Real Dictators

The dream of Lebensraum, the dream of Mein Kampf is over.

He will still invade the USSR eventually, just as he outlined in Mein Kampf.

As we know from Hitler's book Mein Kampf it's been the author's deep-seated ambition to unite the German-speaking peoples into a single realm

Right there in Mein Kampf's opening paragraph Hitler had declared his wish to fold Austria into Germany as a single entity via a political union an Anschluss

For anyone familiar with his book, Mein Kampf, such things should come as no surprise.

To keep the Nazi flame burning, he decides to write a book. Another one. My Struggle. Mein Kampf.

Later on, Hitler in Mein Kampf and later would always talk about himself and his 12 loyal deputies, of course.

In his autobiography, Mein Kampf, He'll claim that at the moment he receives the news of the armistice, he is overcome with anger.

In his version of events, it is now as he lies weeping that fate speaks to him. This is the moment, so legend has it, that Adolf Hitler decides to enter politics.

Mein Kampf is basically styled as a coming of age text. And the idea of some sort of dramatic, tearful political awakening is probably a plot device more than anything else.

The scene that Hitler paints of this breakthrough moment in the hospital is a clever piece of fiction. It will serve Hitler's story about himself, that he is a figure of destiny.

If we believe the account that Hitler gives in Mein Kampf, and it's a big if, Hitler immediately concludes that the armistice was the greatest felony of the century.

In the days before reliable electronic communications via wire, it was always important to send human couriers from a general to the officers in the field.

And later on in Mein Kampf, he talked about his hard four years as a front soldier, living in the trenches. That's not quite right.

dictator books that we're all familiar with, Mein Kampf, The Little Red Book, etc.

Simon Sebag Montefiore is an historian and author of the books Young Stalin and the Court of the Red Tsar.

Stalin really learnt the meaning of power.

Stalin really learnt to be the ruthless Bolshevik that we know from history. It wasn't his cruel father that taught him that lots of people have cruel fathers. It was the circumstances of the Civil War.

Stalin once said to Churchill during the war he said the death of one man is a tragedy the death of a million is a statistic and what he meant by that was as a Marxist history demanded the deaths of millions of people

Stalin really learnt the meaning of power. This was a time when these Bolsheviks wearing leather coats and military boots with mouths in their leather holsters were swaggering around. They were very young. They were all in their sort of 30s basically and some of them younger. Stalin was typical of them. They loved making ruthless decisions. They executed hundreds of people. Lenin encouraged them to execute and take reprisals ruthlessly. The Bolsheviks were absolutely struggling to stay in power and so terror was essential to them. It came from the very top. Lenin was really Stalin's teacher in the practice of terror. Stalin really learnt to be the ruthless Bolshevik that we know from history. It wasn't his cruel father that taught him that lots of people have cruel fathers. It was the circumstances of the Civil War.

Stalin once said to Churchill during the war he said the death of one man is a tragedy the death of a million is a statistic and what he meant by that was as a Marxist history demanded the deaths of millions of people great conquerors kill millions of people and Marxism demanded the death of entire classes of people and so this wasn't a matter of personal emotion that would just be bourgeois sentimentality. No, a Bolshevik like Stalin and Stalin prided himself on this could look at things harshly with one eye and the other could look at things harshly with toughness and as he said to Lenin, my hand will not tremble.

Simon Seyberg Montefiore is an historian and author of the books Young Stalin and The Court of the Red Czar.

Simon Seyberg Montefiore is an historian and author of the books Young Stalin and The Court of the Red Czar.

Professor Donald Rayfield from Queen Mary University of London is author of Stalin and His Hangmen.

These were the intellectuals, the people who wrote a lot, talked a lot, were good theoreticians who understood Marxism to the core and had a very high opinion of themselves. Trotsky above all.

Stalin was convinced that the Russian peasant was unproductive and could be replaced with tractors. The peasantry had to be enslaved.

He tried to dominate proceedings. He was extremely rude to Lenin's wife. He insisted on reporting things to Lenin,

These were the intellectuals, the people who wrote a lot, talked a lot, were good theoreticians who understood Marxism to the core and had a very high opinion of themselves. Trotsky above all. Trotsky made the greatness stake of snubbing Stalin. Trotsky didn't realize this, he was singled out to be always contradicted and then finally set aside and destroyed.

Stalin was convinced that the Russian peasant was unproductive and could be replaced with tractors. The peasantry had to be enslaved. They couldn't be allowed to own land anymore and do what they liked with it. And that led to the first really murderous acts of Stalin.

He tried to dominate proceedings. He was extremely rude to Lenin's wife. He insisted on reporting things to Lenin, but he might be fatal.

Professor Donald Rayfield from Queen Mary University of London is author of Stalin and his Hangman.

Professor Donald Rayfield from Queen Mary University of London is author of Stalin and his Hangman.

the problem from Kim Jong-il really from the day he was born is that as the South Koreans say it has always been a case of the tiger father and the dog son which is a Korean saying

his father Kim Il-sung for all of his dictatorial proclivities and so on was a guerrilla fighter did lead a band of guerrillas in the fight against the Japanese in Korea he did establish the nation

he was a nation builder he was the father of the nation Kim Jong-il is the son and he has no military background he was born in 1942 by the time of the end of the Korean War he was only in his teens he was not a fighter

he did not have a military command around him he did not have a corps of colleagues and comrades around him all he had was his father and that meant that from the start he had to establish himself

anyone who disagrees with the cult of personality anyone who challenges the authority, the legitimacy of the Korean Workers Party and the punishments are extremely harsh right up to of course the well-known large Gulag prison camp system and widespread use of execution

Paul French is an East Asia analyst and author of North Korea, State of Paranoia.

North Korean propaganda has always created incredible myths.

What it said, but when Kim Jong-il was born, a glacier on the lake on Mount Paektu, which is the most famous mountain in Korea and supposed to be where the Korean nation and people were founded, cracked, double rainbow appeared in the sky, a new star appeared in the heavens, cranes, which is the national bird of Korea, flew across the sky to announce the birth of his son.

Will Badenbear for his book, The Prisoner in His Palace, looks at the final chapter of Saddam's life through his interactions with a dozen of his American jailers.

The interviews that I listened to were conducted primarily with very junior rank in soldiers who had been involved in the detention of Saddam. I would have assumed that they were kind of older and more seasoned veterans, maybe special operations troops. But the people who basically were tasked with spending eight hour shifts, 24 hours a day, in his company. In this case, we're in some cases 18 year old kids that had just graduated basic training.

Will Bardenwerper author of The Prisoner in His Palace?

Something that you'll hear from just about anyone who interacted with him they will all say that when he came into the room even if he was just wearing a dish dasha and sandals you know he carried himself with a noticeable aura that never went away.

Will Barton Vepa is author of The Prisoner in His Palace Saddam Hussein is American gods and what history leaves unsaid.

He certainly did exhibit certain attributes that are commonly found in clinical psychopaths, not all of them but I think you know if there's a spectrum he certainly was towards that end of the spectrum.

Napoleon had read very extensively in military history and especially military biography when he was at school and later on. In fact, he took Herodotus to Egypt and various other historians. He took Caesar's Gallic Wars and various other books about Alexander the Great.

Napoleon had read very extensively in military history and especially military biography when he was at school and later on. In fact, he took Herodotus to Egypt and various other historians. He took Caesar's Gallic Wars and various other books about Alexander the Great.

Whereas people like Pompey his great rival left accounts written by others of charging sword in hand striking down enemy leaders Caesar doesn't he leaves it to your imagination We get some valuable insights

He deliberately makes them quite sort of impersonal and he's incredibly modest about it all

His literary prowess does not go down well with his opponents who now include the great Cicero They object to the fact that Caesar's writings include something deemed unprintable the mention of roman defeats

Great generals have always had their exploits documented Their pet writers in tow to puff them up Caesar by contrast Decides to pen his own appraisal

Though Caesar makes inevitable exaggerations Usually when it comes to numbering the enemy dead

Simon Sebag Montefiore is an historian and author of the books Young Stalin and the Court of the Red Tsar.

Mao was worried about capitalist rodas. He was worried that the Chinese were losing sight of the communist utopia that everyone was aiming for.

Jonathan Clements is an expert on East Asia and author of the book Mao Zedong, Life and Times.

You can see a lot of Mao the adult in his childhood, I think. If you look at the way that he was raised, if you look at the experiences that he had, particularly as a teenager, you can see many things that are going to influence the way that he behaves later on.

Supreme is a journalist and author of Kim Jong-Il, North Korea's Dear Leader. They were seen as sort of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor of Korea.

The Japanese took control of Korea in 1910. Very unusual for the colonial world, you normally colonize a distant, poor country. But they colonized their neighbor, their immediate neighbor. So they tried to turn Korea into a cousin of Japan, if you like.

from the outside if you look at Kim Jong Il he's caused a torus for being quite a comic looking character he wore very high heels and his shoes to try and increase his height

he also had a very sort of large hairstyle to try and achieve the same thing and he is a subject of ridicule for many people in the outside of the country but when you talk to people who actually met him

they describe him as being a very logical reasonable charming for want of a better way of putting it diplomat,

Kim Jong-il just didn't have what his father had his father had some kind of genuine legitimacy

he had been sort of very much supported by the Soviets he had indeed fought the Japanese who had colonized Korea at the time so he had a kind of real legendary history to him and Kim Jong-il was basically a kind of spoiled rich kid

Kim Jong-il was obsessed with art, literature, filmmaking.

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Among the books Nati sends him are the works of Engels, Marx, and Lenin. It's the first time that Castro meaningfully engages with farleft thought.

I have his marginalia for Marx's Capital, in which he's wrestling with the concepts of Marx.

Fitts Old Shablovsky is the author of How to Feed a Dictator

Fitts Old spent many hours talking as well as cooking with Saddam's former chef, a man called Abu Ali.

And he told me about his first meeting with Saddam. Saddam asked him personally, Abu Ali I heard you're such a great chef.

Would you give me this honor and cook for me? And actually I didn't want to do that like I knew it's going to be a horrible job but he didn't know if this kind of offer from a president is an offer he could refuse.

Napoleon had read very extensively in military history and especially military biography when he was at school and later on. In fact, he took Herodotus to Egypt and various other historians. He took Caesar's Gallic Wars and various other books about Alexander the Great.

Napoleon had read very extensively in military history and especially military biography when he was at school and later on. In fact, he took Herodotus to Egypt and various other historians. He took Caesar's Gallic Wars and various other books about Alexander the Great.

The tale of the comet, there's old superstition. The folk superstition says something like, when the tale of the comet points to a certain country, Cambodia will be drawn into war with that country.

Suddenly I could see that my mom wasn't excited anymore. She was scared and all that, and I remember asking her, Ma, what does war mean? And of course she didn't answer, and what does country mean? And she didn't want to answer me, and then that was like a precursor to what came next with the Viet Cong.

And I remember my pa told my older sister Chia to get all my siblings to go to the bunker. And I would scream, every bomb exploded. And soon after that, we had to leave that home because the Viet Cong was so close.

We had to leave that home and go to the capital city. Actually, me and my father and my brother came back and the home was destroyed.

The tale of the comet, there's old superstition. The folk superstition says something like, when the tale of the comet points to a certain country, Cambodia will be drawn into war with that country. Suddenly I could see that my mom wasn't excited anymore. She was scared and all that, and I remember asking her, Ma, what does war mean? And of course she didn't answer, and what does country mean? And she didn't want to answer me, and then that was like a precursor to what came next with the Viet Cong.

And I remember my pa told my older sister Chia to get all my siblings to go to the bunker. And I would scream, every bomb exploded. And soon after that, we had to leave that home because the Viet Cong was so close.

We had to leave that home and go to the capital city. Actually, me and my father and my brother came back and the home was destroyed.

And in arguing for this kind of view, I had to employ the Green Book itself, saying that my understanding of the Green Book is that it's not against multiplicity of the press because the Green Book espouses and advances the idea of democracy, and this is part of democracy.

And of course, if you look, you know, without taking this out of context today and you read this piece, you would say that Yusuf Sawani was actually advancing Green Book ideas.

Though Yusuf Sawani did not encounter Gaddafi individually, he did have cause to interact with him in an academic capacity. Gaddafi, you know, came to university on many occasions and came to lecture. And he had his own auditorium that was called the Green Auditorium.

the publication of his sacred Green Book.

As a guide to his thinking, Mao publishes a hold-all primer of Maoist principles. It's called Little Red Book, and it's exactly that. It's Mao's version of Marx's Communist Manifesto.

Shifting over a billion copies, The Little Red Book is a blockbuster. It's one of the most printed volumes in history.

Mao's Little Red Book is the second bestselling book of all time, I think.

Simon Seyberg Montefiore is an historian and author of the books Young Stalin and The Court of the Red Czar.

Simon Seyberg Montefiore is an historian and author of the books Young Stalin and The Court of the Red Czar.