 30 years.

To maintain power for so long,
he used fear,

intimidation, and violence

like few other dictators
in history.

But in the end,
even that was not enough.

[loud gunshot]

How did Saddam Hussein become

one of the most feared dictators
of the 20th century,

only to lose it all?

(woman)
Dictatorships have had
an incredible impact

in the past century.

These dictators ended up
learning from one another.

(man)
They're all different, but
many use the same tactics.

(woman) The use of terror.
(man) Propaganda.

(woman) Control the elites.
Create an enemy.

Cult of personality.
(man) Use violence--

These are tools that dictators
use to stay in power.

(narrator) April 28, 1937:

On the edge
of the Arabian desert

in central Iraq,
Saddam Hussein is born

into a family of poor,
landless peasants.

He was born in a mud hut-- that
means no floors, no toilets,

no running water, no
electricity, in a tiny village

called Al-Awja, which means
"crooked," and the population

by and large would have
descended from nomadic tribes

The life of the Bedouin Nomad

was a very harsh life with its
own rules of honor, of loyalty,

of obligation, family was
immensely important.

(narrator)
But Saddam's own family
is in crisis.

Six months before he was born,
his father disappeared.

Soon after, his 13-year-old
brother died.

Saddam was now the only child

of a single mother.

He didn't have
that father figure,

and the father figure
in the Iraqi family,

particularly in tribes is
a very important person because

they're a source of pride
and prestige and protection.

(narrator)
The young Saddam is
beaten at home

and ridiculed and bullied
by other village children.

You give into that
or you fight it.

He definitely fought it.

(narrator)
Saddam uses his advantage

in height and strength
to strike back.

(Joseph Sassoon) He used
violence from an early age

to basically tell everyone

that he is the person who has
the power and control.

(narrator)
It is a tactic Saddam will
return to throughout his life,

a tool that will come
to define his dictatorship.

(Natasha Ezrow)
The use of violence

is important
to any dictatorship.

It's key to the way they seize
power and maintain control.

(Mariam Mufti) Saddam learned to
use violence

as a tool in all sorts of ways.

He could use it for the purposes
of threatening the population,

in a targeted way,

but also more generally.

There was an evolution in the
way Saddam Hussein used violence

and it became more excessive
as time went on.

In fact,
I would argue that it became

even more random
and unpredictable.

He really did become a master
at the use of violence.

(narrator)
In 1955, at the age of 18,
Saddam settles in Baghdad.

There, his violent character
will collide

with the turbulent Iraqi
politics of the day.

He finds the capitol city alive
with talk of revolution .

He grew up in that period
really, almost everyone

was talking about
Iraqi nationalism,

about its independence,

about the need to be
totally sovereign.

(narrator)
Iraq is built on the ruins
of ancient Mesopotamia,

a civilization
thousands of years old.

But the modern nation of Iraq

is a 20th-century invention.

Established by the Western
powers after World War 1,

the country is a complicated mix
of Sunni and Shia Muslims,

and other religious
and ethnic minorities.

Since 1920,

Iraq has effectively been
under British control.

The country is ruled
by a monarchy,

under the puppet regime
of King Faisal II.

But Britain controls
Iraq's politics

and reaps almost all the profits
of its vast oil wealth...

while 80% of Iraqis
still live in abject poverty.

Fed up
with this foreign influence,

Iraqis like Saddam are
determined

to regain control
of their own country.

Soon after his arrival
in Baghdad,

Saddam joins the Ba'ath Party:

a new, revolutionary nationalist
movement committed to achieving

Iraqi independence, by violence
if necessary.

But there is another
revolutionary group in Iraq,

one that is fiercely opposed
to the Ba'ath vision

of Iraqi nationalism--
the Iraqi Communist party.

(Joseph Sassoon)
The Ba'ath Party was really

a way to counter
the communist ideology

that was spreading in the Arab
world in the '30s and '40s.

(narrator)
The communists
and the Ba'aths are locked

in a bitter competition
to control Iraq's future.

The communist party was an
ominous force, and they were

the only archenemy if you were
Saddam Hussein at the time.

(narrator)
Saddam sees a way
to help the Ba'ath cause

by doing what he knows best.

He becomes an enforcer
for the party

and organizes roving gangs to
intimidate communist opponents.

(Kanan Makaiya)
He spent his youth
contending with and fighting

the communist party
on the streets

in all sorts of different ways.

(narrator)
Saddam quickly makes himself

known to party leaders
as a man unafraid of violence.

(Kanan Makaiya)
So 1956 was the point at which

ideas were now decisively
going to turn into

what this young man
wanted to do with his life,

which was, become a militant,
become a fighter.

(narrator)
Then, in 1958,

a sudden change sets up
an opportunity for Saddam.

The Iraqi Army stages
a violent coup d'état.

King Faisal II and his family

are gunned down
in the royal palace.

A new military dictatorship
is established

under General
Abd al-Karim Qasim.

It seems the dream
of an independent Iraq

is finally within reach.

(Kanan Makaiya)
So Saddam, like the rest
of the Ba'ath party would have

cheered and applauded,
gone out on the streets

in the immediate aftermath
of the 1958 revolution.

(narrator)
But almost immediately,
the Ba'ath party is caught up

in a power struggle
with the new government.

(John Nixon)
There were elements of the
Ba'ath Party who thought that

they were going to have more
of a say in the government,

then they realized that the
military was freezing them out.

(narrator)
For Saddam and his comrades,
the ultimate betrayal comes

when Qasim aligns his government
with their sworn enemy,

the Iraqi Communist party.

The Ba'ath Party believes
there is only one option left.

They assemble a team to
assassinate General Qasim.

Among the first to volunteer
is Saddam Hussein.

(Natasha Ezrow)
Saddam Hussein had such facility
with violence and brutality

but he is smart and he is wily.

He knows he's the man
for this job.

(Joseph Sassoon)
I think Saddam saw
the assassination

as a way to advance,

saw it as a way
to climb the ladder.

(John Nixon)
I think Saddam always understood

that there's a lot of potential
for advancement

if you're willing to do
the things

that other people
aren't willing to do.

(narrator)
October 7, 1959.

22-year-old Saddam Hussein
has used violence

to rise through the ranks
of the Ba'ath Party.

Now, he's about to use violence
on a whole new level.

Saddam and a small team of
comrades are plotting

to assassinate Iraq's
new leader, General Qasim.

They will attack his motorcade
in broad daylight,

on central Baghdad's
busiest avenue.

For Saddam, it is a key turning
point on his path to power;

a moment he will later use to
build a heroic image of himself

and justify his dictatorship.

(Mariam Mufti) Myth making is
a commonly used strategy

by a lot of dictators,
because they want to appear to

be more heroic, braver, better
than the average person.

In Saddam Hussein's case,
he used an origin story

to make people believe
that he was special,

and that he was born
to be their leader.

(narrator)
Part of Saddam's mythology

is based on the assassination
plot against General Qasim.

In time, the story morphs

into a celebration
of his heroism,

and years later, it's even
made into a feature film.

Shown on Iraqi television,

the film depicts Saddam
and his comrades

in a daring attack on the
presidential motorcade.

[loud gunfire]

(Natasha Ezrow) He created a
legend around himself

that this was someone that was
not a normal person.

That the people were lucky
that they had this person

who is seen as a brave
and bold leader

willing to stand up against
any types of threats.

(narrator)
The film shows Saddam's heroic
escape after the assault.

He barely survives a serious
bullet wound in his leg,

eludes Qasim's well-armed
security forces, flees Baghdad

and makes a thousand-mile
journey through Syria, to Egypt.

But, in fact, the attack on
General Qasim was nothing like

the glorious heroism
depicted in the film.

It was a total disaster.

In reality, the assassination
attempt ends in chaos.

Qasim is wounded, but survives,

and Saddam flees
to a Baghdad safe house

where he is treated
for a minor bullet wound.

(John Nixon)
He said it was, yeah,
it was a complete failure.

He got shot in the crossfire
by one of his own people

as they were trying to nail
Qasim in his motorcade.

(narrator)
Some later claim
it was Saddam's own fault

that the attempt was botched--

that he started shooting
too early.

The attempt failed,

the leader was injured,

but so was Saddam,
and he escaped.

(narrator)
Saddam flees the country

and hides out in
the Egyptian capitol, Cairo.

It's there
that he begins to build

the myth of his
heroic destiny.

He lays out his own version
of what happened--

that he was a fearless warrior
who nearly took down the regime

and escaped
to fight another day.

That stamps his perception
within the party.

He is the kind of thug,

he is the street fighter
par excellence.

He's the man
who understands guns.

(narrator)
It is this self-created
reputation

that will propel Saddam
to ultimate power in Iraq.

February 9, 1963.

While Saddam is still in exile,

General Qasim is shot dead
by Ba'ath party loyalists,

sparking
a 5-year power struggle.

Saddam returns to Iraq.

But it's not until 1968

that the Ba'ath Party
finally rises triumphant

it takes power
under Saddam's own cousin,

President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.

Under the new military
dictatorship,

al-Bakr and a small group
of key Ba'ath loyalists

assume almost total control
over the running of the nation.

Thanks to his heroic reputation,
Saddam is able to leverage

his way to a senior position
in the new government.

Officially, Saddam
is made vice president.

But with one eye on the future,
he takes on another role--

one that many dictators
have used

to gain the upper hand
over rivals and enemies.

Controlling the secret police is
important to the dictatorship

because they need to know

who the opponents
are of the regime.

They need to get access
to really good information.

They need to know who is loyal
to the regime.

And they need the secret police
to do its dirty work.

(narrator)
Saddam's new security apparatus,
known as the Mukhbarat,

will later be compared
to the Gestapo,

the infamous and brutal
secret police force

of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.

Their methods include espionage,
intimidation, and terror,

and are used to send
a clear message--

be loyal to the dictator,
or else.

Saddam really believed
in one thing;

it has to be loyalty to 100%.

It cannot be even 99%--
there is no such a thing.

(narrator)
Saddam uses the secret police

to create an elaborate
surveillance system

to monitor private mail
and telephone communications.

Secret files are created for
thousands of suspected traitors

in the government, the military,
and the public at large.

(Joseph Sassoon)
These are files about everyone.

Saddam would write in the
margins in his own handwriting,

"to be kept
for future reference."

and if someone crosses Saddam
or become disloyal to him,

that's when this information
will come up

and be used against them.

And that gives you an edge
over them when you need it.

(Hayder Atracki)
They bugged our phones.

They monitored all
the phone calls.

(narrator)
Like many Iraqis, Hayder Atracki

and his entire family
lived for decades

under the threat of Saddam's
secret police.

(Hayder Atracki)
You are not free to talk.

You can't talk against him.

Always we were under eye
of Saddam Hussein.

Always, they are watching us.

It's very dangerous-- if he feel
you are a threat to him,

you are gone-- that's it.

(narrator) In 1969,

barely a year into his tenure,

Saddam will demonstrate the
full power of his new position.

He claims that his secret police

have uncovered a broad
conspiracy against the state.

(Kanan Makaiya)
And they pluck 13 people,

as key conspirators supposedly.

They make a great big
public spectacle

of the hanging
of these 13 people.

(narrator)
The executions are announced
on national radio.

It's believed that as many as
half a million Iraqis

gather to watch
in central Baghdad.

(Natasha Ezrow)
The reason why
you make this public is,

it has a very, very
big psychological impact.

It doesn't just affect the
victims: it also affects anyone

who might think about
challenging the regime.

(Kanan Makaiya)
It was instilled in the mind
of every Iraqi citizen

that if they broke
with what was expected of them,

this would be the punishment
they would receive.

And it was the terror of that
hanging over your life

that was an enormous check
on people's behavior.

Dictators always want to create

a sense that you might be
picked up

or if you do something wrong

your mother might be
interrogated.

So they want to create this fear
as a general rule.

(narrator)
By the end of the 1970s,

as vice president
and head of the secret police,

Saddam has consolidated
almost total control over Iraq.

It ends up, he was able
to use this platform

to basically subvert
everybody else

and to make himself
really the leader of Iraq.

(narrator)
After more than a decade

as Iraqi vice president
and head of the secret police,

Saddam is ready to take
the ultimate step to power.

In July 1979,

President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
resigns,

making way
for his second in command.

At just 42 years old,
Saddam Hussein

is now the undisputed leader
of Iraq.

He moves quickly to send
a message to anyone

who could challenge
his new dictatorship,

especially its biggest
potential threat.

The country's ruling elite.

(Natasha Ezrow) Most of the time
dictators are ousted in a coup

or some sort of elite ousting
or removal.

And so the elites really hold
the key.

They are the big stumbling block
for dictators

in terms of holding themselves
in power indefinitely.

The elites are
going to be the ones

that are the biggest threat
to any dictator.

And so in the beginning,
dictatorships are often

highly repressive: trying
to find out who is disloyal,

who they can't trust and
who they need to get rid of.

(narrator)
Just 5 days after taking office,
Saddam calls a meeting

of Iraq's senior
governing elite,

the Revolutionary
Command Council.

Saddam Hussein had

this particular spectacle filmed
in great length.

[man repeats a word; applause]

(narrator)
Citing information he has

accumulated from secret police,
Saddam claims

he has uncovered a conspiracy
to overthrow his new regime.

[Saddam speaks Arabic]

(Joseph Sassoon)
He begins by announcing

that it really truly pains him

to hear that people are plotting

against him, against the
country.

And they are traitors.

(narrator)
He has an informant read

the names
of suspected traitors.

As each name is read aloud,

a man is sent out
of the auditorium

and arrested
by the secret police.

(Joseph Sassoon)
I think people realize

nothing really truly matters
except loyalty to him.

(narrator)
In a chilling twist,

Saddam forces the remaining
government officials

to personally execute
their arrested colleagues.

[gunfire]

Notice the kind of fiendish
intelligence behind this.

You are implicating them

in your assent to the presidency
of the republic.

Complicity has essentially bound
them to the regime.

They can't escape it.

(narrator)
The film of the assembly is
circulated around Iraq.

This sent a very clear message
that if you are not loyal to me,

if you do not give me your
undying support,

I will kill you.

[applause]

(Joseph Sassoon)
And that in my opinion

established him in the party

as the unconditional leader.

(narrator)
Saddam has relied on
fear and violence

to establish his authority
over the elites.

But to win
their continued support,

he will need to use
a softer touch.

(Natasha Ezrow)
No dictator can survive
with just repression alone,

they're going to
have to employ a strategy

of not just sticks,
but also carrots.

(narrator)
Saddam begins to use
public funds

to keep the ruling class happy.

Almost everyone
in Saddam's inner circle,

including his closest
political advisers

and a small army of bodyguards,
is given a luxury car.

(John Nixon) The people around
Saddam were very loyal

and they had reason to be loyal

because the well-being of them
and their families

was connected to the well-being
of the regime.

(narrator)
With the loyalty of the elites
secure for now, Saddam knows

he has to keep the Iraqi public
on his side as well.

Taking advantage of Iraq's
growing oil wealth,

Saddam funds a series of
economic and social programs

designed to benefit
average citizens.

Overall you could argue
that this was the period

that really the Iraqi people

benefited from the dramatic
economic progress.

There is a lot of money
coming in

which was used
for infrastructure.

(narrator)
Iraq provides free,
universal healthcare,

free university education,

and equal rights for women.

(Joseph Sassoon)
And that is the empowerment
he gave to women.

More women are entering
the universities,

more job opportunities
for women.

He believes that if he gains
the support of women,

he will have 50%
of the population.

(narrator)
Above all, Saddam wants
the public to see

his dictatorship as the source

of a more modern,
more prosperous nation.

Many people want stability,
they want predictability.

They want
to be assured that they are
going to be taken care of.

And that's something that
dictatorships provide.

This really ensures
that the masses feel

that there is a need
for this dictatorship.

[extremely loud cheering]

(narrator)
With both an iron fist
and a giving hand,

Saddam has gained control

over Iraq's elite
and the broader public.

His new dictatorship seems
rock solid.

(narrator)
But in 1980,

a new danger appears
on the horizon,

one that will directly threaten
his rule.

A recent revolution
in neighboring Iran

has overthrown its monarchy.

In its place, a new Islamic
republic has been established

under the radical Muslim leader,
Ayatollah Khomeini.

The rise of Khomeini in Iran is
very disturbing to him

because of the extreme
religious philosophy.

(narrator)
The Ayatollah believes in
theocratic rule--

that Iran, and the entire
Middle Eastern world,

should be run strictly
by religious law.

Khomeini publicly calls for
a revolution in Iraq;

he urges Shia Iraqis
to rise up

against Saddam's regime and
build a new Islamic republic.

It's a challenge Saddam
can't ignore.

To face this threat
to his power,

and unite his public behind him,

he turns to another
classic dictator's tactic.

One of the important tools
for any dictatorship

is to create an enemy;
either it's imagined

and sometimes maybe
it is actually real.

But they need to have
some sort of enemy

that they can use
as a scapegoat.

And that is one way
they can unite the masses

to be committed to the
particular dictatorship.

(narrator)
For Saddam,
the enemy is very real.

He begins telling
the Iraqi public

that Iran is out
to destroy modern Iraq

and turn it into
a medieval religious state

and that he alone can
stop this from happening.

That external enemy is a threat,

these people are out to get us.

We have to get them
before they get us.

(narrator)
Saddam expels some 35,000 Iraqi
citizens of Iranian origin,

claiming they are part
of the Ayatollah's plan

to topple his regime.

He also plans a bold
preemptive strike against Iran.

It's purpose--
to remove the Ayatollah

before the Ayatollah
removes him.

[rapid gunfire]

On September 22, 1980,

Iraqi forces cross
the border into Iran.

Saddam believes victory will
come in a matter of days.

But the invasion quickly stalls

and becomes a bloody
war of attrition.

(narrator)
In 1982,

two years into the war,

Saddam gets some vital help
from an unexpected source--

the United States government.

The Americans,
under President Ronald Reagan,

see Saddam as
a secular Arab nationalist

providing the last line
of defense

against Iran's religious
extremism.

Remember, Iran was already
an enemy of the United States

since the kidnapping of the
members of the U.S. Embassy.

I think that the Americans
thought, here is a man

who is obviously antireligious,
anticommunist.

He is willing to share

the same ideals economically
with the West.

(narrator)
The CIA actively begins

to encourage and aid
Saddam's war with the Ayatollah.

I think there was definitely
the American support to Iraq,

a lot of intelligence
was exchanged,

photos of bases,

a lot of information about
Iranian units were given.

And there was a belief
that he might win.

(narrator)
But the American aid
is not enough to get Saddam

the quick victory
he was hoping for.

As casualties continue to mount,
Saddam offers Iran a cease-fire.

The Ayatollah rejects the offer

and vows to keep fighting
until Saddam is overthrown.

(Natasha Ezrow)
And so when this happened,

one of Saddam Hussein's
ministers

suggested to him "Why don't you
step down temporarily,

and then after the truce
has been accepted,

you can return to power."

Saddam Hussein thanked him
for his service,

and then the next day his body
arrived in a duffel bag,

delivered to his wife, and it
was chopped up into pieces.

And that sent
a very clear message.

You have to be loyal to him
or else you will face

some of the most horrible things
that you can imagine facing.

You couldn't even give
any kind of inkling

that you challenged him.

Every single thing that you said
had to comply with his wishes.

He wanted people to tell them

that the military was
stronger than ever

and that they were defeating
their enemies

even though this was
far from the truth.

And that helps explain,
to some extent,

why Saddam Hussein was
so delusional.

He was surrounded by sycophants

that told him exactly
what he wanted to hear.

(narrator)
Over the next 8 years,

as many as 500,000 Iraqis
will die.

Almost every Iraqi family
suffers a personal loss.

For Saddam, the sheer scale
of the war with Iran

has weakened his grip
on power at home.

He is about to face any
dictator's worst nightmare...

open rebellion.

Sensing an opportunity,

the Kurds, one of Iraq's
largest ethnic minorities,

rise up
against the dictatorship,

they seize the town of Halabja
near the border with Iran.

In response, Saddam will resort
to violence yet again.

But this time, it's
a unique kind of violence

with a dual purpose--
to crush an immediate threat

and deter
any future challenge.

Terror is the indiscriminate
and arbitrary use of force

that can incite fear in
the hearts of people.

That fear can be used by the
dictator to advance his goals.

Now terror is the kind
of unique brutal violence

that people tend to remember,
and it leaves

a lasting impression
on the minds of people.

(narrator)
In March 1988,

Saddam orders
his military commanders

to crush the Kurdish rebellion.

The air force launches
an attack on Halabja.

An 11 year-old Iraqi Kurd,
Kamaran Haider,

takes refuge alone
in a bomb shelter.

(narrator)
But some of the bombs are
unconventional,

they are filled with poison gas.

Men, women, and children succumb
to Sarin and mustard gas.

It is a horrible death.

In the aftermath, Kamaran Haider
goes outside

to search for his family,

and see what Saddam's military
has done.

[Kamaran Haider speaks]

(narrator)
In all, some 5,000 of Saddam's
own citizens are killed.

Another 10,000 are
horribly injured.

Just as Saddam intended,

the attack solves
two problems for his regime.

It reminds Iraqis of the price
to be paid for rebellion.

And it sends a powerful message
to Saddam's mortal enemy, Iran.

That, of course, instills
terror.

And then he manipulated it
and worked with it.

(narrator)
Iran's leaders now fear

Saddam could unleash chemical
weapons on their cities.

They agree to begin UN brokered
cease-fire negotiations.

After 8 years of brutal
fighting, the war ends

with neither side achieving
any territorial gains.

(Kanan Makaiya)
An 8-year-long war,

a human meat grinder
if there ever was one,

a war that in its impact and
scope on the region

as big as World War I on
the countries that waged it.

I mean, it results in a million
dead.

(narrator)
But within days
of the cease-fire,

as he has done before, Saddam
props up his dictatorship

by spinning failure
into triumph.

Dictators in general,

tend to use propaganda
to generate a false reality.

It is the ultimate fake news.

And Saddam really wanted
to convince the people

that he was
a great military leader.

He really wanted them to believe
that everything

that he had done was
for the best of the country.

However, in reality,
the war was a total disaster

and Iraq
suffered many losses.

(Joseph Sassoon) He announces
that it is a holiday.

I want every Iraqi to celebrate.

And that is really one of
the things about Saddam--

how you can turn a war that is
really not successful,

to a successful ending.

[people cheering]

(Fathali Moghaddam) We see this
illusion of control,

and of course, we see

an increased exaggeration of
their own glory,

of their own abilities.

(narrator)
But the sham victory
celebrations

are just a temporary distraction
from a new problem...

the war has left his regime
nearly bankrupt.

This was really a huge issue.

Saddam never needed money as
much as he needed in 1988.

(narrator)
After the 8-year war with Iran,

Iraq is billions of dollars
in debt to its neighbors,

especially Saudi Arabia
and Kuwait.

Saddam demands
the debts be forgiven.

The response from
the gulf Arab countries,

especially from Kuwait was,

no, we're not going
to forgive the loan.

And Saddam felt
very insulted by this,

because he felt
that he had bled for them,

and now he was being treated
like a beggar.

I think it hurt his sense
of pride and honor,

and I think he thought he wanted
to teach them a lesson,

particularly wanted to
teach the Kuwaiti's a lesson.

(narrator)
Saddam outlines a plan

to invade and annex
Iraq's neighbor, Kuwait.

He believes Kuwait's cash
and oil reserves could prop up

Iraq's failing economy
and strengthen his regime.

But it's a move that will break

a cardinal rule
of a successful dictatorship--

never provoke an enemy
you can't hope to beat.

Saddam is about to pick a fight
with some powerful foes.

His sense of wanting
to show strength

really truly dominates
his thinking all the time.

This always tilts him
to take action

that actually is
counterproductive.

(narrator) August 2, 1990.

Saddam's army invades Kuwait.

Leaders in the West warn
that the invasion

could spark a wider war in
the Middle East, drawing in

key oil-producing nations
like Saudi Arabia,

and jeopardizing some 50%
of the global oil supply.

The response
to Saddam's aggression

is swift and near unanimous.

And the American goodwill
Saddam enjoyed

during the Iran/Iraq war
is wiped out.

President George H.W. Bush,

with the full backing
of the United Nations,

sends an enormous ground,
naval, and air force

halfway around the world
to the Persian Gulf.

Saddam's strong-arm tactics have
always served him well at home,

but to the rest of the world,

his methods are
a dangerous provocation.

He's about to face an opponent
that will not be bullied.

(Kanan Makaiya)
I think he was very smart,

but he had street smarts.

And he had Iraqi street smarts.

You know,
street smarts only work
in the streets that you know.

So he did not perhaps
understand the world,

I'm pretty sure of that.
He misjudged phenomenally

what the United States
might or might not do.

Saddam really misunderstands
the West, international affairs,

time and again,
and of course,

this begins a series
of catastrophic mistakes.

(narrator)
On January 16th, 1991,

the American-led coalition makes
Saddam pay for his aggression.

[jet engines roar;
extremely loud explosions]

Operation Desert Storm begins.

For the first time
in his dictatorship,

Saddam is truly vulnerable.

He goes deep into hiding,

moving to a new location
every day.

Within weeks,

the American led coalition force
crushes Saddam's army.

What's left of it limps back
across the border to Iraq.

(Pres. George H.W. Bush)
As president, I can report
to the nation,

aggression is defeated,
the war is over.

[loud applause]

Thank you!

(narrator)
But Saddam gets
an extraordinarily lucky break.

UN forces had
orders to liberate Kuwait,

not to bring down
his regime.

The coalition forces withdraw,

and Saddam emerges
from hiding.

He has survived,

but his dictatorship
hangs by a thread.

(John Nixon)
When it came to Kuwait,

he sort of put his hands up to
his head and rubbed his eyes.

And just said oh, this gives me
such a headache!

And ah, and that was as close to
an admission of failure

or that he had made a mistake.

Things weren't the same
after that.

(narrator)
From this moment on,

Saddam has a target on his back.

Surviving the Gulf War
isn't a victory,

it's a stay of execution.

[shouting a command]

(narrator)
As Saddam will soon find out,

he remains in the crosshairs
of the United States.

I believe that the
George W. Bush administration

felt that Saddam was unfinished
business but wasn't quite sure

what it was going to do
to remove him from power.

Thank you
for coming.

(narrator)
The answer to this problem is
provided in September, 2001.

[whistle of jet engines
then loud explosion]

(John Nixon)
After 9/11 that was all
that they needed.

[screaming]

That is the day that Saddam's
death warrant gets signed.

(narrator)
The United States declares
an international war on terror.

After moving on Afghanistan,
it sets its sights on Saddam.

To build the case against him,
the Bush administration alleges

that Saddam has weapons
of mass destruction

and plans to use them
on America and its allies.

Saddam must give them up
or risk invasion.

In fact, Saddam has
no such weapons,

but his old
strong-man instincts

cultivated since childhood
lead him

to project strength
rather than tell the truth.

To international weapons
inspectors, he lies,

obfuscates, and behaves as if he
actually has an arsenal of WMDs.

Weakness was really critical.

That's one of the reasons that
he never declared

that there were no weapons
of mass destruction,

because that was
showing weakness,

to the Iraqi people
and to the world.

(narrator)
In the face of Saddam's
obstruction and arrogance,

President Bush concludes
the time for talk is over.

On March 20th, 2003,

American and British forces
launch Operation Iraqi Freedom,

a massive air
and ground assault.

Unlike the Gulf War,

this is a no-holds-barred
invasion with one purpose--

bringing down Saddam
and his regime.

Iraq has been under Saddam's
control since the 1970s.

Now, a generation later,

his rule has
finally come to end.

But even in the face
of total defeat,

Saddam refuses to give up.

Once again, he goes
deep into hiding.

(John Nixon)
He had a very strong feeling

that he was the leader of Iraq,

he belonged in Iraq,
and he will survive this.

The American's will tire,
and then they'll leave,

and he'll live another day.

(narrator)
But Saddam has misjudged
his enemy once again.

[engine roars]

[loud explosion]

An elite task force is ordered
to hunt him down.

Navy SEALS and Delta Force units
search house-to-house,

arresting and interrogating
Saddam's former associates.

The U.S. military also offers
a $25 million reward

for information leading
to his capture.

But no one is willing
to give him up.

Saddam may be beaten
and on the run,

but most Iraqis still believe
he is too dangerous to betray.

And to remain at large,
Saddam doubles down

on his old tactics of bribery,
threats, and deception.

(John Nixon)
One of the things that Saddam
did that was very clever,

and it shows you his
street smarts and his genius

when it comes to his own
personal safety,

he took a lot of his
usual bodyguards

and switched them out
and brought in a new set

that were unknown to foreign
intelligence agencies,

and people had been watching
his regime for years,

and these individuals, we didn't
know anything about them.

(narrator)
After 9 months of searching,

some 600 operations
against possible targets,

and more than
300 interrogations,

the task force catches
a break.

They found one of the bodyguards
one of the chief bodyguards

who, you know, decided to give
him up and got a big payday.

(narrator)
December 13th, 8:30 pm,

acting on
the chief bodyguard's tip,

U.S. Special Forces discover
Saddam's hiding place.

He is found in a hole
in the ground,

just miles
from his birthplace.

Ironically, his life
has come full circle.

(John Nixon)
it was quite a night, there was
a real buzz in the station,

and everybody was very excited,
and we had gotten a message

that the military thought they
had Saddam Hussein,

but they weren't
completely sure,

and that's when I got asked
to identify him.

The minute I laid eyes on him,
I knew it was him.

(narrator)
Even under heavily armed
American military guard,

Saddam still believes
there is a way out.

He didn't show any signs

of a person having their world
turned upside down,

he didn't seem panicked.

He still had this sense that
he was still president of Iraq.

Deep down he always harbored
a hope, I think, that somehow

the American's would
come to their senses,

and he'd be able to cut a deal,
and I think that deep down,

he still was
kind of hoping for a miracle.

(narrator)
Charged with crimes
against humanity,

Saddam is publicly tried
in an Iraqi court.

Defiant to the end.

[Saddam speaks Arabic]

(narrator) He rails against
the court, even as he is found

guilty on all counts,
and sentenced to death.

(John Nixon)
He thought he would be

remembered
very, very positively.

He seemed to feel
that the Iraqi people loved him,

that they will always love him,
and that they will see,

especially what happens
after he's gone,

they will see that,
how much he did for them.

[chanting]

(narrator)
December 30, 2006.

At the age of 69, Saddam Hussein
meets the same brutal fate

he had handed out
to so many of his victims.

[loud applause & cheering]

Across the nation, Iraqis,

weary of war and hardship,
celebrate his death.

Saddam Hussein was a classic
strongman dictator.

His relentless use of violence,
terror, and fear

helped him create one of the
most enduring dictatorships

of the 20th century.

But those same tactics
made him live

in a dangerously false reality,

forever convinced
of his own invincibility,

even as his country
was invaded

and his government destroyed.

Iraq was left to rebuild under
an American-led occupation.

And today,
the country still grapples

with its history of division,
violence, and dictatorship.

You simply cannot understand
anything that's going on in Iraq

without realizing
that his shadow

looms over everything--
it's simply everywhere.

His legacy lives on.

That's one of the remarkable
things about dictatorships--

we always tend to underestimate
the impact

they have on future generations.

(man) To order "The Dictator's
Playbook" on DVD,

visit shopPBS.org

or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

This program is also available

on Amazon Prime Video.

[synthesizer fanfare]