Disclaimer: I'm not a professional historian or even very qualified. But I have heard Hitchens views on this, and have watched the original video.

Here is a documentary-themed narration of the event.

Of course it is up for debate whether or not there is a "single moment" that his power became of evil-intent. Surely if the events that occurred during the meeting were planned, then his decision to do so was made up prior to it.

What Hitchens is referring to is more the reaction of those in the room who had not been called. They immediately began praising him, hailing to his power, in fear of being called next. Hussein had captured their unalterable praise through pure fear. Once you capture that terror-filled worship of the government, there isn't much you can't accomplish.

If you look at the rise of dictators throughout history it becomes clear that there is never one 'moment' when the individual takes power, but rather a series of moments that culminate in a great realization where the individual's power becomes undeniable. These steps usually include the consolidation of power to the individual, the elimination of opposition, and the destruction of civil liberties, all while justifying these actions as a means to an end.

The video is an accurate representation of Saddam Hussein's 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge, which is where he solidified his power after being threatened by others in the party, but it doesn't mention why it happened or how Hussein was in the position to do something like that in the first place.

Very much like Hitler, Hussein's rise through the political machine came with ideas of how to modernize the economy and raise the standard of living for Iraqis. After the 17 July Revolution, in which the Ba'athist Party seized power, Hussein was appointed as the Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council by his cousin Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (who was the Chairman, and therefore the President). This position gave Hussein unprecedented access the Iraqi military intelligence and security services.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Hussein established a reputation for being progressive and educated by seizing control of Iraq's oil production, putting it's income towards the development of better state welfare and state development programs. When the 1973 oil crisis happened, the price of oil skyrocketed, giving Hussein even more money to use for these ends, subsequently giving him more influence. At the same time, he began repressing the individual groups across Iraq that spoke out against the Ba'athist Party. He justifyed these actions by characterizing the groups as being against a unified Iraq. In a way they were, because Iraq was, and still is, a highly factionalized country, but their repression set a precedent for Hussein to ignore Iraqi's rights if they opposed him.

Here we can that see the two-faced nature of his actions, taking the first step towards his eventual position as dictator: Hussein gave Iraqis something palpable and positive (a better economy and education system) while taking something away (their individual rights should they oppose the Ba'athist Party).

Any desecration of Iraqi's rights was overshadowed by the success of Hussein's policies: Iraq's social services became among the best in the Middle East, so much so that Hussein was given an award by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. His infrastructure investments brought electricity to every city in Iraq, promoted Women's education, and brought roughly 2/3s of Iraq's population from the countryside to urban areas.

International developments elevated Hussein's influence as well, because following Egypt's defeat in the 1967 Iraqi war, pan-Arab, anti-Israeli leadership fell away from Egypt, where it typically resided, and fell to Syria, which was also ruled by a Ba'thist Party. Hussein capitalized on this by advancing propaganda the idea that he, as a Ba'athist member too, had the potential to defend Arab's across the Middle East, and wouldn't hesitate to do so. He did this by utilizing his security forces to pressure the Iraqi media into propagating the idea.

By the mid-1970s, Hussein's policies effectively made all of Iraq loyal to the Ba'athist party. In the urban areas, he made it clear that it was thanks to the Ba'athist Party that Iraqi's enjoyed strong industry and social services. In the rural areas, he made it clear that it was thanks to Ba'athist Party that better agricultural innovations had been developed. One way or another, people were in debt to the government. And the people of the government were in debt to him.

In 1976, Hussein became the General of the Iraqi Armed Forces, which gave him unprecedented influence over the entire country. He made strides forward to cultivate better relationships with the members of the party, making it clear that he had power to make things happen, and if someone wanted something done they could go to him. By this time he was considered the de facto leader of Iraq. When Iraq was identified in the media, Hussein was someone everyone, domestically and internationally, knew about.

Here we can see where Hussein consolidated his power. Slowly, over time, with his influence spreading across the nation, he took steps to make sure that he was the one who could influence progress. All the political will resided with him. The last thing to do was remove the opposition. That happened in 1979.

There were people in the Ba'athist Party all throughout this who were growing more fearful of Hussein's influence, and sought to remove him from power before his influence was irreversible. Al-Bakr signed a treaty with Syria to make a unified state, making Syrian President Hafez al-Assad the leader and effectively making Hussein useless. In response to this Hussein forced al-Bakr to resign, formally becoming President of Iraq.

Just over a week after he became President, Hussein orchestrated the Party Purge.

Thus, as you can see, the Party Purge was only one step in the rise of Saddam Hussein. He didn't take power in one fell swoop that was incredibly large, but rather in a series of small steps that set the stage for him to be the last one standing. The realization that I mentioned in the beginning happened during this event, much like how the realization of Adolf Hitler's power occurred when the Nazi party was deemed the only legal political party in Germany. If we look at it out of context, it seems insane and implausible: how could this have happened? The answer is quite simple: it happened when everyone was too busy to notice.

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Sources

• Makiya, Kanan. Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq (Updated Edition). ISBN 978-0-520-21439-2. University of California Press. 1998.

• Balaghi, Shiva. Saddam Hussein: A Biography. ISBN 978-0-313-33077-3. Greenwich Press. 2008.