01x03 - Reign Through Terror

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] Dear tyrant,

now that you've vanquished

your enemies inside the government,

your regime should be

settling in for the long haul.

But there's another group that can pose

a bigger threat to your rule,

and it's much harder to control:

-[glass shattering]

-[blasts echoing]

your adoring countrymen.

So how can you keep the masses

on your side through thick and thin?

The playbook offers

one essential ingredient.

Machiavelli poses the question:

is it better for a ruler

to be feared or loved?

You should rely on fear,

because when people fear you,

you are in control of them.

[narrator] It gets better.

Play your cards right,

and you'll find that terror can have

an unexpected benefit:

winning your people's hearts.

Which brings us to Uganda

to meet legendary tyrant Idi Amin Dada.

[machine g*n fires]

Amin's path through the playbook

made violence and terror

the guiding principles of his regime.

Toughness is good,

because the people respect you.

[narrator] Follow his example and learn

how to put your own dark side to work.

[theme music plays]

[narrator]

During Idi Amin's eight-year reign,

as many as 300,000 Ugandans

disappeared or were k*lled…

[g*nsh*t fires]

…often on his direct orders.

He has turned Africa into

a human slaughterhouse.

[narrator] Before diving into how Amin

ruled over this former British colony,

here's what you need to know about

how he got the job in the first place.

Around 1946, Amin joins

what was called the King's African r*fle,

which was actually used

to suppress insurrection and rebellion

in African countries.

[woman] He had been very involved

in situations of violence,

and instead of being punished

for using excessive force,

Amin was repeatedly promoted.

He was able to recruit

people that were loyal to him

into the army,

and he started recruiting a lot of people

that came from

his own ethnic group, the Kakwa,

from the southwestern part of Uganda.

President Milton Obote was warned

by the departing governor:

Idi Amin was a ticking time b*mb.

Obote knew at some point

he would have to deal with Idi Amin.

[Alicia] Not too long later, in 1971,

Amin did seize power from Obote

and ousted him in a military coup.

I will exercise the function

of the head of government,

so help me God.

[narrator]

And so began a new era full of promise.

[Allimadi] The media embraced him.

They coined nicknames like "Big Daddy."

Or he was called the "gentle giant."

[chuckles]

[narrator]

But gaining power in a coup meant

that Amin had to wipe out his enemies

to secure his rule.

How do you do that

without turning off your fans

at home and around the world?

The playbook suggests

a little sleight of hand.

[dramatic music plays]

Setting up a new regime is hard work,

and it's not always pretty.

Too much attention to unsavory details

can really cramp a tyrant's style.

Uganda is very peaceful,

and Uganda does not violate

any human rights.

[narrator] That's why,

thanks to the playbook,

top tyrants know the value

of a good cover-up.

As word of n*zi atrocities

began to spread during World w*r II,

Hitler invited the Red Cross to tour

the Theresienstadt concentration camp,

which they disguised as a model ghetto

full of only healthy residents,

with its own bank,

Jewish-run businesses, and sports leagues.

When Joseph Stalin's agricultural policies

led to millions of deaths by starvation

in the Ukraine,

he used disinformation,

censorship, and friendly reporters

to keep the truth from emerging.

Pol Pot covered up

evidence of his genocide in Cambodia

that k*lled up to two million people,

saying he and the Khmer Rouge

were framed by the Vietnamese.

[machine g*n fires]

[sinister music plays]

Believe it or not, it wasn't long

before Uganda's "gentle giant"

needed to put this tactic into action.

[Allimadi] Idi Amin had

a very charming personality,

but no denying that this is a k*ller

who unleashed his k*lling

the very minute he seized power.

-[crowd cheering]

-[Alicia] Six months into Amin's regime,

there started to be allegations

that there were massacres in the barracks,

particularly soldiers

who were members of the ethnic groups

that were closely linked

to the former president, Milton Obote.

People were k*lled

out in one of the forests outside Kampala.

They were buried

in one of the forests, or indeed,

sometimes dumped into the Nile River.

[narrator]

Rumors of the massacres begin to spread,

so American reporter Nicholas Stroh

decides to investigate

along with his friend Robert Siedle,

a professor at a local university.

Stroh and Siedle drive

to the alleged crime:

a rural barracks about 170 miles

southwest of the capital, Kampala.

And after two days,

they seemingly disappear.

Weeks pass with no signs of the men.

Amin meets with Stroh's wife

to reassure her

that he'll leave no stone unturned

to discover what happened,

but it takes months for him

to open an investigation.

Then a Ugandan Army lieutenant escapes

to Tanzania with a brutal story to tell.

He informs police there

that the two Americans were attacked

by Amin's officers and hacked to death,

their bodies burned

and dropped into a watery grave.

[engine turns over and revs]

[fire crackling]

The crime allegedly involved

high-ranking officials in the government,

but Amin closes the case

without any charges.

Another playbook success story?

Not exactly.

[guitar music plays]

The scandal turns

the nature of Amin's regime

from rumor into front-page news

around the world.

[Derek] The international reporting shifts

as it becomes more obvious

that Amin's government is

an exceptionally brutal one.

[narrator] But really, who needs

the international community?

What matters is

that your people stay loyal,

and the playbook has

the perfect tactic to keep them in line.

Every good tyrant understands

their nation is made up

of human beings with emotions,

and emotions can be hacked.

Scapegoating is

one of the most effective tactics.

Bullying somebody else for the ills

that the general masses are facing.

And that is how you earn

the trust and the support

and the legitimacy from the masses.

[crowd chanting] Sieg Heil!

There are many examples of this.

[narrator] Joseph Stalin blamed

wealthy farmers called kulaks

for hoarding riches during the 1930s

amid the Soviet Union's lagging economy.

Muammar Gaddafi passed a special law

to confiscate assets

from Libya's ethnic Italians

who once ruled over the country,

and expelled them on

what became known as the Day of Vengeance.

And of course, there's Adolf Hitler,

who built his entire movement from day one

around scapegoating and persecuting Jews.

But when Amin unleashes this tactic,

he has a different purpose in mind.

[Alicia] Things were

economically very difficult,

and Amin was trying to come up

with strategies to appease the nation,

so he could demonstrate that he was

in fact a legitimate and important leader.

And so he needed to find

a new group of individuals to target,

and that was the Asians.

There were about 100,000 Asian Ugandans,

mostly Indians

from the Indian subcontinent.

The British had brought them

during the colonial era,

mostly to build the railroad,

and they never went back.

[reporter] The Asian community:

80,000 out of a population of 10 million.

They own nearly all

the large shops and businesses.

[Alicia] A lot of the Ugandans

felt resentment toward the Asians.

They looked around

and saw Asian businessmen,

and they thought, "This is our country."

"There should be Africans

running these shops."

[man] You know, from experience,

we have discovered

that Asians are very, very shrewd.

And they have been exploiting

this country for a very long time.

[man 2] When Amin came into power,

there was great jubilation

amongst the Indian population of Uganda.

And Amin used to say himself

that he had liberated these Indians

which the British had disenfranchised.

[narrator]

But student of the playbook that he is,

Amin decides to change his tune.

[machine g*n fires]

[Derek] Toward the end of 1971,

Amin holds a press conference

in which he describes

how the Asian community

was against Black Ugandans,

regarding them as being

less civilized than them.

[narrator] But then the kinder,

gentler Amin seemingly re-emerges.

Amin invites

Asian community leaders to a meeting

to help clear up any misunderstandings.

A who's who of Ugandan VIPs

attend the conference

along with international media.

The mood is hopeful…

until His Excellency the President arrives

along with his top military brass.

[ominous music plays]

Amin launches into an attack

on the Asian community,

accuses them of tax evasion,

funneling money out of the country,

and discriminating

against Black Ugandans in business.

In other words,

economic and cultural treason.

Amin's speech fuels

a wave of anti-Asian propaganda,

hate speech, and violence.

[Mariam] By creating divisions,

not only is Amin as the tyrant responsible

for breaking the bonds of trust

within the larger society,

he's also unifying his support base,

which is predominantly

the Black Ugandan population.

[narrator] Now you've got

your scapegoats off-balance,

you might think you can do with them

whatever you choose,

but it's not always so simple.

At least, not yet.

Even tyrannical societies have guardrails,

otherwise known as laws.

You need to knock them down.

One of the pleasures

of becoming absolute ruler:

you rarely hear the word "no."

But destroying all obstacles

to your tyrannical whims takes work.

Existing legal institutions

can be a barrier to political leaders.

What do they do? They dismantle them.

The idea is to weaken

all of the institutions and the guardrails

that serve as a check on your power.

[narrator]

And once those guardrails are down,

you're free to turn the law

against your scapegoat.

That's something

any tyrant can get behind.

[woman] Idi Amin was able to control

the government, the administration,

and the economic structure.

The tactics I'm using is sport.

By knocking out people,

I'm using politics also.

[laughing]

The only institution Idi Amin failed

to penetrate was the judiciary,

so he suspended part of the Constitution.

He gave himself power to pass decrees

to accomplish what he wanted.

[narrator] Sideline those pesky judges,

and your playing field opens wide.

For Amin, it triggers the next phase

of his scapegoating operation.

[machine g*n fires]

One morning while visiting

the town of Soroti in Eastern Uganda,

Amin rises before dawn

and drives himself

to the local radio station.

There, he addresses the nation.

[Alicia] He said,

"Last night, I had a dream

that the Asians were milking the cow,

but they were not feeding it,

and therefore I think

that we should get rid of the Asians."

I want to see the whole Kampala street

is not full of Indians.

Would you like

to get all Asians out, really, sir?

Yes. They must go to their country.

Uganda's Asian community were given

three months to pack up their businesses,

leave the country.

And therefore,

they must sell everything they have

between now

and the ninth day from Monday.

[crowd cheering]

I was there in Uganda and I was

a teaching assistant at the university.

And the general feeling amongst those

I knew in the Asian community was

that this was a bombast.

[narrator] Asian leaders appeal

to Uganda's courts for protection,

but it's no use.

Many of the Asians

who'd been in Uganda were born there.

Their families had been in Uganda

for generations. They had nowhere to go.

People left their car at the airport,

left the keys in the car.

Nobody could figure out

what was happening to them.

[chuckling] I mean…

You just…

Imagine in a country where you had made

your whole life, and you…

Several generations.

You're leaving, and there was not

a single person to say goodbye.

[narrator]

Well, it wasn't a disaster for everyone.

[upbeat music plays]

Once you've cast off

your chosen scapegoats,

it's time to reap the rewards.

When the entire Asian population

was kicked out…

[crowd cheering]

…there was some celebration

in the population in Uganda.

Idi Amin was able to take those businesses

that had been owned by the Asians,

and awarding it to Africans.

It's good for them to go.

[reporter] Why?

They have sucked us enough.

[Mahmood] It was a popular move.

It in some ways resonated very deeply

with the demands

of the vast majority of people,

so it was popular.

Whether it was successful,

that's a different question.

After the Asian expulsion,

there was a massive economic crisis.

The people who had received the shops

that were Asian property

didn't have the skills.

They didn't know

how to manage economic enterprises.

[Allimadi] The shortage

of all sorts of commodities

resulted in mass inflation,

and many parts of the economy collapsed.

[narrator] So maybe terrorizing one

small group won't solve all your problems.

As you can see,

it can actually create more headaches.

But don't blame the playbook.

It's the people who've let you down.

Before they start complaining about you,

give them a good reason

to keep their mouths shut.

t*rture.

t*rture is a very good way

to deter people from opposing you.

[man] It's better than k*lling,

because the person's kept alive.

You can trap them,

imprison them, pin them down,

and exert raw violence against them.

Tyrants love this.

[narrator] They certainly do.

In Cambodia, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge

used a wide array of t*rture techniques,

including waterboarding, electric shock,

and even covering people in scorpions,

to force confessions.

North Korea's Ministry of State Security

uses sleep deprivation and the Pigeon,

a stress position, which over time,

forces the victim's backbone

out of the body.

While Joseph Stalin's NKVD favored

the classic Russian strappado technique,

which involves tying the victims' hands

behind their back,

then suspending them in air.

[machine g*n fires]

[Alicia]

As a result of the Asian expulsion,

it was a time of increased smuggling,

it was a time of economic chaos.

[funk music plays]

[narrator] Nothing like a bad economy

to stir up opposition to your rule.

So to keep the chaos in check,

Amin relied on his main t*rture squad:

the State Research Bureau,

whose agents were infamous

for their viciousness

and their fashion sense.

Everybody who saw these agents

knew who they were,

'cause they'd wear bell-bottom trousers,

dark glasses, flowered shirts.

You know,

they kind of had this 1970s vibe.

[narrator] But despite their cool threads,

these are probably not guys

you'd want to party with.

Some would be literally

whisked off of the street.

They'd be pulled from a restaurant

they'd be sitting at,

bundled into the trunk of a car,

and driven away.

[tires screeching]

Never to be seen again.

[narrator]

But everyone knew where they'd gone.

Amin had a large number

of t*rture chambers.

One of the most infamous

was the headquarters

of the State Research Center,

which was located

right in the middle of Kampala.

The French Embassy was

actually right next door,

and people working in the embassy

would recount being able to hear screams.

[Derek] The SRB building was famous

for the terrible things

that happened within its walls.

Ordinary, innocent people

were tortured and k*lled.

[ominous music plays]

[Alicia] But Amin and his henchmen

always made sure

that they let a couple people escape

so that they could tell the story.

I also visited a place

where they smash heads… with a hammer.

[Alicia] Amin was very careful

about cultivating rumors

in a way that would keep people afraid.

So the result is that ordinary citizens

never knew who they could trust,

and so they weren't able to mount

opposition against the state.

[narrator]

You'd think ruling through terror

would push your people away,

but as all tyrants know,

that's not how this works.

We're not great at distinguishing fear

from a more generalized feeling

of arousal.

And in a dictatorship, that could

actually be channeled into thinking

that heightened sense of emotion

is a feeling you're feeling

for the dictator themselves.

[crowd chanting]

[narrator] And that feeling

can seem a lot like love.

It's not unlike an a*usive relationship

such as in a family,

or in a g*ng,

or in a cult.

They actually come to align themselves

psychologically with the oppressor.

[narrator]

But there are always going to be holdouts

who resist your terrible charms.

[machine g*n fires]

Like this man:

Janani Luwum, Anglican Archbishop

of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Zaire,

and one of the most powerful Christians

in East Africa.

Luwum was well-regarded

by almost everyone.

Over the course of his archbishopric,

he was increasingly obliged

to speak against the violence of his time.

He had written a letter

decrying the violence.

It was enough for President Amin

to see the archbishop as a threat.

[narrator] So Amin points his finger

back at the archbishop.

Amin accused him,

along with two cabinet ministers,

of plotting to overthrow the government.

It was said the archbishop

was stockpiling weapons

in anticipation of an Anglican uprising.

The next day, the two cabinet ministers

and the archbishop

are found in a wrecked car.

Ostensibly, they lost their lives

in an auto accident.

[narrator] But witnesses tell

a different story of what happened.

Apparently Luwum and his wife were

attending a gathering at Amin's residence

when the president requested

a private meeting.

[ominous music plays]

Amin accused Luwum of treason

and demanded he sign a fake confession.

Luwum refused and was taken into custody.

Inside the State Research Bureau,

Luwum was brutally beaten

and threatened with worse

if he didn't confess

his crimes against the regime.

But Luwum did not bend.

That night, Luwum received a visitor.

Amin encouraged

the archbishop to reconsider,

but Luwum simply prayed

for God's mercy on Uganda and its leaders.

But mercy was not on Idi Amin's agenda.

[g*n blasts]

[Derek] His body was buried

the next morning.

It was never subject

to an official examination report,

but it's plain that he was shot,

his bones were broken,

and other injuries were done to him.

[narrator] Maybe there is such a thing

as going too far.

[Derek] The archbishop's m*rder

kind of solidifies sentiment

that Amin's government needed to go.

[narrator]

But when your back is against the wall

and all hope seems lost,

the playbook has an ace in the hole

that can still turn your fortunes around.

[man yelps]

[electronic music plays]

[narrator] w*r.

What is it good for?

[machine g*n firing]

As a tyrant, quite a bit,

especially when you're in a jam

like Idi Amin was in 1978.

Tyrants always go to w*r,

and the reason is there's always a point

when their domestic support

seems to be a little fragile.

And so what they do then

is find a foreign enemy

to marshal the country against.

[Derek] Amin absolutely used the threat

of foreign invasion and foreign opposition

as a kind of provocation

that could inspire

Ugandans' loyalty and self-sacrifice.

[machine g*n fires]

[narrator] Let's see how that worked out.

In 1978, units of the Uganda Army

crossed the border in the south of Uganda

and invaded Tanzania.

He had no legitimate reason

to invade Tanzania,

except as a diversion.

[narrator] And to settle some old scores.

[Allimadi] Tanzania had maintained

a close relationship

with Milton Obote all these years.

Now is the time for Ugandans

to overthrow the regime of death.

[Allimadi]

And Amin obviously did not like that.

[narrator] Needless to say,

if you're going to make this tactic work,

you need an army that's up to the task.

[Allimadi] All these years,

Amin's army had sophisticated weapons,

but in reality,

his soldiers had never

fought against armed opposition.

All they had done was met brutality

against unarmed Ugandans.

Field Marshal Amin started it

with a territorial claim on my country.

So he had now had the legitimate excuse

to actually invade Uganda.

[narrator] That was probably not what Amin

had in mind when he started all this.

[Alicia] By this point,

Amin's army, the Uganda Army,

was completely out of control.

The Tanzanian People's Army

was much more organized.

Amin's army collapsed very quickly.

[crowd cheering]

[funk music plays]

Amin is in Arua. And we're going there.

-[reporter] You're going there?

-Yeah!

[reporter] When will you be in Arua?

I don't know. Because we're walking.

[crowd cheering]

[Allimadi] Idi Amin was still

in the country with a mobile radio

and still communicating

and claiming that he was still in power

and urging the population,

which he had brutalized for nine years,

to actually stand up…

[chuckles] …and fight on his behalf.

Which was utter nonsense, of course.

[narrator] Nothing less intimidating

than a loser on the run.

So take note:

when you decide to go to w*r,

make sure you pick a fight you can win.

And then eventually, he flies himself

out of the country to Saudi Arabia,

where he lives in exile

for the rest of his life.

[narrator] The demise of Idi Amin's regime

holds an important lesson.

Just because you have

a playbook to work from,

doesn't mean your success is guaranteed.

To make sure your rule endures,

you need an even grander vision

and the discipline to see it through.

Take a page from a man

who dominated all aspects

of his nation's day-to-day life,

including the most basic concept of all:

the truth.

[in Russian] Who alone do we owe this to?

[theme music plays]