Defence Minister Hafez al-Assad ousts the Baath's radical wing in the "Corrective Movement," becoming president in 1971 and building the presidential-security state — overlapping intelligence agencies, an Alawite-stacked officer corps, and a party subordinated to the presidency — that ruled Syria for the next half-century.
Why it mattersThe Assad system, not just the Assad family, is what fell in 2024: every institution the transition must now rebuild or replace was shaped to serve this structure.