Real Time History

Season 2025, Episode 5

Episode Title: The Last Total War? - Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988

Air Date: 2025-03-21

Overview:

In September 1980, Iraq invades Iran. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is convinced that now is the time to strike, since Iran is still shaken by its Islamic Revolution, and he expects victory within weeks. Instead, the conflict will last 8 years, cost hundreds of thousands of lives , threaten world oil markets, and draw the US into the Persian Gulf for good. It’s the last total war of the 20th century.