The Dictator's Playbook

(male narrator) June, 1975.

With the world press looking on, Uganda's dictator Idi Amin is about to pick a fight with his country's former colonial ruler-- Great Britain.

Amin calls himself the Conqueror of the British Empire.

(narrator) The target of his anti-imperialist fury is a British citizen living in Uganda, Dennis Hills, an author who plans to publish a book that is critical of Amin.

The dictator wants Hills to face a firing squad.

(Idi Amin) Any British citizen who is here against me or against the people of Uganda, he will face the law of the country.

(narrator) The British know this is no idle threat.

Amin's regime is infamous for its torture chambers, state-sanctioned murders, and public executions.

(Mariam Mufti) The scale of violence was immense.

In the 8 years that he was in power, almost 300,000 people were massacred.

(narrator) Queen Elizabeth herself writes a letter to Amin, asking for clemency.

The dictator ignores her plea.

In the end, it's Britain that blinks.

The foreign secretary flies to Uganda to secure Hills' release.

The author apologizes for his book, and Britain even agrees to review its foreign aid to Uganda.

(Iain Grahame) It was a very clever set-up by Amin.

(Alicia Decker) Critics have written Amin off as a buffoon, as a big dumb brute.

But in actual fact, Amin was far more strategic, calculating, cunning, clever than anyone would have ever imagined.

(narrator) Idi Amin rose to power from humble beginnings, won the affection of millions of Ugandans, and struck fear in the hearts of his many opponents.

Was he just a murderous tyrant, or was there a method to his madness?

(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.

(man) This program is (narrator) Uganda, 1952.

Idi Amin's rise to power begins in the colonial army-- the institution that will, more than any other, shape the kind of dictator he will become.

The 24-year-old is an ambitious young corporal in the King's African Rifles, the British Empire's elite military force in East Africa.

(Alicia Decker) Individuals like Amin were recruited into The King's African Rifles to help the British maintain order.

They were essentially the muscle behind the colonial establishment.

(narrator) British explorers began arriving in the 19th century, drawn by the wealth of coffee, tobacco, and gold.

In 1894, new, international borderlines were drawn and the British protectorate of Uganda was established.

For centuries, this part of Eastern Africa had been home to dozens of free tribal peoples and ancient kingdoms like the Buganda, Toro, Ankole, and Busoga.

Now, the British have full control of the country, occupy its best lands with white settlers, and exploit its natural resources.

(Deo Katono) Colonial rule caused hardships.

Of course, colonial rule destroyed our kingdoms, destroyed our rulers.

If colonial rule had not come, we would be somewhere, we would be better off.

(narrator) Under the British-controlled government, Africans like Idi Amin are condemned to a life with almost no political or economic agency.

(Mark Leopold) The Colonial powers thought that Africans were inferior to all white people.

They were seen as being particularly primitive, unable to look after themselves or rule themselves.

Amin very much grew up within that system.

(narrator) Amin is from a small tribal group called the Kakwa, part of Uganda's Muslim minority.

And as an African, Amin can strive to become a sergeant major but he can never be commissioned as an officer.

In spite of these disadvantages, he is determined to exceed expectations, break barriers, and rise through the ranks as far as he can.

Amin was always thinking about ways that he could get ahead.

(Iain Grahame) Idi Amin when I joined the battalion, was a very junior soldier then, and although he was illiterate, virtually no education at all, he made a mark for himself extremely quickly.

Amin was strong, athletic, he had good skills on the rifle range.

He was known to be ruthless, which good soldiers are-- you've got to be.

(Alicia Decker) People who knew him as a child said that he was very violent.

And, in fact, he would get into these punching matches with other children.

And one of his former childhood friends said that there were times that if they had not intervened to break up the fight, Amin would have killed the other child.

(narrator) But it's in the Colonial Army that Amin learns to harness violence and use it to advance his own interests.

It's a lesson he will apply, time and again, on his path to dictatorship.

(Mariam Mufti) Violence is extremely important to almost any dictator because it can be used as an opportunity to not only consolidate their hold over power, to also get rid of opposing forces, to get rid of external threats.

(Mahmood Mamdani) Amin's use of violence was not mindless, it was measured.

And the object was always to keep the hold on power.

(Mariam Mufti) He wanted to very clearly, very publicly, very visibly, demonstrate that he was invincible and that no one could threaten him.

(narrator) In 1952, Amin will get an opportunity to use violence as a way to launch his rise to power.

[a siren wails] In neighboring Kenya, a rebellion has broken out and it threatens to spread across the region.

An alliance of tribesmen known as the Mau Mau, fed up with colonial oppression, stage armed attacks on British-owned farms and properties.

[a siren wails] As dozens of white settlers are killed, terror grips the colonial population throughout East Africa.

The British were up in arms because for the first time, they were being targeted.

(narrator) The colonial authorities aim to stop the uprising-- by any means necessary.

The British stamped it out with a great deal of force and violence, and it certainly seems that there were a lot of atrocities committed by the British, but that doesn't mean that British officers were doing their killing and the torturing themselves.

They were getting their African soldiers to do it for them.

(narrator) They pick their best soldiers to lead the fight.

Among them is Corporal Idi Amin.

In the spring of 1953, Amin is part of the first wave of colonial forces to take on the Mau Mau.

His skill as a warrior will be put to the test on a nighttime patrol, deep in the Kenyan rainforest.

My memory is that Idi Amin was actually leading that patrol at the time.

We were ambushed by a Mau Mau gang... and he was very nearly decapitated.

Idi reacted extremely quickly, then the rest of the Mau Mau gang, they started to attack us as well, and we only had a very quick engagement.

(narrator) The skirmish is as lethal as it is quick.

Several Mau Mau are killed and the rest flee.

Amin, was involved in extremely harsh types of violence against the Mau Mau.

But of course, this is something that pleased the British.

(narrator) Throughout the 1950s, as the Mau Mau guerrilla war rages on, Amin sees regular combat, developing a reputation for ferocity that pleases his commanding officers.

(Mahmood Mamdani) So there is a certain level of cruelty that he learned in the colonial laboratory.

And the fact that he was promoted at every level, meant that this cruelty was seen as functional.

(narrator) For the future dictator, the message is clear-- violence is how you solve problems.

Violence is how you get ahead.

By 1960, the Mau Mau uprising is all but crushed.

More than 10,000 rebels have been killed and thousands more incarcerated and tortured in detention camps.

For Amin, his success on the battlefield positions him perfectly for his next move.

But there's an obstacle.

Amin has already risen to the highest possible rank for an African enlisted man and further promotion is impossible.

The colonial officer corps is whites only.

But on February 3, 1960, Amin's prospects change overnight.

British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan announces a decision that will remake the continent-- Britain will grant independence to all its African colonies.

(Mark Leopold) After the Second World War, really, it became increasingly obvious to the British that they couldn't maintain the empire as it was and had been.

Partly that was because of economic weakness after having fought such a long war.

Partly it was because of international pressure.

(narrator) In Uganda, dramatic change begins even before the British withdraw.

Democratic elections will be held to decide the country's new leader.

And for the first time, black soldiers get the opportunity to rise above the ranks of enlisted men.

In 1961, Amin is commissioned as a lieutenant, the first of two Ugandan officers in the entire colonial army.

I think, probably for Amin independence would have represented both a threat and an opportunity.

It would have represented a threat because his power base up till then had been very much through the British, particularly through the military part of British colonial rule.

Independence meant that a lot of his power base was disappearing.

So he would have to develop a different set of strategies for succeeding, getting on, and winning.

(narrator) Finally, on October 9, 1962, Uganda officially gains independence from Britain and the transfer of power is complete.

[applause] Idi Amin, along with millions of his fellow Ugandans, celebrate their liberation from foreign rule.

(Henry Kyemba) At the time of independence, I was in government as a public civil servant, and we were all thrilled, we were excited.

Here we are young men, blacks taking charge of the country!

[men sing in their native language] (narrator) For Idi Amin, the end of colonialism has given him a status beyond anything he had ever dreamed possible.

Now, he sees the opportunity to rise even further through the ranks and become the supreme commander of the military.

(Alicia Decker) What he soon came to recognize, is that by getting rid of the British, there created a space from which he could enter and assume power.

(narrator) Amin allies himself with the one man who can give him further promotion-- the new, democratically elected Prime Minister of Uganda: Milton Obote.

(Mark Leopold) Obote and Amin were really polar opposites.

Obote was an intellectual, a politician, a very educated man.

Amin was a soldier, strong, charismatic, very popular among the rank and file.

It was useful for Obote to have a military ally, and it was certainly useful for Amin to have a political ally.

(narrator) Obote knows he will need the army to back up his fragile coalition government, already rife with infighting.

He sees Amin, the fierce, up-and-coming officer, as the ideal man to help protect his authority.

Within 3 years, Obote promotes Amin all the way to colonel and deputy commander of the army.

The two men have built a powerful alliance.

But they're about to face a crisis that could destroy them both.

In 1966, Obote's government is facing intense opposition from its main rival, the Kingdom of Buganda.

This ancient tribal group, whose ancestral lands cover much of the southern part of the country, has long sought more power and autonomy in Uganda.

Now, the Bugandan king, Kabaka Mutesa II, is leading the call for regime change.

The Bugandans claim they have uncovered a criminal conspiracy implicating Obote and the man they see as his lackey, Idi Amin.

The Bugandans are right-- for more than a year, Amin has been abusing his senior position in the army.

With Obote's support, he has built a huge smuggling network, supplying arms to rebels and mercenaries in the jungles of Congo.

In exchange for guns, Amin has funneled large sums of cash, gold, ivory, and coffee into Uganda, making him and the Prime Minister very rich men.

Amin had actually profited significantly from these deals-- $30,000 had miraculously appeared into his own bank account.

(narrator) For the Bugandans, the illegal arms deal is proof that Obote and Amin must go.

The Bugandan king prepares to mount an armed rebellion against the government.

Amin is at risk of losing everything he has worked so hard to achieve-- his status, his wealth, his power.

Obote and Amin respond quickly to the crisis.

Amin orders his forces to surround the Bugandan palace in the capital city, Kampala.

The next day, they attack, and set the palace ablaze.

Scores of rebels are killed, and the Bugandan king flees the country.

With Amin's support, Obote uses the incident as an excuse to suspend the constitution and outlaw all remaining opposition parties.

He's begun to transform Uganda's fledgling democracy into a dictatorship.

Many Ugandans are appalled by Obote's power grab, but there is little resistance-- they know any protest would mean facing the wrath of Idi Amin and his army.

In return for helping to secure Obote's power, Amin gets the ultimate promotion.

(Mark Leopold) He became Commander of the Army, and he became unchallenged military leader within the country.

(narrator) The man who was once a lowly foot soldier in the Colonial Army, now controls the military, a powerful tool in any dictatorship.

(Mariam Mufti) The army has all the guns and trained soldiers.

And if the dictatorship wants to establish a monopoly over the coercive apparatus of the state, number one, and number two the legitimate use of violence within the state, then absolutely you need the cooperation of the military.

(narrator) As commander of the army, Amin has never been stronger.

He will do whatever it takes to protect his position.

(Alicia Decker) Amin recognized that the military could be the ultimate arbiter of power and that he didn't need to necessarily follow the orders of a president.

And so once he was head of the military, Amin began amassing supporters by recruiting heavily from his home region, his so-called ethnic kin to build up a greater base of support.

(narrator) Obote catches wind of what Amin is up to but he knows a direct confrontation with his powerful military commander would be far too risky.

(Alicia Decker) As it became increasingly aware to Obote that Amin might actually become a threat to his own hold on power, Obote began trying to find ways to stifle him.

(narrator) Obote turns to his internal spy organization to keep tabs on the military, stacking the army officer corps with loyalists who covertly keep an eye on Amin.

So over time it was this calculated game of chess.

(narrator) By 1971, Obote believes he has enough support in the army to move against his disloyal commander.

Obote plans to strip Idi Amin of his rank, his power, and even his freedom.

On January 5th, the president leaves Uganda to attend the Commonwealth Conference in Singapore.

While he is abroad, he gives orders for the immediate arrest of Idi Amin.

Obote sent a message back to Uganda to the military saying that Amin should be arrested, for subversion.

(narrator) But Obote has badly underestimated the army's loyalty to its commanding officer.

Amin has spent years building up a force whose rank-and-file troops are more loyal to him than to the government.

(Alicia Decker) The message from Obote was actually intercepted by a lower ranking soldier who was loyal to Amin, who then relayed the message on to Amin.

He saw the writing on the wall.

He knew that he was going to be eliminated.

(narrator) Amin counters Obote's move with the ultimate power play.

With his army behind him, he stages a coup.

Amin orders his troops to fan out across the Ugandan capitol.

Tanks surround Obote's residence and block major roads.

His forces engage in running gun battles with the few army units still loyal to Obote.

Within hours, all opposition is crushed, and Amin has control of Uganda.

Milton Obote, thousands of miles from home, is caught off guard.

Dr. Obote will come back to Uganda as a citizen of Uganda but not as a president of the republic of Uganda.

(narrator) Some Ugandans have secretly hoped for this moment, convinced that Obote is a corrupt, out-of-touch elitist who is getting what he deserves.

Obote had become increasingly unpopular among many Ugandan groups.

(Alicia Decker) Many folks saw him as removed from the masses, and they wanted him overthrown.

(narrator) Obote does not return home.

Instead, Amin forces him into exile in neighboring Tanzania.

Amin has defeated his nemesis and taken power.

But he faces a problem... many Ugandans are deeply suspicious of this military commander who is now in charge of their country.

(Alicia Decker) Many people were on edge.

They were very nervous about what was coming.

(narrator) Amin comes up with a shrewd political solution.

To win the hearts of the people, he sets aside his aggressive tendencies and launches a nationwide charm offensive.

(Alicia Decker) Amin was a master strategist.

He was very good at reading people, and he knew what they needed to hear and when.

(narrator) Amin assures the public that under his leadership, the promise of independence will finally be realized-- improved housing, better jobs, a brighter future.

(Mark Leopold) He talked a strong anti-colonial line.

He talked the language of the African man taking over power over his own country and his own economy.

He made all the right noises.

[joyful exclamations] (narrator) Amin's popularity soars to even greater heights when he promises a return to democracy.

(man) Would you like to stand for parliament yourself?

I am not ambitious of standing for power but my job is that I want to hand over the government clean to somebody who is coming and that's what I want and then I can go back to barracks and then take again orders from him.

You will see me, I am coming, saluting him and obey his orders.

(Alicia Decker) He represented a fresh start.

It was a time of possibility and hope and excitement.

(narrator) But Amin's extraordinary popularity and his newfound power spur him to consider a different plan.

March, 1971.

Just two months after the coup, Amin extinguishes all hope of democracy.

He re-establishes a dictatorship, and takes Uganda for himself.

(Deo Katono) Power corrupts.

So once you go into this position and you realize as an individual what you are able to do with power, then you want to keep it rather than give it away.

(narrator) Amin has much of the country's lower class behind him.

But the new dictator faces fierce opposition from many who still believe Milton Obote is the rightful leader of Uganda.

(Alicia Decker) At the very beginning of his regime, he was absolutely terrified of being overthrown.

Different military leaders, cabinet officials and the soldiers who were associated with the former president, Milton Obote, were a threat to Amin because they had the ability to potentially threaten his hold on power.

(narrator) Amin is determined to avoid his predecessor's fate and he moves quickly to stamp out any dissent.

He will follow the lead of dictators before him and build a potent weapon to defend himself and his regime against internal threats.

(Natasha Ezrow) Having control over the secret police is an incredibly important tool for any dictatorship, particularly in the beginning.

They have to set the tone and set the message straight that nobody can be disloyal and survive this regime.

(narrator) Amin begins to transform Uganda into a police state.

He establishes a vast network of secret agents, spies, and enforcers at every level of the government, the military, and even on the public streets.

Many members of Amin's secret police are easily identifiable in their flowery shirts, dark sunglasses and flashy cars.

(Henry Kyemba) What happened after the coup spoke volumes.

All he was interested was how the army did with any opposition to his leadership.

(narrator) The secret police make thousands of arrests, rounding up targets without warning, day or night, in military barracks, public streets and private homes.

If he suspected you to be in conversation with his opponent, you know, he would not just delay, he would just remove you instantly.

Not putting them before the judicial system-- just murdering.

(narrator) Within the first year of Amin's regime, an estimated 10,000 Ugandans are murdered by the state.

(Fathali Moghaddam) They want certain people out of the way because they regard them as infections, infections that could spread.

And they want to use them as examples of what could happen to you if you step out of line.

(narrator) But it's behind the locked doors of his secret police prisons that Amin shows the full extent of his cruelty.

His torture chambers become legendary.

Among other atrocities, prisoners are immersed in boiling water, forced to beat each other with hammers, and made to eat bags of salt until they nearly die from dehydration.

(Natasha Ezrow) Many dictatorships resort to using torture because it ensures compliance.

It actually also serves a purpose of psychologically affecting the victim quite extensively.

That they won't ever, ever again attempt to, to challenge the regime.

(Mahmood Mamdani) The consolidation of power is brutal.

This government is born in an orgy of blood.

Because it's purging of all elements which he thinks could challenge his hold on power.

(narrator) Amin makes sure everyone in Uganda understands the price of disloyalty.

Public executions become a common event.

He wanted to send a very clear message to his opponents, that no disloyalty would be tolerated.

Anyone who threatened his power was almost a death sentence.

(Fathali Moghaddam) Ordinary people in dictatorships want to rebel, want to bring the regime down.

But they are facing a gun, a loaded gun, and they will be killed, many of them will be killed if they rebel.

(narrator) Ugandans from all levels of society come to learn that they are being watched.

And that opposing Amin means risking your life.

(Idi Amin) Everybody in Uganda, members of the armed forces, police, and the public, they are responsible for my security.

And immediately they hear anybody making subversive activities or try to plan anything against me, they report that person straight to the police.

This is what I am happy because it seems that they love me and that is why they are doing this, which I am very happy, and I thank them very much.

(narrator) Throughout his rule, Amin's murders never stop.

The killings cut across all sections of the population-- the army, farmers, students, clerks, even religious figures.

In many cases, Amin orders his victim's corpses to be thrown into the Nile where they become food for crocodiles.

[Henry Kyemba speaks] In the 8 years that he was in power, almost 300,000 people were massacred.

In fact that number, according to Amnesty International is cited to be as high as 500,000 people.

(narrator) Amin's violence will remain the central pillar of his dictatorship.

But he knows he cannot rule through fear alone.

Dictators are very careful.

We talk about indiscriminate acts of violence as a strategy that are used by dictators, but there is a tipping point.

Dictators do not want to kill everyone.

You don't want to create so much state repression, so much violence, that you actually end up instigating a rebellion from within, or a revolution from within.

(narrator) For his next move, Amin will offer the carrot, not the stick.

In an act of crowd-pleasing populism, he will give his people what he believes they want... it's a move he thinks will win him their undying loyalty.

in the beginning there's been a lot of fear, repression, purges used, arrests, and of course, fear is a big part of it.

But no dictator can survive with just repression alone, they have to cultivate some form of popularity.

(narrator) Amin wants to demonstrate that he can give the people a better, more prosperous life, especially among his base-- the millions of lower-class Ugandans who have been stuck in a cycle of poverty since colonial times.

People have a need for stability.

They need to feel like they're taken care of.

And that's something that dictatorships provide.

They want to ensure that the masses feel that there is a need for this dictatorship.

When Uganda became independent in 1962, for most people, nothing much changed.

(narrator) Amin has a radical idea to give black Ugandans real economic power for the first time.

And to make his plan work, he will use a classic dictator's tactic.

(Mariam Mufti) If you want to bring people together, and you want to give people a sense that the dictator must be in power, because he is a savior or a guardian of their interests, then creating a common enemy is an extremely effective strategy.

Now in the case of Idi Amin, that common enemy stemmed from indophobia, which was very common at the time, and it was directed towards the South Asian settlers in Uganda.

(narrator) South Asians were first brought to Uganda by the British in the 19th century to help run the colonial economy.

The British believed that the Africans weren't really capable of carrying out these these economic positions-- running shops and small businesses.

In effect the Asians were running pretty much all the Ugandan economy.

(narrator) By 1972, Asian Ugandans make up less than 1% of the population, but they own 90% of the country's businesses.

By targeting Asians, and their role in the economy, Amin believes he can transfer power and prosperity to black Ugandans.

It's a move that will provoke outrage around the world and define the rest of his dictatorship.

On August 5, 1972, Amin orders the expulsion of Uganda's entire Asian population, some 80,000 people.

(man) Would you like to get all Asians out really?

Yes!

they must go to their country!

It was early August in 1972, and ah... we had the radio on, and we heard this thing about the Asian expulsion.

And it just, we were oblivious, we said no, it can't be.

This must be some kind of joke or something.

(narrator) But Amin proves to be deadly serious.

The dictator gives Asian Ugandans like John Nazareth and his family just 90 days to arrange their affairs, close their businesses, and make plans to emigrate to a new country.

(John Nazareth) Panic... it was pretty rough.

The less serious you took it-- I don't know whether it was just a defensive mechanism in the mind to make light of something because if you didn't laugh, you'd cry.

(narrator) The world press condemns Amin for his drastic move, often resorting to caricature and barely veiled racism.

(Mark Leopold) The reaction abroad, particularly in the UK was to really make Amin seem a heartless monster, to make him the notorious dictator that he has become.

(narrator) But for many of his supporters at home and across the African continent, Amin is seen as a bold, pioneering champion of black rights.

[applause & cheers] (narrator) In the end, more than 50,000 Ugandans of Asian origin are thrown out of their own country.

Amin expropriates the Asian owned businesses.

He siphons much of the revenues to his government and shares the properties among his supporters.

(Mahmood Mamdani) Amin was the source of a future for so many people.

Uganda had suddenly become a land of opportunity for its black population.

He tapped into something big.

I mean, this was almost like a social revolution.

Except it had been carried out from above.

(narrator) The Asian expulsion remakes Uganda's economy... but in ways Amin had never intended.

The impact on the economy was disastrous.

(Deo Katono) It was a big disaster because the Africans who took over these businesses had no experience at all in the management of these properties.

(narrator) Commercial supply chains, for decades controlled by Asian business owners, suddenly break down.

Manufacturers can't get parts and raw materials.

Unemployment soars.

Store shelves are bare, and basic household goods like matches and sugar are unavailable.

(Deo Katono) Then there was a phenomenon of crime.

These were burglars, these were bandits invading homes and stealing from people.

It was on the rise stimulated by the biting economic conditions.

(Mahmood Mamdani) The support that he had gained through the Asian expulsion was beginning to to wane.

To ensuring a running economy, or a rule of law-- Amin had lost that credibility.

(narrator) With even his most ardent supporters now questioning his leadership, Amin is facing the possibility of revolt.

To win back popular support, he turns to another tactic.

He will try to divert public attention away from his failed policies.

(Natasha Ezrow) It's an important tool for any dictator.

It's a way of distracting people from the transgressions of the regime, from the repression, from the poor policies.

The economy was doing terribly.

He was running the country into the ground.

(narrator) Amin's plan is to turn the public spotlight away from the failing economy and train it on himself.

(Alicia Decker) An important aspect about Amin is the theatricality of his personality.

Right?

He loved to, he loved to make a spectacle, a show of things, and he loved to ruffle feathers.

(narrator) The dictator launches a public war of words with the outside world.

He begins sending out a series of lewd and controversial telegrams, often to prominent world leaders.

One example of this would be when he sent the Queen of England a telegram telling her not to get her knickers in a bundle over something that he had done.

The world were outraged-- how can you send such an inappropriate message to the Queen of England talking about her underpants?

(Deo Katono) There's one telegram that he sent to Nixon, the U.S. President, congratulating him after he'd been impeached over the Watergate scandal.

(Alicia Decker) He deployed irrationality as a performative tactic to try and get people talking about him.

He loved a good show, he loved a good performance.

And so by engaging in these sometimes over-the-top, outrageous behaviors, by sending these missives to various heads of states, saying various inappropriate things, he was able to get people's eyes focused on him.

(narrator) Once again, the world press scrambles to cover Idi Amin, framing him as an unthinking and unhinged despot.

(Deo Katono) These newspapers said look, this man is crazy.

He is a buffoon.

Actually they used the word buffoon.

(narrator) But at home, many Ugandans set aside their concerns over the economy and thrill to the sight of their leader on the world stage, standing up to the West.

So when he projected himself as a critic of colonialism, as a protestor against white domination, he received very high marks.

(Alicia Decker) Part of the reason why many people have not taken Amin seriously is because of his antics.

But I think we need to take these telegrams and these missives very seriously, because they tell us a lot about the inner calculus of the political machine that was, you know, Amin.

(narrator) Amin manages to keep a tenuous hold on popular support, but by 1978, Uganda's economy is weaker than ever, and the dictator is facing an urgent problem.

With his government nearly bankrupt, Amin's once loyal army is underfunded and increasingly out of control.

(Alicia Decker) Amin created a hypermilitarized state.

What he did is, over time he created multiple different organizations that were responsible for various aspects of security in the country.

As these groups were able to amass increasing amounts of power, they were not necessarily loyal to him anymore.

And so eventually the militarism which had brought him power was what ultimately undid him.

(narrator) In neighboring Tanzania, Milton Obote now in his 8th year of exile, is watching closely.

He rallies thousands of Ugandan rebels to join forces with the Tanzanian Army and waits for the right moment to strike.

(Mark Leopold) Increasing numbers of exiles were organizing in Tanzania, and they were getting more and more international support.

So he was very much under threat.

(narrator) Amid the crisis, Amin sees an opportunity, a way to shore up his crumbling regime and preempt Tanzania's imminent attack.

He'll employ a risky tactic one that's been used by other dictators.

This war was about trying to give the soldiers something concrete to focus on that was not going to get them involved in other business that they shouldn't be involved in, such as questioning the authority of the state.

(narrator) In October 1978, Ugandan forces invade Tanzania.

[loud explosion] (narrator) Amin's army, whose troops he can no longer afford to pay loot and plunder their way across nearly 700 square miles of Tanzanian territory.

[loud explosions] (Alicia Decker) During the invasion, they massacred every living thing that was around.

Reports suggest that it was complete and total destruction.

(narrator) Amin's gamble on a war with Tanzania seems to have paid off.

He declares a great victory, but he has misjudged the will of his enemy and the strength of his own army.

(Mariam Mufti) The Tanzanians weren't going to take lightly, and in fact they came back full force and recaptured their territory, pushing Amin back into Uganda, pushing his troops back.

(Alicia Decker) And so instead of fighting back, Amin's troops were very dilapidated by the end-- a disorganized mess.

And so it was very easy for the Tanzanian army, who at this point were very highly organized, to chase after Amin and his soldiers.

(narrator) With his troops in full retreat, Amin barricades himself in his presidential residence in Kampala.

On April 10, 1979, Tanzanian forces enter the Ugandan capitol.

Amin's war has proved to be a fatal mistake.

[enthusiastic cheering] (Mariam Mufti) This entire episode, which stemmed from Amin realizing that he was losing control of his regime led him to go on a misadventure and make a mistake.

It was a huge misstep for Idi Amin because it led to the end.

(narrator) Through a combination of populist charm and brutal violence, backed up by a vast police state, Idi Amin managed to rule Uganda, and confound the whole world, for 8 years.

Now, it's all over.

On April 11, 1979, with Tanzanian troops and Ugandan rebels closing in on his compound, Amin boards an army helicopter and flees the country.

Millions of Ugandans, finally free of Amin's brutal rule, rejoice in the streets.

But they must also reckon with what the dictator has left behind: a devastated economy and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens.

There are people who lost parents, as a result of Idi Amin and have never recovered.

(Henry Kyemba) I lost my brother.

I lost my sons.

I lost my close relatives.

(narrator) As Milton Obote returns to Uganda to reclaim his old dictatorship, Amin flees to the Middle East.

There he leverages his Muslim heritage to find refuge.

Ultimately, he is given a safe and comfortable haven in Saudi Arabia.

(Alicia Decker) Once Amin got to Saudi Arabia, he had a very nice lifestyle.

The Saudi government put him up in a very beautiful house.

He was able to marry at least two additional women.

And so by all accounts, it would appear that Amin ended his days without ever having to pay for the violence and devastation that he brought to Uganda.

(narrator) Amin lived a long life and never answered for his crimes, dying peacefully of kidney failure in 2003.

But ever since his downfall in 1979, the culture of violence and militarism that he created in Uganda has continued.

The country has seen periods of relative stability and peace, but Amin's successors have all resorted to similar tactics to intimidate and control their people.

(Alicia Decker) Every leader since Amin, has relied upon military force to maintain power and to stifle dissent, largely because they have learned through Amin, that violence is effective, violence works.

The violence that was inculcated and supported by Amin's militarism, is something that lives on as one of his most enduring legacies.

(narrator) Next time on "The Dictator's Playbook"... (Natasha Ezrow) There's no country that exercises more power over its citizens than North Korea.

(Jean H. Lee) After hundreds of years of feudal rule and brutal Japanese occupation.

(Bruce Cumings) Kim Il Sung saw himself as the great unifier.

(Natasha Ezrow) He was able to create a complete religion.

(Michael Madden) For the North Koreans, Kim Il Sung was a living god.

(Jean H. Lee) Controlling what they think, what they eat.

(Charles K. Armstrong) That has lasted now for almost 70 years.

(Jean H. Lee) We had never seen anything like that in the communist world.

(m [orchestra plays in minor tones] (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.

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