Saddam Hussein: The Dictator Who Ruled Iraq Through Fear | Full Documentary

For 23 years, Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq through fear, violence and total contempt for human life. This documentary tells the story of how a rejected child from a poor village near Tikrit became one of the most brutal dictators in modern Middle Eastern history. Influenced by his uncle Khairallah Talfah, a Nazi sympathizer, Saddam grew into a violent young Ba’ath Party militant. In 1959, he joined a failed assassination attempt against Iraqi leader Abdul Karim Qasim, beginning a political career built on conspiracy, brutality and survival.

After the Ba’ath Party seized power, Saddam became head of Iraq’s security services and built a terror apparatus that tortured opponents and eliminated enemies. In 1969, public executions of falsely accused Iraqi Jews showed the country that a new era of fear had begun. During the 1970s, Saddam used oil wealth, propaganda and ruthless security control to strengthen his position. In 1979, he forced President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr to resign and seized full power. Days later, he staged a filmed purge of senior Ba’ath Party members, accusing them of conspiracy and sending many to execution.

Saddam’s rule soon became a disaster for Iraq and the region. In 1980, he invaded Iran, starting the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, which killed huge numbers of people and devastated both countries. When victory slipped away, Saddam used chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers and against his own Kurdish population. The Halabja chemical attack in 1988 killed around 5,000 civilians and wounded thousands more. After the war, Saddam declared victory despite Iraq’s ruin, built monuments to himself and then invaded Kuwait in 1990, provoking the Gulf War. Even after defeat, he crushed uprisings by Kurds and Shiites and kept Iraq under repression and sanctions. In 2003, US-led forces invaded Iraq and toppled his regime. Saddam was captured hiding near Tikrit, tried for crimes against humanity and executed on December 30, 2006. This is the story of Saddam Hussein’s rise, terror, wars, crimes and fall.

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