Ali Abdullah Saleh, Strongman Who Helped Unite Yemen, and Divide It, Dies at 75
that was a kleptomaniac who stole billions, perhaps tens of billions of
Gerald M. Feierstein, who met Mr. Saleh frequently as United States ambassador to Yemen from 2010 to 2013, called him "completely untrustworthy."
But he said some Yemenis would favorably compare the relative stability of their country during much of Mr. Saleh’s rule, from 1978 to early 2012, with the current violence and breakdown.
Mr. Saleh promoted fellow Sanhan tribesmen serving in the army
and security forces, among them his son Ahmed Ali Saleh, who was in charge of the elite Republican Guards, and a nephew, Yahya Saleh, who worked closely with the United States on counterterrorism.
station chief was laying bets that Saleh would be out by the spring of 1979."
But Mr. Saleh reached out to veteran Yemeni politicians for advice and support and recruited a new class of technocrats, Professor Burrowes said.
" she said, calling it "a considerable political achievement." Mr. Saleh sometimes showed a curiosity
and willingness to learn, Ms. Bodine said. that He kept all the plates in the air,
He compared Mr. Saleh to Saddam Hussein and Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and said
that Yemen, like Iraq and Libya, had descended into chaos in part because of Mr. Saleh’s failure to build durable institutions while in office.