Explains how Saddam Hussein rose from the Baath party to become leader of the most powerful state in the Arab world and how the international community reacted to a global threat it had not foreseen. This book draws on first-hand interviews with Saddam Hussein and reveals how the Iraqi leader had long nurtured superpower aspirations and how he dreamt of using a vast army, equipped with nuclear weapons, to dominate the region and threaten the outside world. The authors also describe how, under the banner of Arab nationalism, Saddam ruthlessly repressed his own people and bullied weaker neighbours to fufil his ambition of a new Iraqi empire with himself at the head.