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The Witch Doctor President and Other Horrific Rulers

Khalid Elhassan December 25, 2019 32 min

21. The Arab Mao

Gaddafi saw himself as a messiah. Modeling himself on Chairman Mao, he published The Little Green Book, containing a political philosophy labeled The Third International Theory – a mix of direct democracy, Arab and African nationalism, and Islamic socialism – as an alternative to capitalism and communism.

The book was required reading for Libyans, and formed the theoretical basis of Gaddafi’s government. In reality, Libya was a kleptocratic dictatorship, governed on the basis of nepotism to enrich Gaddafi’s family and his tribe, with a grossly mismanaged economy that survived solely due to an abundance of oil and gas.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.