How The 'House Of Assad' Brought Syria To Civil War

Published December 22, 2016 at 11:20 AM CST

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A banner bearing a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a street in the city of Damascus. (Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images)

Two men with notorious reputations have led Syria for the past 45 years — the late Hafez al-Assad and his son, Bashar.

Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd speaks with Trinity University historian David Lesch — who met with Bashar al-Assad regularly between 2004 and 2009 — about the Syrian president’s transformation from a “fairly normal, likable” person into one of the Middle East’s most notorious dictators. Lesch is also author of “Syria: The Fall of The House of Assad.”