Given the fascinating, albeit monstrous, subject he had to work with, George Ivan Smith came up short. The book is written with less personality than Al Gore! Smith's writing is so dry that it is a struggle to wade through the slower parts(and there are many of them). Amin is infamous for his insanity, his humor, and for his brutality...Smith seems to want to focus more on his politics. Idi's politics weren't very interesting, hence the dullness of the book. Don't get me wrong, some of the madness is captured here. The trouble is that Smith can't keep his obvious bias and lack of comprehension out of the book. Idi Amin was a terrible human being, make no mistake about it, but Time magazine gave me more to hold my interest in one 1977 article than Mr. Smith manages in this 198-page yawn. Look elsewhere if you want to see the train wreck that was Idi Amin!

This book does give the reader a glimpse of the evil of the Idi Amin regime that terrorized Uganda from 1971 to 1979. It also gives us some insights as to how such an evil dictator could stay in power for so long while perpetrating so many dreadful crimes. It was a combination of other black African leaders studiously looking the other way and refusing to condemn him -- Julius Nyere of Tanzania being a major exception, considerable moral and material support from wealthy Islamic regimes such as Libya under Gadaffi, and, of course, sheer terror against all who dared to speak against him. My biggest problem with the book was its turgid style of writing: I found it necessary to re-read many a paragraph before I got the gist of what it was all about.

As opposed to the two previous reviewers, I thought this was an extremely well written and researched book. The author was a UN official during the 1970s and was able to draw upon his and his colleagues' experiences to form a very good portrait of one of the worst rulers in Africa's history. He starts with a very informative discussion of Amin's youth and career before he took over the Presidency of Uganda in 1971, destroying such myths as Amin's claim that he fought in Burma and India during World War II. He draws upon personal correspondance with former Ugandan President Milton Obote to provide a detailed account of Amin's coup and his foreign policy with other African countries in the 70s. Going in depth about Amin's search for oil in Lake Albert and his collusion in the assassination of Burundi's King Ntare V, Smith also provides the reader with an account of how bad life was in Uganda in the 70s. He justly praises the bravery of Makerere University students who stood up to Amin several times while condemning the lack of interest of other African politicians (except for Nyerere) and Western governments in putting an end to Amin's bloody regime.

The only criticism I would have of the book is the lack of any serious economic analysis of Uganda in the 70s - after all, it was Amin more than anyone else who turned Uganda from one of sub-Saharan Africa's richest countries to one of its poorest - but this is a minor quibble since that information is available elsewhere. This is a highly recommended book.