When a unit of the 4th infantry division of the American army captured Saddam Hussein on december 13, 2003, they finally put an end to the ambiguous 40-year relationship between the iron man of Bagdad and the USA.
40 years of conspiracies, secrets, incomprehension and incompetence had finally led to the American occupation of Iraq, which quickly turned into a quagmire.
Ever since his rise to power in a coup d’état on February 8, 1963, Saddam Hussein had 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. It’s a story that leads to the inevitable question of whether the United States erred in capturing Saddam Hussein alive.
This 52-minute investigation took Pascal Vasselin and Jacques Charmelot to London, Beirut, Amman, Bagdad and to Washington, revealing Saddam’s and America’s very peculiar relationship.