Saddam: America’s Best Enemy

Forty years of secrets, incomprehension and incompetence led to the American occupation of Iraq.

Ever since his rise to power in a coup d’état on February 8th, 1963, Saddam Hussein marked the destiny of Iraq and that of the most explosive region in the world: the Persian Gulf.

Yet this man and his country have remained an enigma for the nine successive presidents who have occupied the White House over the same period. He has also represented a constant challenge for the CIA, which, having supported his rise to power, didn’t know how to, nor were they able to, get rid of him.

"America’s best enemy" tells the story of this ambiguous relationship, through accounts given by those who were witnesses to and participants in those decades of violence.

This investigation takes Pascal Vasselin and Jacques Charmelot to London, Beirut, Amman, Bagdad and to Washington, revealing Saddam’s and America’s very peculiar friendship.