III.

Resistance Leader

When Major General Idi Amin overthrew Obote’s government in 1971, Museveni fled to Tanzania, where Obote had received political asylum. Between 1971 and 1978 Museveni trained a small group of Ugandan resistance fighters. After Amin invaded Tanzania in late 1978, Museveni’s force, accompanied by the Tanzanian army, invaded Uganda and overthrew Amin in 1979. Museveni was made the Minister of Defense and then the Minister of Regional Cooperation during the interim period leading up to elections in 1980. He was a popular figure, but his newly formed political party, the Uganda Patriotic Movement, was soundly defeated in the elections, when Obote was returned as president.

Believing that Obote’s government was corrupt and repressive, Museveni retreated into his rural strongholds to form the National Resistance Army. In January 1986 Museveni led his army to a successful military coup and took over as president.