Real Dictators Noiser

From the creators of Real Dictators comes a brand-new weekly show. Short History Of... gives you a front-row seat as history's most incredible moments play out right before you. In this taster episode, we're in Cuba. It's October 1962. Three men – Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro – hold the fate of the planet in their hands. A dispute over missiles spirals out of control. All sides brace for war. How did it come to this? And just how close will the world come to nuclear Armageddon? This is a Short History of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Part 1. Search 'Short History Of...' in your podcast app and hit follow for weekly episodes.
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By early 2011, Libya is changing. The Arab Spring has started and leaders across North Africa and the Middle East are already succumbing to people power. The Gaddafi regime suddenly needs to tread very carefully indeed. A young lawyer from Benghazi organises a protest that will soon spread like wildfire. Before long, it will become something else entirely: a full-blown rebellion against Colonel Gaddafi’s rule. The man who has dominated Libya for four decades will become a fugitive, soon to meet one of the grisliest ends of any dictator in history.
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On September 11th, 2001, life in the West is transformed in an instant. Amidst the fall-out, Gaddafi spots an opportunity. To the surprise of many, he makes it his mission to rejoin the international fold. A new phase of surreal diplomacy begins as the Libyan dictator pitches his Bedouin tent on the front lawns of palaces and parliaments across the world. Muammar Gaddafi - the man of many masks - is transforming once again, this time into the West’s most eccentric ally.
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In 1988, Gaddafi takes his terror to the skies, bringing down a passenger flight over Lockerbie, Scotland. The Boeing 747 - en route from Frankfurt to New York, via London - is destroyed with 270 fatalities. Gaddafi has reached a new level of villainy. Staffers at the Pentagon team up with Hollywood executives to shore up public opinion against the tyrant. Meanwhile, the Colonel himself begins an extensive re-brand. Shunned by the Arab world, his gaze shifts south - across the Sahara. Soon, in a bizarre ceremony, he will be crowned ‘King of Africa’.
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Gaddafi takes his terror onto the streets of London and Berlin. It seems nowhere is beyond his reach as Libyan agents hunt down his opponents across the globe. The Reagan administration launches retaliatory airstrikes, targeting the dictator and his inner circle. With the stakes higher than ever, the Libyan security network continues to stamp out dissent. Some 6,000 children are bussed to a sports arena where they bear witness to a gruesome lesson in tyranny.
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In Munich, West Germany, in the summer of 1972, there is a buzz of expectation. The city is preparing to host the Olympic Games. It’s a symbolic welcoming of the country back into the international fold. But this festival of sport will soon become a terrifying nightmare. The Munich massacre is one of many terrorist attacks to which Colonel Gaddafi will attach himself - as patron or cheerleader. As the Libyan leader tightens his grip on power at home, and exports terror abroad, tension with America is coming to breaking point.
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