In the introduction to his extraordinary book from 1998, Explaining Hitler – the search for the origins of his evil, Ron Rosenbaum detailed what has been termed ‘The Survival myth’ in the realm of Hitler explanations. While obviously dismissing the idea that Hitler escaped his Berlin Bunker, Rosenbaum puts his finger on the attraction of these myths though: “Seductive, perhaps, because it reflects a feeling that although Hitler did not escape us physically, in certain important respects he may have eluded us. The survival myth suggests a persistent anxiety that Hitler has somehow escaped explanation” [Explaining Hitler Pg XI]
And while Hitler has become the ultimate symbol of evil, by the end of the twentieth century there were plenty of Dictators who had followed in his footsteps, with their own brand of evil, but for reasons of realpolitik had managed to survive their own downfalls. Italian journalist Riccardo Orizio, in his Talk of the Devil – Encounters with Seven Dictators, shows that while you may question a surviving dictator, it doesn’t necessarily follow that their answers become an explanation.
The book came into being from an obsession held by Orizio, two press clippings held yellowing in his wallet, both taken from The Guardian, and both detailing the eccentricities of two African dictators: Idi Amin and Jean-Bedel Bokassa. Perhaps attracted at the start by the colourful details of their deranged rules (both were alleged cannibals), Orizio’s project developed and came to encompass several very different dictators, all of whom shared one thing in common: they had all fallen out of power in disgrace. The author comments:
“I deliberately chose those who had fallen from power in disgrace, because those who fall on their feet tend not to examine their own conscience. Augusto Pinochet, for example, is still a powerful figure, revered by many in Chile. Suharto has been driven from power in Indonesia, but is protected by his wealth. Imelda Marcos, despite being indicted for corruption, has returned to Manila and amassed yet another huge collection of exclusive footwear.”
Orizio is a superb journalist and these encounters manage to be soul searching, intriguing, horrifying and even at times light hearted (One can’t help but suppress a smile at some of the more over the top acts of Idi Amin, such as his famous telegram to Queen Elizabeth II of England : “My Dear Queen, I intend to arrive in London for an official visit on August 4th this year, but I am writing now to give you time to make all the necessary preparations for my stay so that nothing important is omitted. I am particularly concerned about food, because I know that you are in the middle of a fearsome economic crisis. I would also like you to arrange for me to visit Scotland, Ireland, and Wales to meet the heads of revolutionary movements fighting against your imperialist oppression.”). It’s a brave book, in so far as it avoids moralising and seeks to present the human complexities of these men, regardless of their crimes. It’s also a brave book in so far as these men and women (he interviews both Hexhmije Hoxha, wife of Deposed and deceased Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha, and also Mira Markovic, the wife of imprisoned Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic), have by and large fallen off the media radar, and it’s in the interest of many to keep them that way. During his trip to Albania he ends up imprisoned and interrogated by the police force of a Government that looked far from kindly on his investigative work.
His choice of Deposed dictators is interesting, and one imagines as much down to opportunity as to thematic concerns, aside from the overarching one of disgrace already mentioned. Indeed, Orizio describes thrillingly his chasing of these dictators, as in the case of Idi Amin, exiled in Saudi Arabia. Orizio arrives in the notoriously press shy country on the pretext of doing a story on joint Italian-Saudi investment projects , and when he manages to shake off his guide he goes in search of the former Ugandan Dictator. Linking Amin and figures like Gen Jaruzelski of Poland (possibly the most soul-searching and intriguing chapter), and indeed Slobodan Milosevic though may at first glance seem tenuous, the former being very ostentatiously mad, while the latter two were ruthless, practical politicians taking disastrous decisions for the lives of their country. There is a strong sub-theme though that links these men perfectly – that of the Cold War with its political stratagems, and the inevitable fall from grace with its end. In fact, while Orizio doesn’t shy away from presenting the brutal facts about each of his subjects, equally abhorrent in his narrative is the support given to each by the major powers in the name of political expediency. France and Giscard d’Estaing’s relationship with Jean Bedel-Boukassa in particular, come in for a hammering. The message is plain throughout, that these men, while in many cases insane and deranged, where kept in power and allowed to be brutal, by both sides of the Cold war.
Mengistu Haile-Mariam, who overthrew Emperor Haile Sellasie of Ethiopia (or king of kings as he was known to peasants who regarded him as a demi-god), is portrayed as paralysed by confusion, living in a suburban house in Harare, Zimbabwe under the grudging protection of Robert Mugabe (not quite ready yet himself for an interview with Orizio). During the ‘Red Terror’ he unleashed in his home country between 1977 and 78 , around 500,000 people were killed, and yet Mengistu’s response to this is simple “It was a battle. All I did was fight it”. He reserves his outrage for his Soviet patrons, who supported his actions one day and then post Glasnost abandoned him. Of Gorbachev he says
“He seemed a nice enough person, honest, devoted to the cause of socialism. He was warm and friendly towards me. Then, once he got into power in 1985, he began to talk about perestroika and glasnost. Eventually I called him from Addis Ababa to arrange an appointment. I needed to know what was going on. I went to Moscow to ask him what those two slogans meant. They were slogans that I didn’t understand and, if you ask me, nor did the Soviet people. I said ‘Comrade Gorbachev, let’s be honest with each other. If there is a change in direction, tell me, so that we can also adjust our direction. Your strength is our strength, your weakness our weakness’. But Mengistu’s eagerness evoked no response from the Soviet leader. Gorbachev wanted to call an end to the Soviet Union’s colonial wars – but perhaps Gorbachev did not have the stomach to explain this to the devout Mengistu. Instead, he smiled and said, ‘Comrade Mengistu, don’t worry. I shall not shift one millimetre from Marxism-Leninism. I am proud of our Socialist achievements and I always will be”.
And so, one day a madman is a respected comrade, the next a deposed dictator. And this glad handling of despots where useful is not limited to the Soviet empire, or indeed to the past. Latin America has a whole catalogue of episodes worth a companion book were it not for the fact that most of the despots on that side of the world have rarely been overthrown in disgrace.
In a coda to the book, Manuel Antonio Noriega, the imprisoned former leader of Panama declines a request to be interviewed for the book, a collection of interviews with “Forgotten individuals, once powerful people who have been blamed for the problems encountered by their respective countries”, on the grounds that “God, the great Creator of the Universe, He who writes straight albeit with occasionally crooked lines, has not yet written the last word on MANUEL A.NORIEGA”, and indeed, this book illustrates another dangerous and intriguing phenomena, never more pertinent than in these ‘Regime Change ‘days. Orizio writes in the Epilogue to the 2004 edition:
“The sweetest moment in a dictator’s life can be when democracy triumphs, he’s deposed, his name becomes synonymous with misery and terror, his former subjects look forward to a prosperous country without him but with the support of the west and the United Nations, and foreign correspondents leave his wrecked country for another hotter spot. That’s exactly the moment when a brutal tyrant can start heading towards rehabilitation.”
And so Idi Amin received a posthumous rehabilitation of sorts when his death triggered a debate in Uganda as to whether he should receive a state funeral, only prevented finally by the use of a Presidential veto; Former East German leader Egon Krenz is described by Orizio as receiving visits from Hollywood, including Tom Hanks (Krenz was the last leader of Communist East Germany and the man behind the shoot-to-kill policy employed by border guards against people trying to flee to West Berlin); and so from Charles Taylor, one of the worst ex dictators that Africa has seen in recent times, who is safely in exile in Nigeria, through to Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic hiding in the Republica Srpska, what is apparent is that despite rhetoric, realpolitik still reigns supreme in deciding whether a Dictator is ‘retired’ or brought to ‘justice’.
And while the world waits further details from the trial of Saddam Hussein, Orizio, who it seems to me, after this brilliantly researched and written book, deserves to be called an expert in the area of Dictatorship, puts things into sharp perspective:
“In truth, however, most dictatorships do not stir the world?s indignation. Dictators , in fact, can be useful. And a serving dictator, especially one who has shown political longevity, can become a stalwart of stability and enjoy the support of his ex-enemies. Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s head man, not long ago had the same international reputation as Saddam Hussein, and his country was bombed by U.S. Airplanes in an attempt to intimidate and topple him. Things have changed. Now the West reckons that, without ‘the colonel’, who has been in power for thirty-four long years, Northern Africa could become a dangerous place, Libya could break up into different tribal regions, and the whole Mediterranean area would suffer”.
Talk of the Devil – Encounters with Seven Dictators , by Riccardo Orizio, is published in the United States by Walker & Company