This book takes the reader from Amin's birth between 1923 and 1928, through his humble beginnings in the British colonial regiment, King's African Rifles (KAR); his rapid rise through the ranks of successively the KAR and Uganda Army to become Army Commander; his Israeli-sponsored coup against his former mentor, Apollo Milton Obote; his one-man rule of Uganda, which was characterised by unprecedented mass killings and the general collapse of the socioeconomic infrastructure; his overthrow by combined Tanzanian and Ugandan-exiles forces; and his flight into exile in Saudi Arabia, where he died in 2003.