Hussein, Saddam (1937–2006) Reference library
Efraim Karsh
The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History
...absolute ruler. Driven by an overriding insecurity arising from a stark perception of politics as a ceaseless struggle for survival—in which the ultimate goal of staying alive, and in power, justifies all means—Saddam transformed Iraq into one of the most repressive police states in the world. His was a state where a joke or a reported thought could cost a person his or her life, where tens of thousands of civilians were brutally murdered by their government, and where millions starved while their unelected ruler spent incredible sums of money on monuments and...
Britain Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology
...navy, the logistical arm, the levies—were individually sophisticated and capable, but earlier success had allowed the apparatus as a whole system to degrade. In addition, he sees the army as a smaller, but not insignificant, ad hoc affair, raised (often) to meet immediate needs. M. K. Lawson , however, has contended, with due care for the lack of clear evidence, that we should allow the forces of the later Anglo-Saxon state to tend toward the larger of possible estimates. Additionally, these troops contained professional and diverse units: heavy and...
SS Reference library
Bernd Wegner
The Oxford Companion to World War II
...each state had during the Weimar Republic to defend the constitution against politically motivated attacks. In Prussia this department developed in 1933 into the Gestapo . ) After another two years he controlled the police apparatus as a whole and on 17 June 1936 was given the title ‘Reichsführer-SS and Head of the German Police’. In the following years, step by step, the police forces were integrated into the administrative structure of the SS. This process, the aim of which was the complete amalgamation of both organizations into a gigantic state...
Germany Reference library
Jürgen Förster, Charles Messenger (Armed Forces), and Wolfgang Petter (Culture)
The Oxford Companion to World War II
...and repressive policies. Himmler's deputies all over occupied Europe were the higher SS and police leaders and they were a law unto themselves. The executioners of German racial policy were the Einsatzgruppen which were deployed in both Poland and the USSR, the Orpo and a specially formed unit, the Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS, used only in the USSR. In September 1939 , the foremost target of the Einsatzgruppen was the Polish intelligentsia. Heydrich officially defined the role of these mobile killing squads as ‘combating all Reich and state enemies...
