He asked me where he could get the Ralph Lauren safari jacket

After we spent the evening in his colorful Bedouin tent, I had some fun with Gadaffi. “We may bomb you, Leader, but we also think you are the best-dressed Arab leader.”   Gadaffi, dressed in a custom made, silk Italian jump suit and zippered boots, beamed with pleasure. He asked me where he could get the Ralph Lauren safari jacket I was wearing, adding,   “you look very militant, Mr. Eric.”

I could never get a good fix on Muammar Gadaffi. When he seized power way back in 1969, he was young and very handsome, with movie-star good looks, and an ardent reformist. Gadaffi’s hero and father figure was Egypt’s charismatic Gamal Abdel Nasser.