When Libyan rebels stormed Tripoli, sending Moammar Gadhafi into hiding, we were reminded of some other dictators who lost power and went on the run. Historically speaking, it usually doesn’t end well.
The Shah, Iran
Year: 1979
Circumstances: The Iranian Revolution toppled the Pahlavi monarchy, bringing Ayatollah Khomeini to power as head of the newly formed Islamic republic and sending Mohammad Reza Pahlavi into exile.
Destination/outcome: The Shah traveled the world seeking temporary residence and, at times, medical treatment. That included two months in the U.S. in late 1979 for treatment of gallstones before the Shah left for Panama. He died in Egypt in March 1980 while receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and was given a state funeral by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
Idi Amin, Uganda
Year: 1979
Circumstances: Despite military backing from Gadhafi, the so-called Butcher of Uganda was overthrown by Tanzanian-backed rebels and exiles in the Uganda-Tanzania War.
Destination/outcome: Amin escaped to Libya and later to Saudi Arabia. Though he tried returning to Uganda on multiple occasions, including a military approach in 1989 that fell short in Zaire, Amin returned to Saudi Arabia and died there in 2003.
Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, Haiti
Year: 1986
Circumstances: Three decades of brutal rule by the Duvalier family ended when the 34-year-old Baby Doc was deposed by popular uprising — and some degree of U.S. involvement.
Destination/outcome: A U.S. Air Force jet flew Duvalier, his wife and their entourage to France. His request for asylum there was denied, as were similar requests elsewhere. Duvalier remained exiled in France until January of this year when he returned to Haiti unannounced and offered to help rebuild the earthquake- and poverty-ravaged country. Instead, he was charged with corruption.
Ferdinand Marcos, Philippines
Year: 1986
Circumstances: Losing control of his country amid corruption, cronyism and his own declining health, Marcos called an election with more than a year left in his third term. But opposition to Marcos coalesced around Corazon Aquino, bringing her — and democracy — to power, and sending Marcos into exile.
Destination/outcome: When Marcos and his equally famous and powerful wife, Imelda, prevailed upon allies in the Reagan administration, they were flown by U.S. Air Force jet to Hawaii, leaving millions of dollars in gold, cash and jewels behind. Oh, and those 3,000 pairs of shoes. Marcos died in Honolulu in 1989.
Saddam Hussein, Iraq
Year: 2003
Circumstances: U.S.-led coalition forces invaded Iraq in March 2003 amid accusations that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction and was supporting terrorist activity. Baghdad, and symbolically a statue of Saddam, fell three weeks later.
Destination/outcome: An unshaven and disheveled Saddam was captured eight months after that in a hole dug beneath a hut on a farm near Tikrit, in the region where he was born. In November 2006 he was convicted of 148 Shiite deaths in the 1982 Dujail massacre and was hanged Dec. 30, 2006.
Charles Taylor, Liberia
Year: 2003
Circumstances: Taylor fled Liberia as rebels closed in on him. He faced war crimes charges by an international tribunal over atrocities in Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002 civil war, including sexual slavery, use of child fighters, and mutilation of civilians by chopping off limbs, noses and ears.
Destination/outcome: Taylor received sanctuary in Nigeria, but that nation’s support cooled, and Taylor was arrested three years later as he tried to escape across the border to Cameroon with bags full of dollars and euros. He is now on trial at The Hague.
