Since 1970 — for almost 55 years — two men, and two men only, have ruled Syria: Hafez and Bashar Assad, father and son. (Since 1948, three men have ruled North Korea: father, son, and grandson.) The rule of the Assads is now over, it seems. It has been an incredibly murderous and sadistic rule.

Hafez’s successor was not supposed to be Bashar. It was not supposed to be one of his sons at all. It was supposed to be his younger brother Rifaat. “He helped his brother seize power in 1970,” I recount in my book Children of Monsters.

He was an army officer, and, once the dictatorship was established, he was its enforcer — its much-feared fist. When the Muslim Brotherhood rebelled in the city of Hama, the Assads put this rebellion down. They killed 20,000, maybe more. Rifaat was known as “the Butcher of Hama.” But responsibility rested, of course, with the top brother.

The Hama massacre was carried out in February 1982. Late the next year, in November, the dictator suffered a medical crisis: a heart attack and other problems. Rifaat, itching for the throne, thought it would be a good time to stage a coup. He almost succeeded. Rifaat had his factions, Hafez had his. But Hafez rose from his sickbed in time to block this rebellion.

So, the heir apparent became Bassel Assad, Hafez’s eldest son.

Father and son started to appear on posters together. The dictator began to be styled “Abu Bassel,” or “Father of Bassel.” He introduced his son to various foreign leaders. The grooming was virtually seamless.

But there came a terrible day, January 21, 1994.

[Bassel] was rushing to the airport in his new Mercedes coupe. It was a foggy morning, and he was trying to make a flight — a Lufthansa flight to Germany. The flight was fogged in regardless. The airline tried to get word to the dictator’s son that he need not rush. Bassel was going at a very great speed when he entered a traffic circle outside the airport. He struck a barricade and flipped several times. He died instantly. He was 31 years old.

Take the next paragraph “FWIW” — for what it’s worth:

There is a story told about how his father was informed, a story impossible to verify. I will go ahead and tell it, because it is plausible. None of the leading generals was willing by himself to inform Assad that his son had died. So they all trooped in together — safety in numbers. Assad looked at them, thought, and said, “Which one of you has led this coup against me?”

The dictator was rocked by Bassel’s death, as I say in my book —

but not so rocked that he failed to act, immediately: That morning — January 21, 1994 — he called his second son, Bashar, home. Bashar was an ophthalmologist. Age 28, he was doing a residency in London, at the Western Eye Hospital. He would practice ophthalmology no more. He would be groomed.

A new slogan was formulated: “Hafez is our symbol. Bassel is our model. Bashar is our hope.” Posters showed three men: Assad, Bassel, and Bashar. Foreign diplomats in Damascus cracked, “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

Hafez Assad died in 2000, whereupon Bashar took over. Here, now, is a bit of history — very recent history — that is forgotten, I sense:

Before there was an Arab Spring, there was a Damascus Spring. This refers to the first year or two of Bashar’s rule. In his opening speech as leader, he said, “We must have our own democratic experience, which will result in strong democratic institutions that will resist all instability.” He allowed citizens more room to breathe, and speak. Ali Ferzat, a Syrian cartoonist and one of the most famous cultural figures in the Arab world, started a satirical magazine: Al-Domari, or “The Lamplighter.” It was the first independent magazine in Syria since the Baathists took power in 1963. “There was joy on the streets,” Ferzat told me in a 2013 interview. “After 40 years of forced silence, the people had a voice. There was a magazine that expressed their concerns. I remember we sold out even before we went to press.”

The fun soon came to an end. Sensing a threat to his power, Bashar stopped liberalization and cracked down.

“Cracked down” is an understatement, really. The mass murder and other depredations of the Assad regime are shocking even in an era characterized by numbness. (I touched on some of this in 2021, when writing about a Syrian journalist and filmmaker in exile: here.)

At the end of my chapter on the Assads, in Children of Monsters, I have a coda. It concerns Hafez Assad — not the original dictator, but his grandson, Bashar’s firstborn. Hafez II was educated in Moscow, as dictators’ sons have been known to be: Fidel Castro’s son “Fidelito” was educated in Moscow.

“As early as 2010, before the Syrian war began,” I relate in that book, Hafez II

was being talked about as the next dictator of Syria. He was only eight. At age eleven, in August 2013, he actually made world news. A Facebook post was circulated, said to have been written by the boy. It appeared to be authentic. He ranted about the United States in the manner of the regime’s leaders and mouthpieces. At the time, the Americans seemed ready to intervene in Syria. . . .

One commenter, evidently a loyalist of the regime, said, “Like father like son! Well said, future President!”

Nope. Or: doubtful.