In our previous episode on the Iranian revolution, we left the Ayatollah Khomeini sitting high and mighty in Tehran. Little did he know, next door in Baghdad, an Arab strongman nursed revolutionary, expansionary ambitions of his own: Saddam Hussein, the Lion of the Arabs and Defender of the Eastern Gate, the ultimate symbol of corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship. Taking up where we left off back in episode 9, with Iraq reeling from the bloody 1958 coup that replaced the Hashemite monarchy with a military dictatorship, this episode describes Saddam’s blood-soaked rise to power and his tragic and ultimately futile decision to invade Iran, thus inaugurating the 20th century’s bloodiest and costliest conventional war.

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