ties with Britain and nationalised 85 British-owned businesses.
That year, relations with Israel soured. Although Israel had previously supplied Uganda with arms, in 1972 Amin expelled Israeli military advisers and turned to Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya and the Soviet Union for support. Amin became an outspoken critic of Israel. In the documentary film General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait, he discussed his plans for war against Israel, using paratroops, bombers and suicide squadrons. Amin later stated that Hitler “was right to burn six million Jews”.
In 1973, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Patrick Melady recommended that the United States reduce its presence in Uganda. Melady described Amin’s regime as “racist, erratic and unpredictable, brutal, inept, bellicose, irrational, ridiculous, and militaristic”. Accordingly, the United States closed its embassy in