In this work, the author draws on his own knowledge of and extensive contacts within the Arab world to produce both a thorough biography and a psychological profile of the Iraq leader. The author worked with Hussein in the 1970s and is therefore able to add personal experience to the reader's understanding of the terrifying, yet charismatic, dictator. The book seeks to explain why Saddam behaves the way he does: for recognition after being orphaned and brought up by a destitute uncle; for control of his country; for leadership of the Arab world; for mastery of the technology of destruction. It is the story of a man who, with the encouragement of western governments, made his country the most advanced in the Arab world in the 1970s, and through personal ambition led it to disaster at the end of the 1980s, now fights for its survival.