View source for Saddam Hussein

{{Short description|President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003}}
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{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Saddam Hussein
| native_name         = {{nobold|صَدَّام حُسَيْن}}
| image               = Saddam Hussein 1960s Portrait (cropped).png
| caption             = Saddam, {{circa|1960s}}
| term_start          = 16 July 1979
| term_end            = 9 April 2003
| predecessor         = [[Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr]]
| office              = [[President of Iraq]]
| vicepresident       = {{ubl|[[Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf]] (1974–2003)|[[Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri]] (1979–2003)|[[Taha Yassin Ramadan]] (1991–2003)}}
| primeminister       = {{ubl| ''Himself'' (1979–1991, 1994–2003)|[[Sa'dun Hammadi]] (1991)|[[Mohammed Hamza Zubeidi]] (1991–1993)|[[Ahmad Husayn Khudayir as-Samarrai|Ahmad Husayn as-Samarrai]] (1993–1994)}}
| successor           = {{ubl|[[Jay Garner]] (as [[Coalition Provisional Authority|Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance of Iraq]])|[[Jalal Talabani]] (2005)}}
| office1             = Chairman of the [[Revolutionary Command Council (Iraq)|Revolutionary Command Council]]
| term_start1         = 16 July 1979
| term_end1           = 9 April 2003
| predecessor1        = Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
| successor1          = ''Office abolished''
| office2             = [[Prime Minister of Iraq]]
| term_start2         = 29 May 1994
| term_end2           = 9 April 2003
| predecessor2        = [[Ahmad Husayn Khudayir as-Samarrai]]
| president2          = ''Himself''
| successor2          = [[Mohammad Bahr al-Ulloum]] (as Acting President of the [[Iraqi Governing Council|Governing Council of Iraq]])
| term_start3         = 16 July 1979
| term_end3           = 23 March 1991
| president3          = ''Himself''
| predecessor3        = Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
| successor3          = [[Sa'dun Hammadi]]
| deputy3             = [[Tariq Aziz]]
| office4             = [[Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction)#Secretary-Generals|Secretary General of the National<br />Command]] of the [[Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction)|Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party]]
| term_start4         = January 1992
| term_end4           = 30 December 2006
| predecessor4        = [[Michel Aflaq]]
| successor4          = [[Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri]]
| office5             = Regional Secretary of the [[Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region|Regional<br />Command]] of the [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region|Iraqi Regional Branch]]
| 1blankname5         = National&nbsp;Secretary
| 1namedata5          = {{ubl|[[Michel Aflaq]] (until 1989)|''Himself'' (from 1989)}}
| term_start5         = 16 July 1979
| term_end5           = 30 December 2006
| predecessor5        = Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
| successor5          = Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri
| term_start6         = February 1964
| term_end6           = October 1966
| successor6          = Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
| predecessor6        = Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
| office7             = [[Vice President of Iraq]]
| term_start7         = 17 July 1968
| term_end7           = 15 July 1979
| president7          = Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
| predecessor7        = Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
| successor7          = Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri
| office8             = Member of the [[Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region|Regional Command]]<br />of the [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region|Iraqi Regional Branch]]
| term_start8         = February 1964
| term_end8           = 9 April 2003
| birth_name          = Saddam Husayn Abd al-Majid al-Tikritiyy
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1937|4|28|df=y}}{{efn|Under his government, this date was his official date of birth. His real date of birth was never recorded, but it is believed to be between 1935 and 1939.<ref>Con Coughlin, ''[[Saddam: The Secret Life]]'' Pan Books, 2003 ({{ISBN|978-0-330-39310-2}}).</ref>|name=Birth_date_unclear}}
| birth_place         = [[Al-Awja]], Iraq
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|2006|12|30|1937|4|28|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Baghdad]], Iraq
| death_cause         = [[Execution of Saddam Hussein|Execution by hanging]]
| party               = {{plainlist|
* [[Ba'ath Party]] (1957–1966)
* [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region|Iraqi Ba'ath Party]] (1966–2006)
 }}
| spouse              = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Sajida Talfah]]|1958}}
* {{marriage|[[Samira Shahbandar]]|1986}}
 }}
| children            = {{hlist|[[Uday Hussein|Uday]]|[[Qusay Hussein|Qusay]]|[[Raghad Hussein|Raghad]]|[[Rana Hussein|Rana]]|[[#Personal life and family|Hala]]}}
| signature           = Signature of Saddam Hussein.svg
| nickname            = 
| allegiance          = [[Ba'athist Iraq]]
| branch              = [[Iraqi Armed Forces]]
| rank                = [[Field marshal (Iraq)|Field Marshal]]
| battles             = {{tree list}}
*[[Second Iraqi–Kurdish War]]
*[[Iran–Iraq War]]
*[[Gulf War]]
*[[1991 Iraqi uprisings]]
*[[Iraq War]]{{pow}}
**[[2003 invasion of Iraq]]
{{tree list/end}}
| resting_place       = Al-Awja, Iraq
| native_name_lang    = ar
| module              =  {{Infobox criminal
| child       = yes
| height = 1.88m<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 October 2011 |title=Statesmen and stature: how tall are our world leaders? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/oct/18/world-leader-heights-tall |access-date=10 December 2024 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>
| conviction = [[Crimes against humanity]] during the [[Dujail massacre]]
| trial = Trial of Saddam Hussein
| reward_amount = $25 million<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 August 2011 |title=Do rewards help capture the world's most wanted men? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14666182 |access-date=10 December 2024 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>
| conviction_penalty = [[Capital punishment|Death by hanging]]
| conviction_status = [[Execution of Saddam Hussein|Executed]]
| apprehended = [[Capture of Saddam Hussein|13 December 2003]]
| module2 = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=Saddam Husseins Presidental Oath.wav|title=Saddam Hussein's voice|type=speech|description=Saddam recites an [[oath of office]] following the [[1995 Iraqi presidential referendum]].}}}}
| image_size          = 
| alma_mater          = [[Cairo University]]<br />[[University of Baghdad]]
}}
'''Saddam Hussein'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|s|ə|ˈ|d|ɑ:|m|_|h|uː|ˈ|s|eɪ|n|audio=En-us-Saddam Hussein from Iraq pronunciation (Voice of America).ogg}} {{respell|sə|DAHM|_|hoo|SAYN}}; {{langx|ar|صَدَّام حُسَيْن}}, {{IPA|acm|sˤɐdˈdɑːm ɜħˈsɪe̯n|lang}}; also known by his full name '''Ṣaddām Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Maǧīd al-Tikrītiyy'''; {{langx|ar|صَدَّام حُسَيْن عَبْد الْمَجِيد التِّكْرِيتِيّ}}. He is known [[mononym]]ously as '''Saddam'''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shewchuk |first=Blair |date=February 2003 |title=Saddam or Mr. Hussein? |work=[[CBC News]] |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news2/indepth/words/saddam_hussein.html |quote=This brings us to the first, and primary, reason many newsrooms use 'Saddam' – it's how he's known throughout Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.}}</ref>{{efn|''[[Saddam (name)|Saddam]]'' ({{langx|ar|صَدَّام}}), pronounced {{IPA|ar|sˤɑdˈdæːm|}} in [[Modern Standard Arabic]], is his given name. ''Hussein'' (sometimes also transliterated as '''Hussayn''' or '''Hussain''') is not a surname in the Western sense but a [[Patronymic in Arabic|patronymic]] or ''[[nasab]]'', his father's given name,<ref name=Notzonetal>{{Cite journal |last1=Notzon |first1=Beth |last2=Nesom |first2=Gayle |date=February 2005 |title=The Arabic Naming System |url=http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/wp-content/uploads/v28n1p020-021.pdf |journal=Science Editor |language=en |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=20–21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220930214215/https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/wp-content/uploads/v28n1p020-021.pdf |archive-date=30 September 2022}}</ref> while his grandfather's given name is ''Abd al-Majid'' and ''al-Tikriti'' is a ''[[laqab]]'' derived from [[Tikrit]]. He was commonly referred to as ''Saddam Hussein'', or ''Saddam'' for short. The observation that referring to the deposed Iraqi president as only ''Saddam'' is derogatory or inappropriate may be based on the assumption that Hussein is a family name, and "Hussein" was treated this way in English.<ref name=Notzonetal/> Thus ''[[The New York Times]]'' refers to him as "Mr. Hussein",<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/02/international/middleeast/02IRAQ.html|title=Defiant Hussein Rebukes Iraqi Court for Trying Him|last=Burns|first=John F.|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=2 July 2004|access-date=2 July 2004}}</ref> while ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' uses just ''Saddam''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/biography/Saddam-Hussein|title=Saddam Hussein|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|date=29 May 2023 }}</ref> A full discussion can be found in the CBC reference preceding this note.}}}} (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the [[president of Iraq]] from 1979 until [[Saddam Hussein statue destruction|he was overthrown]] in 2003 during the [[2003 invasion of Iraq|U.S. invasion of Iraq]]. He previously served as the [[Vice President of Iraq|vice president]] from 1968 to 1979 and also as the [[prime minister of Iraq|prime minister]] from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. A leading member of the [[Ba'ath Party|Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party]], he was a proponent of [[Ba'athism]], a mix of [[Arab nationalism]] and [[Arab socialism]]. The policies and political ideas he championed are collectively known as [[Saddamism]].

Born near the city of [[Tikrit]] to a [[Iraqi Sunni Arabs|Sunni Arab]] family, Saddam Hussein  joined the revolutionary [[Ba'ath Party]] in 1957. He played a key role in the [[17 July Revolution]] that brought the Ba'athists to power in Iraq and made him [[Vice President of Iraq|vice president]] under [[Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr]]. During his tenure as vice president, Saddam nationalized the [[Iraq Petroleum Company]], diversified the [[economy of Iraq|economy]], introduced free healthcare and education, and supported [[women's rights]]. He also presided over the defeat of the Kurdish insurgency in the [[Second Iraqi–Kurdish War]] and signed the [[1975 Algiers Agreement|Algiers Agreement]] with [[Pahlavi Iran|Iran]] in 1975, thereby settling territorial disputes along the [[Iran–Iraq border]]. Following al-Bakr's resignation in 1979, Saddam formally took power. During his presidency, positions of power in the country were mostly filled with Sunni Arabs, a minority that made up only about a [[Sunni Islam in Iraq|fifth of the Iraqi population]].

Upon taking office as president in 1979, Saddam [[1979 Ba'ath Party Purge|purged rivals within his party]]. In 1980, he ordered the [[Iraqi invasion of Iran|invasion of Iran]], purportedly to capture [[Iran]]'s Arab-majority [[Khuzestan province]], and end Iranian attempts to [[The policy of exporting the Islamic Revolution|export its Islamic Revolution]] to the [[Arab world]]. In 1988, as the [[Iran–Iraq War|war with Iran]] ended in a stalemate, he ordered the [[Anfal campaign]] against [[Kurds|Kurdish]] rebels who had sided with Iran. Later, he accused his former ally [[Kuwait]] of [[Directional drilling|slant-drilling]] [[oil reserves in Iraq|Iraq's oil reserves]] and subsequently [[Iraqi invasion of Kuwait|invaded the country]] in 1990. This ultimately led to the [[Gulf War]] in 1991, which ended in Iraq's defeat by a [[United States]]-led [[Coalition of the Gulf War|coalition]]. In the war's aftermath, Saddam's forces suppressed the [[1991 Iraqi uprisings]] launched by [[Kurds in Iraq|Kurds]] and [[Shi'a Islam in Iraq|Shi'as]] seeking [[regime change]], as well as further [[1999 Shi'a uprising in Iraq|uprisings in 1999]]. After reconsolidating his hold on power, Saddam pursued an [[Islamism|Islamist]] agenda for Iraq through the [[Faith Campaign]]. In 2003, a US-led [[Multi-National Force – Iraq|coalition]] [[2003 invasion of Iraq|invaded Iraq]], incorrectly accusing him of developing [[Iraq and weapons of mass destruction|weapons of mass destruction]] and of [[Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations|having ties with al-Qaeda]]. Coalition forces toppled [[Ba'athist Iraq|Saddam's regime]] and [[Capture of Saddam Hussein|captured]] him. During [[trial of Saddam Hussein|his trial]], Saddam was convicted by the [[Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal|Iraqi High Tribunal]] of [[crimes against humanity]] and sentenced to death by hanging. He [[execution of Saddam Hussein|was executed]] on 30 December 2006.

A polarizing and controversial figure, Saddam dominated Iraqi politics for 35 years and was the subject of a [[cult of personality]]. Many [[Arabs]] regard Saddam as a resolute leader who challenged [[Western world|Western]] [[imperialism]], opposed the [[Israeli-occupied territories|Israeli occupation of Palestine]], and resisted foreign intervention in the region. Conversely, many Iraqis, particularly Shi'as and Kurds, perceive him as a [[tyrant]] responsible for acts of repression, [[mass killing]] and other injustices. [[Human Rights Watch]] estimated that Saddam's regime was responsible for the [[Human rights in Ba'athist Iraq#Number of victims|murder or disappearance of 250,000 to 290,000 Iraqis]]. Saddam's government has been described by several analysts as authoritarian and [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]], and by some as [[Arab fascism|fascist]], although the applicability of those labels has been contested.<!--Do NOT add citations to the lead, except for material likely to be challenged, per [[MOS:LEADCITE]] ([[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section#Citations)]]. Move unneeded citations to the body.-->

== Early life and education ==
[[File:Saddam Hussein in 1956.jpg|upright=0.7|thumb|left|Saddam in his youth as a shepherd in his village, near [[Tikrit]], 1956]]
{{Saddam Hussein series}}
Saddam Hussein Al-Majid Al-Tikriti was born on 28 April 1937, in [[al-Awja]], a small village near [[Tikrit]], to a Sunni Arab family<ref>{{Cite web |title=Saddam Hussein |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095951798 |access-date=17 December 2023 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en}}</ref> from the Al-Bejat clan of the [[Bedouin]] [[Al-Bu Nasir (Iraqi tribe)|Al-Bu Nasir]] tribe.<ref name="alriyadh" /><ref name="Jordan 323–345">{{Citation |last=Jordan |first=David |title="So Let Today Be All the Arabs Muḥammad": The Prophet in the Discourse of the Iraqi Baʿth Party |date=10 November 2021 |work=The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam |pages=323–345 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004466753/BP000022.xml?language=en |access-date=15 December 2024 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-46675-3}}</ref> His father, Hussein Abd al-Majid, was from the Al-Majid branch of the Al-Bejat clan, while his mother Subha Tulfah al-Mussalat was granddaughter of Mussallat bin Omar Al-Nasiri, a tribal leader of the Al-Bu Nasir tribe and an opponent of the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] rule in Iraq.<ref>{{Cite web |title=In search of Saddam |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/10/26/in-search-of-saddam |access-date=15 December 2024 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Jordan 323–345" /><ref name="alriyadh">{{Cite web |date=23 September 2020 |title=جريدة الرياض {{!}} أحمد حسن البكر رجل المقاومة الأول ضد بريطانيا |work=جريدة الرياض |url=http://www.alriyadh.com/226724/ |access-date=23 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923182812/http://www.alriyadh.com/226724/ |archive-date=23 September 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=AFP |title=Saddam’s name struck off Prophet’s lineage |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/12/17/saddams-name-struck-off-prophets-lineage |access-date=2025-11-03 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref>

Saddam's name means "the fighter who stands steadfast".<ref name="Post-1991">{{cite journal |last=Post |first=Jerrold |date=June 1991 |title=Saddam Hussein of Iraq: A Political Psychology Profile|journal=Political Psychology |language=en |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=279–289 |doi=10.2307/3791465|jstor=3791465 |issn = 0162-895X }}</ref> His father died before his birth.<ref name="Post-1991" /> This made Saddam's mother, Subha, so depressed that she unsuccessfully attempted to [[Abortion|abort]] her pregnancy and commit [[suicide]].<ref name="Post-1991" /> Saddam's mother did not want anything to do with him, and Saddam was eventually taken in by an uncle.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bumiller |first1=Elisabeth |author-link1=Elisabeth Bumiller |date=15 May 2004 |title=Was a Tyrant Prefigured by Baby Saddam? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/15/books/was-a-tyrant-prefigured-by-baby-saddam.html |url-status=live |work=[[The New York Times]] |issn=1553-8095 |oclc=1645522 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911052637/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/15/books/was-a-tyrant-prefigured-by-baby-saddam.html |archive-date=11 September 2016 |access-date=21 November 2018}}</ref> His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly after his return, and (according to a psychological profile created by the [[CIA]]) beat him regularly, sometimes to wake him up.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jack |first1=Anderson |title=Saddam's Roots an Abusive Childhood |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1991/01/25/saddams-roots-an-abusive-childhood/2c5af56e-6413-410b-a1cf-5c215f1f64c2/ |access-date=8 November 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref><ref name="beat1">{{cite web |last1=Post |first1=Jerrold |title=Saddam is Iraq: Iraq is Saddam|url=https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a424787.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521205900/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a424787.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=21 May 2021 |publisher=Maxwell Airforce Base |access-date=20 November 2021}}</ref> At around the age of 10, Saddam fled the family and returned to live in [[Baghdad]] with his uncle [[Khairallah Talfah]], who became a fatherly figure to Saddam.<ref name="Karsh 13–15" /> Talfah, the father of Saddam's future wife, was a devout Sunni Muslim and a veteran of the 1941 [[Anglo-Iraqi War]] between [[Iraqi nationalists]] and the [[United Kingdom]], which remained a major colonial power in the region.<ref>Eric Davis, ''Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq'', [[University of California Press]], 2005.</ref> Talfah was appointed the mayor of Baghdad during Saddam's time in power, until his notorious corruption compelled Saddam to force him out of office.<ref name="Karsh 13–15">{{cite book|author-link1=Efraim Karsh|last1=Karsh|first1=Efraim|last2=Rautsi|first2=Inari|title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography|publisher=[[Grove Press]]|year=2002|isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8|pages=13–15}}</ref>

Later in his life, relatives from his native city became some of his closest advisors and supporters. Under the guidance of his uncle, he attended a nationalistic high school in Baghdad. After secondary school, Saddam studied at an [[Iraqi law school]] for three years, dropping out in 1957 at the age of 20 to join the revolutionary [[Pan-Arabism|pan-Arab]] [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region|Ba'ath Party]], of which his uncle was a supporter. During this time, Saddam apparently saw himself as a secondary school teacher.<ref>{{cite book|last=Batatu |first=Hanna |author-link=Hanna Batatu |title=The Old Social Classes & The Revolutionary Movement in Iraq |year=1979 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-05241-0}}</ref> Ba'athist ideology originated in [[Syria]] and the Ba'ath Party had a large following in Syria at the time, but in 1955 there were fewer than 300 Ba'ath Party members in Iraq, and it is believed that Saddam's primary reason for joining the party as opposed to the more established Iraqi nationalist parties was his familial connection to [[Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr]] and other leading Ba'athists through his uncle.<ref name="Karsh 13–15" /> The pan-Arab nationalism of [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] in Egypt profoundly influenced young Ba'athists like Saddam.<ref name="auto4">Humphreys, 68</ref> The rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, with the collapse of the monarchies of [[Kingdom of Iraq|Iraq]], [[Kingdom of Egypt|Egypt]], and [[Kingdom of Libya|Libya]]. Nasser inspired nationalists throughout the Middle East by fighting the [[British Army|British]] and the [[French Army|French]] during the [[Suez Crisis|Suez Crisis of 1956]], modernizing Egypt, and uniting the [[Arab world]] politically.<ref name="auto4"/> Saddam's father-in-law, [[Khairallah Talfah]], was reported to have served five years in prison for his role in fighting against Great Britain in the [[1941 Iraqi coup d'état]] and [[Anglo-Iraqi War]], and often mentored and told tales of his exploits to the young Saddam.<ref name="beat1" />

== Rise to power ==

=== Assassination attempt on Qasim ===
{{Main|Attempted assassination of Abdul-Karim Qasim}}
The Ba'ath Party was originally represented in Qasim's cabinet; however, Qasim—reluctant to join Nasser's newly formed [[United Arab Republic|union between Egypt and Syria]]—sided with various groups within Iraq (notably the [[National Democratic Party (Iraq, 1946)|social democrats]] and the [[Iraqi Communist Party]]) that told him such an action would be dangerous. Instead, Qasim adopted a ''wataniyah'' policy of "Iraq First".<ref>{{cite book |last=Polk |first=William Roe |year=2005 |title=Understanding Iraq |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |isbn=978-0-85771-764-1 |page=111}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Simons |first=Geoff |year=1996 |title=Iraq: From Sumer to Saddam |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]] |isbn=978-0-312-16052-4 |page=221}}</ref> To strengthen his own position within the government, Qasim also had an alliance with the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP), which was opposed to the notion of pan-Arabism.{{sfn|Coughlin|2005|pp=25–26}} His policies angered several pan-Arab organizations, including the Ba'ath Party, which later began plotting to [[Attempted assassination of Abdul-Karim Qasim|assassinate]] Qasim at Al-Rashid Street on 7 October 1959 and take power. Saddam was recruited to the assassination conspiracy by its ring-leader, Abdul Karim al-Shaikhly, after one of the would-be assassins left.{{sfn|Coughlin|2005|p=29}} During the ambush, Saddam (who was only supposed to provide cover) began shooting prematurely, which disorganised the whole operation. Qasim's chauffeur was killed and Qasim was hit in the arm and shoulder. The assassins thought they had killed Qasim and quickly retreated to their headquarters, but Qasim survived.{{sfn|Coughlin|2005|p=29}} Saddam himself is not believed to have received any training outside of Iraq, as he was a late addition to the assassination team.<ref>{{cite book|last=Osgood|first=Kenneth|title=America and Iraq: Policy-making, Intervention and Regional Politics|chapter=Eisenhower and regime change in Iraq: the United States and the Iraqi Revolution of 1958|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2009|isbn=978-1-134-03672-1|page=22}}</ref>

[[Richard Sale (journalist)|Richard Sale]] of ''[[United Press International]]'' (UPI), citing former United States diplomat and intelligence officials, [[Adel Darwish]], and other experts, reported that the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Qasim was a collaboration between the United States [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) and [[General Intelligence Directorate (Egypt)|Egyptian intelligence]].<ref>{{cite web |author-link=Richard Sale (journalist) |last=Sale |first=Richard |url=https://www.upi.com/Exclusive-Saddam-key-in-early-CIA-plot/65571050017416/ |title=Exclusive: Saddam Key in Early CIA Plot |work=[[United Press International]] |date=10 April 2003 |access-date=2 April 2018}}</ref> Pertinent contemporary records relating to CIA operations in Iraq have remained classified or heavily redacted, thus "allow[ing] for plausible deniability."<ref name="Osgood p. 16">{{cite book|last=Osgood|first=Kenneth|title=America and Iraq: Policy-making, Intervention and Regional Politics|chapter=Eisenhower and regime change in Iraq: the United States and the Iraqi Revolution of 1958|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2009|isbn=978-1-134-03672-1|pages=16|quote=The documentary record is filled with holes. A remarkable volume of material remains classified, and those records that are available are obscured by redactions – large blacked-out sections that allow for plausible deniability. While it is difficult to know exactly what actions were taken to destabilize or overthrow Qasim's regime, we can discern fairly clearly what was on the planning table. We also can see clues as to what was authorized.}}</ref> It is generally accepted that Egypt, in some capacity, was involved in the assassination attempt, and that "[t]he United States was working with Nasser on some level."<ref name="Osgood pp. 21–23">{{cite book|last=Osgood|first=Kenneth|title=America and Iraq: Policy-making, Intervention and Regional Politics|chapter=Eisenhower and regime change in Iraq: the United States and the Iraqi Revolution of 1958|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2009|isbn=978-1-134-03672-1|pages=21–23}}</ref>

At the time of the attack, the Ba'ath Party had fewer than 1,000 members;{{sfn|Coughlin|2005|p=30}} however, the failed assassination attempt led to widespread exposure for Saddam and the Ba'ath within Iraq, where both had previously languished in obscurity, and later became a crucial part of Saddam's public image during his tenure as [[List of presidents of Iraq|president of Iraq]].<ref name="Osgood pp. 21–23" /><ref>{{cite book |author-link1=Efraim Karsh |last1=Karsh |first1=Efraim |last2=Rautsi |first2=Inari |title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography |publisher=[[Grove Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8 |pages=15–22, 25}}</ref> [[Kanan Makiya]] recounts:

<blockquote>The man and the myth merge in this episode. His biography—and Iraqi television, which stages the story ad nauseam—tells of his familiarity with guns from the age of ten; his fearlessness and loyalty to the party during the 1959 operation; his bravery in saving his comrades by commandeering a car at gunpoint; the bullet that was gouged out of his flesh under his direction in hiding; the iron discipline that led him to draw a gun on weaker comrades who would have dropped off a seriously wounded member of the hit team at a hospital; the calculating shrewdness that helped him save himself minutes before the police broke in leaving his wounded comrades behind; and finally the long trek of a wounded man from house to house, city to town, across the desert to refuge in [[Syria]].<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Kanan Makiya|last=Makiya|first=Kanan|title=Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq, Updated Edition|url=https://archive.org/details/republicoffearpo00maki|url-access=registration|publisher=University of California Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-520-92124-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/republicoffearpo00maki/page/118 118]}}</ref></blockquote>

=== Exile to the United Arab Republic ===
[[Michel Aflaq]], the leader of the Ba'athist movement, organized the expulsion of leading Iraqi Ba'athist members, such as [[Fuad al-Rikabi]], on the grounds that the party should not have initiated the attempt on Qasim's life. At the same time, Aflaq secured seats in the Iraqi Ba'ath leadership for his supporters, one of them being Saddam.<ref>{{cite book |last=Coughlin|first= Con |page=[https://archive.org/details/saddam00conc/page/34 34] |title=Saddam: His Rise and Fall |publisher=[[Harper Perennial]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-06-050543-1 |author-link=Con Coughlin |url=https://archive.org/details/saddam00conc/page/34 }}</ref>

The assassins, including Saddam, all eventually escaped to [[Cairo]], [[United Arab Republic]], "where they enjoyed Nasser's protection for the remainder of Qasim's tenure in power."<ref name="WH2021 1959 2">{{Cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |pages=53–54}}</ref> Saddam initially escaped to Syria and then to Egypt itself in February 1960, and he continued to live there until 1963, graduating from high school in 1961 and unsuccessfully pursuing a law degree<ref>{{cite book|author-link1=Efraim Karsh|last1=Karsh|first1=Efraim|last2=Rautsi|first2=Inari|title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography|publisher=[[Grove Press]]|year=2002|isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8|pages=15–22}}</ref> at [[Cairo Law School]] (1962–1963).<ref>{{cite web |title=Saddam Hussein |date=29 May 2023 |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saddam-Hussein |publisher=Britannica}}</ref> It is possible that Saddam visited the U.S. embassy in [[Cairo]] during his exile,<ref>{{cite book |author-link1=Efraim Karsh |last1=Karsh |first1=Efraim |last2=Rautsi |first2=Inari |title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography |publisher=[[Grove Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8 |pages=20–21}}</ref> and some evidence suggests that he was "in frequent contact with US officials and intelligence agents."<ref name="Osgood pp. 21–23" /> A former high-ranking U.S. official told historians Marion Farouk–Sluglett and Peter Sluglett that Iraqi Ba'athists, including Saddam, "had made contact with the American authorities in the late 1950s and early 1960s."<ref name="Slugletts p. 327">{{cite book|last1=Farouk–Sluglett|first1=Marion|last2=Sluglett|first2=Peter|title=Iraq Since 1958: From Revolution to Dictatorship|publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]]|year=2001|isbn=978-0-85771-373-5|page=327}}</ref>
[[File:Iraq 1963 - Saddam and other Ba'athists.jpg|thumb|Saddam and other Ba'athists posing on top of a tank after a successful coup in February 1963|left]]
Army officers with ties to the Ba'ath Party overthrew and killed Qasim in the [[Ramadan Revolution]] coup of February 1963; long suspected to be supported by the CIA,<ref>For sources that agree or sympathize with assertions of U.S. involvement, see:
*{{cite web |last1=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first1=Brandon |last2=Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI) |title=Essential Readings: The United States and Iraq before Saddam Hussein's Rule |url=https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/37783/Essential-Readings-The-US-and-Iraq |website=[[Jadaliyya]] |date=20 July 2018 |quote=CIA involvement in the 1963 coup that first brought the Ba'th to power in Iraq has been an open secret for decades. American government and media have never been asked to fully account for the CIA's role in the coup. On the contrary, the US government has put forward and official narrative riddled with holes–redactions that cannot be declassified for "national security" reasons.}}
*{{cite book |last=Citino |first=Nathan J. |title=Envisioning the Arab Future: Modernization in US-Arab Relations, 1945–1967 |chapter=The People's Court |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-108-10755-6 |pages=182–183 |quote=Washington backed the movement by military officers linked to the pan-Arab Ba'th Party that overthrew Qasim in a coup on February 8, 1963.}}
*{{cite journal |last=Jacobsen |first=E. |date=1 November 2013 |title=A Coincidence of Interests: Kennedy, U.S. Assistance, and the 1963 Iraqi Ba'th Regime |url=https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/dh/dht049 |journal=Diplomatic History |language=en |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=1029–1059 |doi=10.1093/dh/dht049 |issn=0145-2096 |quote=There is ample evidence that the CIA not only had contacts with the Iraqi Ba'th in the early sixties, but also assisted in the planning of the coup.}}
*{{cite book |last1=Ismael |first1=Tareq Y. |last2=Ismael |first2=Jacqueline S. |last3=Perry |first3=Glenn E. |title=Government and Politics of the Contemporary Middle East: Continuity and Change |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-317-66282-2 |page=240|quote=Ba'thist forces and army officers overthrew Qasim on February 8, 1963, in collaboration with the CIA.}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Little |first=Douglas |date=14 October 2004 |title=Mission Impossible: The CIA and the Cult of Covert Action in the Middle East |url=https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-abstract/28/5/663/337167 |journal=Diplomatic History |language=en |volume=28 |issue=5 |pages=663–701 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-7709.2004.00446.x |issn=1467-7709|quote=Such self-serving denials notwithstanding, the CIA actually appears to have had a great deal to do with the bloody Ba'athist coup that toppled Qassim in February 1963. Deeply troubled by Qassim's steady drift to the left, by his threats to invade Kuwait, and by his attempt to cancel Western oil concessions, U.S. intelligence made contact with anticommunist Ba'ath activists both inside and outside the Iraqi army during the early 1960s.}}
*{{cite book|last=Osgood|first=Kenneth|title=America and Iraq: Policy-making, Intervention and Regional Politics|chapter=Eisenhower and regime change in Iraq: the United States and the Iraqi Revolution of 1958|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2009|isbn=978-1-134-03672-1|pages=26–27|quote=Working with Nasser, the Ba'ath Party, and other opposition elements, including some in the Iraqi army, the CIA by 1963 was well positioned to help assemble the coalition that overthrew Qasim in February of that year. It is not clear whether Qasim's assassination, as Said Aburish has written, was 'one of the most elaborate CIA operations in the history of the Middle East.' That judgment remains to be proven. But the trail linking the CIA is suggestive.}}
*{{cite web|last=Sluglett|first=Peter|url=https://www.dissentmagazine.org/wp-content/files_mf/1389811754d4Sluglett.pdf|title=The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq: A Study of Iraq's Old Landed and Commercial Classes and of its Communists, Ba'thists and Free Officers (Review)|work=[[Democratiya]]|page=9|quote=Batatu infers on pp. 985–86 that the CIA was involved in the coup of 1963 (which brought the Ba'ath briefly to power): Even if the evidence here is somewhat circumstantial, there can be no question about the Ba'ath's fervent anti-communism.}}
*{{cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |location= |page=119 |quote=Weldon Matthews, Malik Mufti, Douglas Little, William Zeman, and Eric Jacobsen have all drawn on declassified American records to largely substantiate the plausibility of Batatu's account. Peter Hahn and Bryan Gibson (in separate works) argue that the available evidence does support the claim of CIA collusion with the Ba'th. However, each makes this argument in the course of a much broader study, and neither examines the question in any detail.}}
*{{cite book|last=Mitchel|first=Timothy|title=Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|year=2002|isbn=978-0-520-92825-1|page=149|quote=Qasim was killed three years later in a coup welcomed and possibly aided by the CIA, which brought to power the Ba'ath, the party of Saddam Hussein.}}
*{{cite book|author-link=Tim Weiner|last=Weiner|first=Tim|title=Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA|publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]|year=2008|isbn=978-0-307-45562-8|page=163|quote=The agency finally backed a successful coup in Iraq in the name of American influence.}}</ref><ref>For sources that dispute assertions of U.S. involvement, see:
*{{cite book |last=Gibson |first=Bryan R. |title=Sold Out? US Foreign Policy, Iraq, the Kurds, and the Cold War |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-137-48711-7 |page=58 |quote=Barring the release of new information, the balance of evidence suggests that while the United States was actively plotting the overthrow of the Qasim regime, it did not appear to be directly involved in the February 1963 coup.}}
*{{cite book|last=Hahn|first=Peter|title=Missions Accomplished?: The United States and Iraq Since World War I|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2011|isbn=978-0-19-533338-1|page=48|quote=Declassified U.S. government documents offer no evidence to support these suggestions.}}
*{{cite book|last=Barrett|first=Roby C.|title=The Greater Middle East and the Cold War: US Foreign Policy Under Eisenhower and Kennedy|publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]]|year=2007|isbn=978-0-85771-308-7|page=451|quote=Washington wanted to see Qasim and his Communist supporters removed, but that is a far cry from Batatu's inference that the U.S. had somehow engineered the coup. The U.S. lacked the operational capability to organize and carry out the coup, but certainly after it had occurred the U.S. government preferred the Nasserists and Ba'athists in power, and provided encouragement and probably some peripheral assistance.}}
*{{cite book|last=West|first=Nigel|title=Encyclopedia of Political Assassinations|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]|year=2017|isbn=978-1-5381-0239-8|page=205|quote=Although Qasim was regarded as an adversary by the West, having nationalized the Iraq Petroleum Company, which had joint Anglo-American ownership, no plans had been made to depose him, principally because of the absence of a plausible successor. Nevertheless, the CIA pursued other schemes to prevent Iraq from coming under Soviet influence, and one such target was an unidentified colonel, thought to have been Qasim's cousin, the notorious Fadhil Abbas al-Mahdawi who was appointed military prosecutor to try members of the previous Hashemite monarchy.}}</ref> however, pertinent contemporary documents relating to the CIA's operations in Iraq have remained classified by the U.S. government,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |location= |page=117 |quote=What really happened in Iraq in February 1963 remains shrouded behind a veil of official secrecy. Many of the most relevant documents remain classified. Others were destroyed. And still others were never created in the first place.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Matthews |first=Weldon C. |date=9 November 2011 |title=The Kennedy Administration, Counterinsurgency, and Iraq's First Ba'thist Regime |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/abs/kennedy-administration-counterinsurgency-and-iraqs-first-bathist-regime/B4DA680E1CD37E8293DCEE8788C7C826 |journal=[[International Journal of Middle East Studies]] |language=en |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=635–653 |doi=10.1017/S0020743811000882 |s2cid=159490612 |issn=1471-6380 |quote=Archival sources on the U.S. relationship with this regime are highly restricted. Many records of the Central Intelligence Agency's operations and the Department of Defense from this period remain classified, and some declassified records have not been transferred to the National Archives or cataloged.}}</ref> although the Ba'athists are documented to have maintained supportive relationships with U.S. officials before, during, and after the coup.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Matthews |first=Weldon C. |date=9 November 2011 |title=The Kennedy Administration, Counterinsurgency, and Iraq's First Ba'thist Regime |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0020743811000882/type/journal_article |journal=[[International Journal of Middle East Studies]] |language=en |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=635–653 |doi=10.1017/S0020743811000882 |s2cid=159490612 |issn=0020-7438 |quote=[Kennedy] Administration officials viewed the Iraqi Ba'th Party in 1963 as an agent of counterinsurgency directed against Iraqi communists, and they cultivated supportive relationships with Ba'thist officials, police commanders, and members of the Ba'th Party militia. The American relationship with militia members and senior police commanders had begun even before the February coup, and Ba'thist police commanders involved in the coup had been trained in the United States.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=B. |date=1 January 2015 |title=Embracing Regime Change in Iraq: American Foreign Policy and the 1963 Coup d'etat in Baghdad |url=https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/dh/dht121 |journal=Diplomatic History |language=en |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=98–125 |doi=10.1093/dh/dht121 |issn=0145-2096}}</ref> Ba'athist leaders were appointed to the cabinet and [[Abdul Salam Arif]] became president. Arif dismissed and arrested the Ba'athist leaders later that year in the [[November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état]]. Being exiled in Egypt at the time, Saddam played no role in the 1963 coup or the brutal anti-communist purge that followed; although he returned to Iraq after the coup, becoming a key organizer within the Ba'ath Party's civilian wing upon his return.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |location= |page=206 |quote=}}</ref> Unlike during the Qasim years, Saddam remained in Iraq following Arif's anti-Ba'athist purge in November 1963, and became involved in planning to assassinate Arif. In marked contrast to Qasim, Saddam knew that he faced no death penalty from Arif's government and knowingly accepted the risk of being arrested rather than fleeing to Syria again. Saddam was arrested in October 1964 and served approximately two years in prison before escaping in 1966.<ref>{{cite book|author-link1=Efraim Karsh|last1=Karsh|first1=Efraim|last2=Rautsi|first2=Inari|title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography|publisher=[[Grove Press]]|year=2002|isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8|pages=25–26}}</ref> In 1966, [[Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr]] appointed him Deputy Secretary of the Regional Command. Saddam, who would prove to be a skilled organizer, revitalized the party.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tripp |first=Charles | page=183 |title=A History of Iraq |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-87823-4| author-link=Charles R. H. Tripp }}</ref> He was elected to the Regional Command, as the story goes, with help from Michel Aflaq—the founder of Ba'athist thought.<ref name="Hanna Batatu">''The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq'' (Princeton 1978).</ref> In September 1966, Saddam initiated an extraordinary challenge to Syrian domination of the Ba'ath Party in response to the [[1966 Syrian coup d'état|Marxist takeover of the Syrian Ba'ath]] earlier that year, resulting in the Party's formalized split into two [[Ba'ath Party (Syrian-dominated faction)|separate]] [[Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction)|factions]].<ref>{{cite book|author-link1=Efraim Karsh|last1=Karsh|first1=Efraim|last2=Rautsi|first2=Inari|title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography|publisher=[[Grove Press]]|year=2002|isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8|pages=26–27}}</ref> Saddam then created a Ba'athist security service, which he alone controlled.<ref>{{cite book|author-link1=Efraim Karsh|last1=Karsh|first1=Efraim|last2=Rautsi|first2=Inari|title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography|publisher=[[Grove Press]]|year=2002|isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8|page=27}}</ref>

=== 1968 coup ===
{{main|17 July Revolution}}

In July 1968, Saddam participated in a [[17 July Revolution|bloodless coup]] led by [[Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr]] that overthrew [[Abdul Rahman Arif]],<ref name="Bashkin2009">{{cite book |last=Bashkin |first=Orit |title=The other Iraq: pluralism and culture in Hashemite Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8047-7415-4 |location=Stanford, California, USA}}</ref>{{rp|174}} Salam Arif's brother and successor. While Saddam's role in the coup was not hugely significant (except in the official account), Saddam planned and carried out the subsequent purge of the non-Ba'athist faction led by [[List of Prime Ministers of Iraq|Prime Minister]] [[Abdul Razzaq an-Naif]], whose support had been essential to the coup's success.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Karsh |first1=Efraim |author-link1=Efraim Karsh |title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography |last2=Rautsi |first2=Inari |publisher=[[Grove Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8 |pages=27–35}}</ref> According to a semi-official biography, Saddam personally led Naif at gunpoint to the plane that escorted him out of Iraq.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Karsh |first1=Efraim |author-link1=Efraim Karsh |title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography |last2=Rautsi |first2=Inari |publisher=[[Grove Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8 |pages=33–34}}</ref> Arif was given refuge in London and then [[Istanbul]]. Al-Bakr was named president and Saddam was named his deputy, and deputy chairman of the Ba'athist [[Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council|Revolutionary Command Council]]. According to biographers, Saddam never forgot the tensions within the first Ba'athist government, which formed the basis for his measures to promote Ba'ath party unity as well as his resolve to maintain power and programs to ensure social stability. Although Saddam was al-Bakr's deputy, he was a strong behind-the-scenes party politician. Al-Bakr was the older and more prestigious of the two, but by 1969 Saddam had become the moving force behind the party.

== Vice Presidency (1968–1979) ==
=== Political program ===
[[File:Saddam Hussein and Hassan al-Bakr 1978.jpg|thumb|Saddam and al-Bakr]]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, as vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, formally al-Bakr's second-in-command, Saddam built a reputation as a progressive, effective politician.<ref>{{cite web |website=CNN |title=Hussein was a symbol of autocracy, cruelty in Iraq |date=30 December 2003 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/29/hussein.obit/index.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240301122020/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/29/hussein.obit/index.html |archive-date= 1 March 2024 }}</ref> At this time, he moved up the ranks in the new government by aiding attempts to strengthen and unify the Ba'ath party and taking a leading role in addressing the country's major domestic problems and expanding the party's following.

At the center of this strategy was Iraq's oil. On 1 June 1972, Saddam oversaw the seizure of international oil interests, which, at the time, dominated the country's oil sector.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 June 2003 |title=Iraq's economy: Past, present, future – Iraq |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/iraqs-economy-past-present-future |access-date=16 February 2024 |website=ReliefWeb |language=en}}</ref> A year later, world oil prices rose dramatically as a result of the [[1973 energy crisis]], and skyrocketing revenues enabled Saddam to expand his agenda.<ref name="cbc">{{Cite news |title=The price of oil – in context |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/oil/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609145246/http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/oil/ |archive-date=June 9, 2007 |access-date=May 29, 2007 |work=CBC News}}</ref> Saddam subsequently implemented a national infrastructure campaign that made progress in building roads, promoting mining, and developing other industries.<ref name="weebly-2025b">{{Cite web |title=Role in the Middle East |url=https://ripsaddamhussein.weebly.com/role-in-the-middle-east.html |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=Saddam Hussein}}</ref> Electricity was brought to nearly every city in Iraq, and many outlying areas.<ref name="weebly-2025b" /> Before the 1970s, most of Iraq's people lived in the countryside and roughly two-thirds were peasants. This number would decrease quickly during the 1970s. He nationalized independent banks, eventually leaving the banking system insolvent due to [[inflation]] and bad loans.<ref name="economist2004">{{cite news |date=24 June 2004 |title=Banking in Iraq&nbsp;– A tricky operation |url=https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2004/06/24/a-tricky-operation |newspaper=[[The Economist]]}}</ref>

Saddam focused on fostering loyalty to the Ba'athists in the rural areas. After nationalizing foreign oil interests, Saddam supervised the modernization of the countryside, mechanizing agriculture on a large scale, and distributing land to peasant farmers.<ref>Khadduri, Majid. ''Socialist Iraq''. The Middle East Institute, Washington, D.C., 1978.</ref> The Ba'athists established farm cooperatives and the government also doubled expenditures for agricultural development in 1974–1975.

By the late 1970s, Iraq had experienced significant economic growth, with a [[Bank reserves|budget reserve]] surpassing US$35 billion. The value of 1 Iraqi dinar was worth more than 3 dollars, making it one of the most notable economic expansions in the region. Saddam Hussein's regime aimed to diversify the Iraqi economy beyond oil. The government invested in various industries, including petrochemicals, fertilizer production, and textile manufacturing, to reduce dependence on oil revenues and promote economic self-sufficiency.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Iraq's economy: Old obstacles and new challenges |url=https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/iraqs-economy-old-obstacles-and-new-challenges-121426 |access-date=16 February 2024 |website=ISPI |language=en-US}}</ref>

The oil revenue benefited Saddam politically.<ref name="economist2007">{{cite news |date=4 January 2007 |title=Saddam Hussein&nbsp;– The blundering dictator |url=https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2007/01/04/the-blundering-dictator |newspaper=[[The Economist]]}}</ref> According to ''[[The Economist]]'', "Much as [[Adolf Hitler]] won early praise for galvanizing German industry, ending mass unemployment and building autobahns, Saddam earned admiration abroad for his deeds. He had a good instinct for what the "[[Arab street]]" demanded, following the decline in Egyptian leadership brought about by the trauma of Israel's six-day victory in the 1967 war, the death of the pan-Arabist hero, [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]], in 1970, and the "traitorous" drive by his successor, Anwar Sadat, to sue for peace with the Jewish state. Saddam's self-aggrandizing propaganda, with himself posing as the defender of Arabism against Zionist or [[Iran|Persian]] intruders, was heavy-handed, but consistent as a drumbeat. It helped, of course, that his [[Iraqi Intelligence Service|mukhabarat]] (secret police) put dozens of Arab news editors, writers and artists on the payroll."<ref name="economist2007" />

=== Foreign relations ===
{{See also|Foreign relations of Iraq|List of international trips made by Saddam Hussein}}

Saddam sought to have Iraq play a leading role in the Middle East.<ref name="Healy">Healy, Jack. "[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/world/middleeast/27iraq.html?ref=world Iraq Court Sentences Tariq Aziz to Death]." ''[[The New York Times]]''. 26 October 2010. Retrieved 26 October 2010.</ref> In 1972, Saddam signed a 15-year Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the [[Soviet Union]]. Arms were sent along with several thousand advisers. According to historian [[Charles R. H. Tripp]], the treaty upset "the US-sponsored security system established as part of the [[Cold War]] in the Middle East. It appeared that any enemy of the Baghdad regime was a potential ally of the United States."<ref name="Tripp">{{cite book |last=Tripp |first=Charles |author-link=Charles R. H. Tripp |title=A History of Iraq |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-521-87823-4 |pages=xii, 211–214}}</ref> In response, the US covertly financed Kurdish rebels led by [[Mustafa Barzani]] during the [[Second Iraqi–Kurdish War]]; the Kurds were defeated in 1975, leading to the forcible relocation of hundreds of thousands of Kurdish civilians.<ref name="Tripp" /> A 1978 crackdown on [[Iraqi Communist Party|Iraqi Communists]] and a shift of trade toward the West strained Iraqi relations with the Soviet Union; Iraq then took on a more Western orientation until the [[Gulf War]] in 1991.<ref>Helen Chapin Metz (ed) ''[http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/iqtoc.html Iraq: A Country Study:]'' "[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+iq0083) The West"], [[Library of Congress Country Studies]], 1988</ref>

After the [[1973 oil crisis|oil crisis]] of 1973, France had changed to a more pro-Arab policy and was accordingly rewarded by Saddam with closer ties. Saddam's rare trips abroad included many Western countries. His visit to Spain took place in December 1974, when the [[Caudillo]] of Spain, [[Francisco Franco]], invited him to [[Madrid]] and he visited [[Granada]], [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]] and [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2 March 2003 |title=Reportaje &#124; El obsequio de Sadam a Franco |url=https://elpais.com/diario/2003/03/02/domingo/1046580756_850215.html |newspaper=El País}}</ref> In September 1975 he met with Prime Minister [[Jacques Chirac]] in [[Paris]], France.<ref name="The Chirac Doctrine">{{cite journal |last1=Guitta |first1=Olivier |date=Fall 2005 |title=The Chirac Doctrine |url=http://www.meforum.org/772/the-chirac-doctrine |journal=The Middle East Quarterly}}</ref> Saddam's 1975 visit further cemented close ties with French business and ruling political circles.[[File:Arab Summit 1978.jpg|thumb|upright=1.20|left|Saddam and [[Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr|al-Bakr]], [[de jure]] president of Iraq alongside [[Hafez al-Assad]] of Syria at an [[1978 Arab League summit|Arab League summit]] in Baghdad in November 1978]]Iraq's relations with the Arab world have been extremely varied. Relations between Iraq and Egypt violently ruptured in 1977, when the two nations broke relations with each other following Iraq's criticism of Egyptian President [[Anwar Sadat]]'s peace initiatives with [[Israel]]. In 1978, Baghdad hosted an [[1978 Arab League summit|Arab League summit]] that condemned and ostracized Egypt for accepting the [[Camp David Accords]]. Saddam led Arab opposition to the Camp David Accords.

==== Peace treaty with Iran ====
{{Main|1975 Algiers Agreement}}

[[File:Saddam & Shah (1975).png|thumb|Saddam and Reza Shah during the Algiers agreement]]
Iran and Iraq had been engaged in a [[Shatt al-Arab dispute|long-standing territorial dispute]] over the [[Shatt al-Arab]] waterway, which serves as the border between the two countries.<ref name="aljazeera.com-2" /> Iran had backed Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq.<ref name="aljazeera.com-2" /> A peace treaty, which aimed to address the Shatt al-Arab dispute, was signed in 1975.<ref name="aljazeera.com-2">{{Cite web |title=Timeline: Iran-Arab relations |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2009/4/13/timeline-iran-arab-relations |access-date=21 March 2024 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> The 1975 Algiers Agreement, also known as the Algiers Accord, was a significant diplomatic agreement signed between Iran and Iraq on 6 March 1975, to settle border disputes and improve bilateral relations.<ref name="aljazeera.com-2" /> It was mediated by the then president of [[Algeria]], [[Houari Boumediene]].<ref name="aljazeera.com-2" /> Under the accord, Iraq was granted sovereignty over the eastern bank of the waterway, while Iran retained control over the western bank.<ref name="aljazeera.com-2" /> Following the agreement, Iraq and Iran restored full diplomatic relations and exchanged ambassadors, representing a significant diplomatic breakthrough.<ref name="aljazeera.com-2" /> The Shah withdrew support of the Kurds, who were promptly defeated by the Iraqis during the [[Second Iraqi–Kurdish War|Second Iraqi-Kurdish War]].

=== Succession ===
In 1976, Saddam rose to the position of general in the Iraqi armed forces, and rapidly became the [[Strongman (politics)|strongman]] of the government.<ref name="ichistory-2021">{{cite web |url=https://www.ichistory.com/uploads/1/0/2/9/10290322/saddam_rise_timeline_and_purge_2021.pdf |title=Saddam Hussein's Rise to Power |publisher=icHistory |format=PDF |access-date=7 September 2025}}</ref> As the ailing, elderly al-Bakr became unable to execute his duties, Saddam took on an increasingly prominent role as the face of the government both internally and externally.<ref name="ichistory-2021" /> He was the ''de facto'' leader of Iraq some years before he formally came to power in 1979.<ref name="ichistory-2021" />

In 1979, al-Bakr started to make treaties with Syria, also under Ba'athist leadership, that would lead to unification between the two countries.<ref name="ichistory-2021" /> Syrian President [[Hafez al-Assad]] would become deputy leader in a union, and this would drive Saddam to obscurity.<ref name="ichistory-2021" /> Saddam acted to secure his grip on power by forcing the ailing al-Bakr to resign on 16 July 1979, and formally assumed the presidency.<ref name="ichistory-2021" />

== Presidency (1979–2003) ==

=== Consolidation of power ===
{{Main|1979 Ba'ath Party Purge}}
[[File:Saddam Hussein during 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge (2).jpg|thumb|240x240px|Saddam speech during [[1979 Ba'ath Party Purge|1979 purge of the Ba'ath party]]]]
The first sign of consolidation of power came, when Muhyi Abd al-Hussein Mashhadi, the secretary-general of the Ba'ath Party, was replaced by someone closer to Saddam.<ref name="Cannon-2023">{{Cite web |title=Saddam Hussein Takes Power in Iraq |url=https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/politics-and-government/saddam-hussein-takes-power-iraq |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=EBSCO |language=en}}</ref> Many officers during al-Bakr's time were removed.<ref name="Cannon-2023" /> Few survived such as [[Adnan Khairallah]] and [[Sa'dun Hammadi]].<ref name="Cannon-2023" /> Saddam convened an assembly of Ba'ath party leaders on 22 July 1979.<ref name="Fang-2004" /> During the assembly, which he ordered videotaped,<ref>{{YouTube|VHBF8EKt-zc|A Documentary on Saddam Hussein 5}}</ref> Saddam claimed to have found a [[fifth column]] within the ruling party and directed [[Muhyi Abdul-Hussein Mashhadi|Muhyi Abdul-Hussein]] to read out a confession and the names of 68 alleged co-conspirators.<ref name="Fang-2004" /> These members were labelled "disloyal" and were removed from the room one by one and taken into custody.<ref name="Fang-2004" /> After the list was read, Saddam congratulated those still seated in the room for their past and future loyalty.<ref name="Fang-2004" /> The 68 people arrested at the meeting were subsequently tried together and found guilty of [[treason]]; 22 were sentenced to execution.<ref name="Fang-2004" /> Other high-ranking members of the party formed the [[Execution by firing squad|firing squad]].<ref name="Fang-2004">Bay Fang. "[https://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/040719/19iraq.htm When Saddam ruled the day]." ''U.S. News & World Report''. 11 July 2004. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116075402/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/040719/19iraq.htm|date=16 January 2014}}</ref><ref>Edward Mortimer. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20031014004305/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/3519 The Thief of Baghdad]." ''New York Review of Books''. 27 September 1990, citing Fuad Matar. ''Saddam Hussein: A Biography''. Highlight. 1990. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723145337/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/3519|date=23 July 2008}}</ref>

A second round of purges took place in June 1982, when half of the sixteen RCC members who had survived the 1979 "countercoup" were removed from power.<ref name="Cannon-2023" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ufheil-Somers |first=Amanda |date=1990-11-06 |title=Iraq Since 1986: The Strengthening of Saddam |url=https://merip.org/1990/11/iraq-since-1986-the-strengthening-of-saddam/ |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=MERIP |language=en-US}}</ref> Large number of Shi'as were removed from the regime. Later the government invited back Shi'as to hold posts within the government, to gain support. Under Saddam's administration, senior government, military, and security roles were predominantly filled by Arab Sunni Muslims, a minority that made up about a [[Sunni Islam in Iraq|fifth of the population]].<ref name="Karsh and Rautsi 2002 p. 382">{{cite book |last1=Karsh |first1=Efraim |author-link1=Efraim Karsh |title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography |last2=Rautsi |first2=Inari |publisher=[[Grove Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8 |page=38}}</ref> While key security posts were often reserved for close relatives, he also appointed members of various religious and ethnic minorities to high-ranking positions and as representatives based on loyalty to his regime.<ref name="The World from PRX 20162">{{Cite web |date=31 July 2016 |title=Saddam Hussein's legacy of sectarian division in Iraq |url=https://theworld.org/stories/2016/07/30/saddam-husseins-legacy-sectarian-division-iraq |access-date=24 September 2024 |website=The World from PRX |language=en}}</ref><ref name="almajd-2015">{{Cite web |date=2015-10-17 |title=بالوثائق التاريخية.. صدام حسين لم يكن طائفياً |url=https://almajd.net/2015/10/17/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AB%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AE%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%B5%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%AD%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%84%D9%85-%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%86-%D8%B7%D8%A7/ |access-date=2025-04-07 |website=موقع جريدة المجد الإلكتروني |language=ar}}</ref><ref>Interview with Naji Salman Salih, 2008</ref>

==== Paramilitary and police organizations ====
{{Main|Human rights in Ba'athist Iraq}}
[[File:Fedayeen of Saddam militants marching.jpg|thumb|Fedayeen of Saddam militants marching through Baghdad, 1999]]
Iraq faced the prospect of régime change from two Shi'a factions — [[Islamic Dawa Party|Dawa]] and [[Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq|SCIRI]] which aspired to model Iraq on its neighbour Iran as a Shi'a theocracy.<ref name="Brill-2020">{{Cite web |date=2020-12-03 |title=Thinking About the History of Militias in Iraq |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/thinking-about-history-militias-iraq |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=www.wilsoncenter.org |language=en}}</ref> A separate threat to Iraq came from parts of the ethnic Kurdish population of [[Iraqi Kurdistan|northern Iraq]] which opposed being part of an Iraqi state and favored independence, an ongoing ideology which had preceded Ba'ath Party rule.<ref name="Brill-2020" /> To alleviate the threat of revolution, Saddam afforded certain benefits to potentially hostile population.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2006-09-11 |title=Saddam defends killing of Kurds |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/sep/11/iraq1 |access-date=2025-04-30 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Membership in the Ba'ath Party remained open to all Iraqi citizens regardless of background, and repressive measures were taken against its opponents.<ref name="Iraq: A Country Study">[[Helen Chapin Metz]] (ed) ''[http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/iqtoc.html Iraq: A Country Study:]'' "[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+iq0115) Internal Security in the 1980s"], [[Library of Congress Country Studies]], 1988</ref>

{{Quote box
| quote = "There is a feeling that at least three million Iraqis are watching the eleven million others."
| source = —"A European diplomat", quoted in ''[[The New York Times]]'', April 3, 1984.<ref name="Makiya 62-65">{{cite book|author-link=Kanan Makiya|last=Makiya|first=Kanan|title=Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq, Updated Edition|url=https://archive.org/details/republicoffearpo00maki|url-access=registration|publisher=University of California Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-520-92124-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/republicoffearpo00maki/page/62 62]–65}}</ref>
| width = 30em
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The major instruments for accomplishing this control were the paramilitary and police organizations. Beginning in 1974, [[Taha Yassin Ramadan]], a close associate of Saddam, commanded the [[Popular Army (Iraq)|Popular Army]], which had responsibility for internal security. As the Ba'ath Party's paramilitary, the People's Army acted as a counterweight against any coup attempts by the regular armed forces. In addition to the People's Army, the Department of General Intelligence was the most notorious arm of the state-security system, feared for its use of [[torture]] and assassination. [[Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti]], Saddam's younger [[Sibling|half-brother]], commanded Mukhabarat. Foreign observers believed that from 1982 this department operated both at home and abroad in its mission to seek out and eliminate Saddam's perceived opponents.<ref name="Iraq: A Country Study" /><ref>{{cite web |title=U.S. Relations With Anti-Saddam Groups |url=https://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/58276.pdf |access-date=15 April 2012 |publisher=Congressional Research Service}}</ref>

Saddam was notable for using terror against his own people. ''The Economist'' described Saddam as "one of the last of the 20th century's great dictators, but not the least in terms of egotism, or cruelty, or morbid will to power."<ref name="economist2007" /> Saddam's regime brought about the deaths of at least 250,000 Iraqis<ref name="250k">{{cite web |date=25 January 2004 |title=War in Iraq: Not a Humanitarian Intervention |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2004/01/25/war-iraq-not-humanitarian-intervention |access-date=31 May 2017 |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |quote=Having devoted extensive time and effort to documenting [Saddam's] atrocities, we estimate that in the last twenty-five years of Ba'ath Party rule the Iraqi government murdered or 'disappeared' some quarter of a million Iraqis, if not more.}}</ref> and committed [[war crime]]s in Iran, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. [[Human Rights Watch]] and [[Amnesty International]] issued regular reports of widespread [[imprisonment]] and torture. Conversely, Saddam used Iraq's oil wealth to develop an extensive [[patronage]] system for the regime's supporters.<ref name="Sassoon 2017">{{cite journal |last=Sassoon |first=Joseph |date=February 2017 |title=Aaron M. Faust, ''The Ba'thification of Iraq: Saddam Hussein's Totalitarianism'' [Book Review] |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/aaron-m-faust-the-bathification-of-iraq-saddam-husseins-totalitarianism-austin-tex-university-of-texas-press-2015-pp-296-5500-cloth-isbn-9781477305577/3E2A3E4D523556848C0E24AC9318B019 |journal=[[International Journal of Middle East Studies]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=205–206 |doi=10.1017/S0020743816001392 |s2cid=164804585 |quote=First, Faust totally ignores the economy in his analysis. This oversight is remarkable given his attempt to trace how the regime became totalitarian, which, by definition, encompasses all facets of life.&nbsp;... Second, the comparison with Stalin or Hitler is weak when one takes into consideration how many Iraqis were allowed to leave the country. Although citizens needed to undergo a convoluted and bureaucratic procedure to obtain the necessary papers to leave the country, the fact remains that more than one million Iraqis migrated from Iraq from the end of the Iran–Iraq War in 1988 until the US-led invasion in 2003. Third, religion under Stalin did not function in the same manner as it did in Iraq, and while Faust details how the Shi'a were not allowed to engage in some of their ceremonies, the average Iraqi was allowed to pray at home and in a mosque.&nbsp;... it is correct that the security services kept a watch on religious establishments and mosques, but the Iraqi approach is somewhat different from that pursued by Stalin's totalitarianism.}}</ref> Although Saddam is often described as a [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]] leader, Joseph Sassoon notes that there are important differences between Saddam's repression and the totalitarianism practiced by [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Joseph Stalin]], particularly with regard to [[freedom of movement]] and [[freedom of religion]].<ref name="Sassoon 2017" />

=== Economy and infrastructure ===
Although initially committed to centralized planning and nationalization—particularly in the oil sector—Saddam experimented with [[privatization]], partial [[deregulation]], and limited [[Free market|market liberalization]] in the late 1980s.<ref name="Sanford-2003">{{Cite web |date=2003-06-03 |title=Iraq's economy: Past, present, future - Iraq {{!}} ReliefWeb |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/iraqs-economy-past-present-future |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=reliefweb.int |language=en}}</ref> The [[Iran–Iraq War]] devastated Iraq's economy, causing an estimated US$120 billion in damages and leaving the country with around $90 billion in debt, including approximately $40 billion owed to [[Saudi Arabia]] and [[Kuwait]] alone.<ref name="Ismael-2005">{{Cite journal |last1=Ismael |first1=Tareq Y. |last2=Ismael |first2=Jacqueline S. |date=2005 |title=Whither Iraq? Beyond Saddam, Sanctions and Occupation |journal=Third World Quarterly |volume=26 |issue=4/5 |pages=609–629 |doi=10.1080/01436590500128303 |jstor=3993711 |issn=0143-6597}}</ref> Following the [[Gulf War]] and the [[International sanctions against Iraq|imposition of UN sanctions]] in the 1990s, the Iraqi economy had sharply declined, and the system increasingly shifted toward [[crony capitalism]].<ref name="Sanford-2003" /><ref name="Ismael-2005" />

Overall, Saddam's government invested heavily in infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges, and public buildings.<ref name="auto7">{{Cite web |title=Iraq – Dictatorship, Invasion, Sanctions |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Iraq/Iraq-under-Saddam-Hussein |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Britannica |language=en}}</ref> Saddam implemented a national infrastructure campaign that made progress in building roads, promoting mining, and developing other industries.<ref name="weebly-2025b"/> Electricity was also brought to nearly every city in Iraq, and many outlying areas.<ref name="weebly-2025b" /> Iraq created one of the most modernized public-health systems in the Middle East, earning Saddam an award from the [[United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization]] (UNESCO).<ref name="auto">[http://www.cbc.ca/news2/indepth/words/saddam_hussein.html Saddam Hussein], CBC News, 29 December 2006</ref><ref name="auto5">Jessica Moore, [https://web.archive.org/web/20030625145156/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/iraq/war/player1.html The Iraq War player profile: Saddam Hussein's Rise to Power], PBS Online Newshour {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131115205745/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/iraq/war/player1.html|date=15 November 2013}}</ref> He established one hospital, specially for treatment of children with [[Cerebral palsy]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=الطبيب كمبراس الكوبي: أنقذت صدام من الشلل بعد السقوط |url=https://alqabas.com/article/520353-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A8-%D9%83%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D9%86%D9%82%D8%B0%D8%AA-%D8%B5%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%85-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4/ |access-date=2025-05-16 |website=جريدة القبس}}</ref> Saddam's government also underwent a large campaign to beautify Baghdad by erecting statues and monuments.<ref>Brown, B.A. and Feldman, M.H. (eds), ''Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art'', Walter de Gruyter, 2014 p.19</ref> The government also supported families of soldiers, granted [[Universal health care|free hospitalization]] to everyone, and gave [[Agricultural subsidy|subsidies to farmers]].<ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto5"/>

The government invested in building schools, and literacy rates in Iraq increased significantly during his rule.<ref name="auto3">{{Cite web |date=17 September 2010 |title=From 0% to 20% illiteracy — an Iraqi feat |url=https://www.arabnews.com/node/355341 |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Arab News |language=en}}</ref><ref name="auto8">{{Cite web |date=22 December 2016 |title=Empty classrooms and black market textbooks – Iraq |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/empty-classrooms-and-black-market-textbooks |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=ReliefWeb |language=en}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite web |date=13 April 2022 |title=The Iraq Report: Baghdad struggles to rise again |url=https://www.newarab.com/analysis/iraq-report-baghdad-struggles-rise-again |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=The New Arab |language=en}}</ref> Saddam established and controlled the "National Campaign for the Eradication of Illiteracy" and the campaign for "Compulsory Free Education in Iraq," and largely under his auspices, the government established universal free schooling up to the highest education levels and hundreds of thousands learned to read in the years following the initiation of the program.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto5"/>

=== Women's rights ===
[[File:Saddam1970s.jpg|thumb|Saddam promoting women's education and literacy]]
Saddam personally emphasized his full support for women's emancipation.<ref name="Brown-2006">{{Cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Lucy |last2=Romano |first2=David |date=2006 |title=Women in Post-Saddam Iraq: One Step Forward or Two Steps Back? |journal=NWSA Journal |volume=18 |issue=3 |page=53 |jstor=40071181 |issn=1040-0656}}</ref> Women were strongly encouraged to pursue education and join the workforce, and many rose to high-ranking positions in government, medicine, and academia.<ref name="auto6">{{Cite web |title=Casualties of War: Iraqi Women's Rights and Reality Then and Now |url=https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/events/casualties-war-iraqi-womens-rights-and-reality-then-and-now |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=www.opensocietyfoundations.org |language=en}}</ref><ref name="auto2">{{Cite web |date=13 April 2006 |title=Women were more respected under Saddam, say women's groups |url=https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/report/26289/iraq-women-were-more-respected-under-saddam-say-women%E2%80%99s-groups |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=The New Humanitarian |language=en}}</ref> The [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region|Ba'ath Party]] is also known to have "popularized women's education" during their rule, leading Iraq to achieve one of the highest female literacy rates among [[Muslim world|Muslim-majority countries]] at the time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Masri |first=Safwan M. |title=Tunisia: an Arab anomaly |date=2017 |isbn=978-0-231-54502-0 |location=New York |chapter=A Different Trajectory |oclc=974992445}}</ref> Saddam's government passed labor and employment laws that guaranteed equal pay, six months of fully paid maternity leave, and legal protections against sexual harassment.<ref name="PeaceWomen-2013">{{Cite web |date=19 March 2013 |title=IRAQ: WAS LIFE FOR IRAQI WOMEN BETTER UNDER SADDAM? |url=https://www.peacewomen.org/content/iraq-was-life-iraqi-women-better-under-saddam |access-date=30 April 2025 |website=[[PeaceWomen]]}}</ref> According to [[PeaceWomen]], the rights of female workers in [[Ba'athist Iraq]] rivaled those of the [[United States]] during the same period.<ref name="PeaceWomen-2013" />

In 1980, Saddam's government granted women full suffrage and the right to run for office.<ref name="Al-Tamimi, H. 2019 p.65">Al-Tamimi, H. (2019). Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building. Indien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p.65</ref> By the late 1970s and into the 1980s, women in Iraq held significant roles in society, accounting for 46% of all teachers, 29% of doctors, 46% of dentists and 70% of pharmacists.<ref>Suad Joseph (1982). "The Mobilization of Iraqi Women into the Wage Labor Force". Studies in Third World Societies. 16: 69–90.</ref> Women also constituted 40% of the civil service at one point in the 1980s.<ref name="Brown-2006" /> Legal reforms were enacted to grant equal rights in marriage, divorce, inheritance, and child custody, and Iraqi women could pass citizenship to their children even if married to non-Iraqis. Access to higher education was expanded, and women were given the same academic opportunities as men.<ref name="edition.cnn.com">Zainab Salbi (18 March 2013). [https://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/18/opinion/iraq-war-women-salbi "Why women are less free 10 years after the invasion of Iraq"] CNN, Retrieved April 2024.</ref>

Unlike other Arab or Muslim majority country, women in Iraq played an important role in the society.<ref name="Sciolino-1985">{{Cite news |last=Sciolino |first=Elaine |date=1985-02-03 |title=THE BIG BROTHER: IRAQ UNDER SADDAM HUSSEIN |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/03/magazine/the-big-brother-iraq-under-saddam-hussein.html |access-date=2025-05-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> According to a report in 1985 by [[The New York Times]]: "Iraqi women, historically among the most emancipated in the Arab world, hold jobs in all the professions, dress as they please, vote and hold more than 10 percent of the seats in the National Assembly. At the University of Baghdad, 55 percent of the enrollment is female. Day care is provided by the state free of charge, and with the war, women have taken on more traditional men's jobs and now make up 25 percent of the entire work force."<ref name="Sciolino-1985" />

=== Iran–Iraq War: 1980–1988 ===
{{Main|Iran–Iraq War}}

==== Background ====
[[File:1988 01 29-Rajavi-Saddam-Iran-Liberation.jpeg|left|thumb|Saddam and [[Massoud Rajavi]], the leader of [[People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran]], 1987]]
In early 1979, Iran's Shah [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]]'s [[Pahlavi dynasty]] were overthrown by the [[Iranian Revolution|Islamic Revolution]], thus giving way to an Islamic republic led by Ayatollah [[Ruhollah Khomeini]].<ref name="HISTORY-2021">{{Cite web |date=13 July 2021 |title=Iran-Iraq War – Summary, Timeline & Legacy |url=https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/iran-iraq-war |access-date=14 February 2024 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref> The influence of revolutionary Shi'a Islam grew apace in the region, particularly in countries with large Shi'a populations, especially Iraq.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Saddam feared that the radical Islamic ideas—hostile to his secular rule—were rapidly spreading inside his country among the majority Shi'a population.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Despite Saddam's fears of massive unrest, Iran's attempts to [[The policy of exporting the Islamic Revolution|export its Islamic Revolution]] were largely unsuccessful in rallying support from Shi'as in Iraq and the [[Arab states of the Persian Gulf|Gulf states]].<ref name="PIRRR">Esposito, John, "Political Islam Revolution, Radicalism, or Reform", ''Political Islam and Gulf Security'', Lynne Rienner Publishers, {{ISBN|978-1-55587-262-5}}, pp. 56–58</ref> Most Iraqi Shi'as, who comprised the majority of the Iraqi Armed Forces, chose their own country over their Shi'a Iranian coreligionists during the war that ensued.<ref name="PIRRR" />

There had also been bitter enmity between Saddam and Khomeini since the 1970s.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Khomeini, having been exiled from Iran in 1964, took up residence in Iraq, at the Shi'a holy city of [[Najaf]].<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> There he involved himself with Iraqi Shi'as and developed a strong religious and political following against the Iranian government, which Saddam tolerated.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> When Khomeini began to urge the Shi'as there to overthrow Saddam and under pressure from the Shah, who had agreed to a rapprochement between Iraq and Iran in 1975, Saddam agreed to expel Khomeini in 1978 to France.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Here, Khomeini gained media connections and collaborated with a much larger Iranian community, to his advantage.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> After Khomeini gained power, skirmishes between Iraq and revolutionary Iran occurred for ten months over the sovereignty of the disputed [[Shatt al-Arab]] waterway, which divides the two countries.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> During this period, Saddam publicly maintained that it was in Iraq's interest not to engage with Iran, and that it was in the interests of both nations to maintain peaceful relations.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=לרון |first=ד"ר גיא |date=2021-09-23 |title=ואולי סדאם חוסיין היה פחות מטורף ממה שחשבנו |url=https://www-ynet-co-il.translate.goog/news/article/s1xedykxk?_x_tr_sl=iw&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc&_x_tr_hist=true |access-date=2025-02-02 |work=Ynet |language=he}}</ref>

The outbreak of the [[Iran–Iraq War|war]] in September 1980 was preceded by a long period of tension between the two countries throughout 1979 and 1980, including frequent border skirmishes, calls by Khomeini for the Shi'a Muslims in Iraq to revolt against the ruling Ba'ath Party, and allegations of Iraqi support for ethnic separatists in Iran.<ref>{{cite book|last=Emery|first=Chris|title=The Iran-Iraq War: New International Perspectives|chapter=Reappraising the Carter Administration's response to the Iran-Iraq war|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2013|isbn=978-0-415-68524-5}}</ref> There were frequent clashes along the Iran–Iraq border throughout 1980, with Iraq publicly complaining of at least 544 incidents and Iran citing at least 797 violations of its border and airspace.<ref name="Cambridge University Press">{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Williamson|last2=Woods|first2=Kevin M.|title=The Iran–Iraq War, A Military and Strategic History|chapter=A context of 'bitterness and anger'|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2014|isbn=978-1-107-06229-0|pages=58–59 (e-book, page numbers approximate)}}</ref> On 1 April 1980, the [[Islamic Dawa Party]], an Iraqi Islamist group with supportive ties to Iran, attempted to assassinate [[Tariq Aziz]], Iraq's then deputy prime minister at the [[University of Baghdad]] campus, in retaliation for a 30 March decree declaring "membership of Dawa [to be] a capital offense".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Williamson|last2=Woods|first2=Kevin M.|title=The Iran–Iraq War, A Military and Strategic History|chapter=A context of 'bitterness and anger'|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2014|isbn=978-1-107-06229-0|pages=57–58 (e-book, page numbers approximate)}}</ref> On 30 April, Iraq organized [[Iranian Embassy siege|an attack on the Iranian embassy in London]].<ref name="Cambridge University Press"/> On 10 September 1980, Iraq forcibly reclaimed territories in Zain al-Qaws and Saif Saad that it had been promised under the terms of the 1975 Algiers Agreement but that Iran had never handed over, leading to both Iran and Iraq voiding the treaty, on 14 September and 17 September, respectively.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Williamson|last2=Woods|first2=Kevin M.|title=The Iran–Iraq War, A Military and Strategic History|chapter=A context of 'bitterness and anger'|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2014|isbn=978-1-107-06229-0|pages=62–63 (e-book, page numbers approximate)|quote=On 7 September 1980, Iraq accused Iran of shelling Iraqi villages in the territories of Zain al-Qaws and Saif Saad on 4 September 1980. Iraq demanded that the Iranian forces in those territories evacuate and return the villages to Iraq. Tehran gave no reply. Iraqi forces then moved to 'liberate' the villages, and on 10 September announced that its forces had done so in a short, sharp military engagement.&nbsp;... On 14 September 1980, Iran announced it would no longer abide by the 1975 Algiers Agreement. Given the scene that was set, it was no surprise that on 17 September, five days before the invasion, Iraq declared the accords null and void.&nbsp;... On 22 September, Iraqi units crossed the frontier.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-link=Kanan Makiya|last=Makiya|first=Kanan|title=Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq|edition=Updated|url=https://archive.org/details/republicoffearpo00maki|url-access=registration|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|year=1998|isbn=978-0-520-92124-5|page=270}}</ref>

==== Warfare ====
{{Main|Iraqi invasion of Iran}}
[[File:Adnan Khairallah with Saddam.jpg|thumb|[[Adnan Khairallah]] (1940–1989), the Defence Minister, being awarded by Saddam.]]
[[Iraqi invasion of Iran|Iraq invaded Iran]] on 22 September 1980, first [[22 September 1980 Iraqi airstrike on Iran|launching airstrikes on numerous targets in Iran]], including the [[Mehrabad Airport]] of [[Tehran]], before occupying the oil-rich Iranian province of [[Khuzestan province|Khuzestan]], which also has a sizable [[Khuzestani Arabs|Arab minority]].<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> The invasion was initially successful, as Iraq captured more than 25,900&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> of Iranian territory by 5 December 1980.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hiro |first=Dilip |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hBqJDwAAQBAJ |title=Cold War in the Islamic World: Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Struggle for Supremacy |date=1 February 2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-005022-1 |page=97 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Khuzestan and Basra were the main focus of the war, and the primary source of their economies. With the support of other Arab states, the United States, and Europe, and with major financial support from the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Saddam became "defender of the Arab world" against a revolutionary, fundamentalist Shi'a Iran. Consequently, many viewed Iraq as "an agent of the civilized world."<ref name="PIRRR" /> He fought Iran mainly to prevent the expansion of Shi'a radicalism.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" />

The blatant disregard of international law and violations of international borders were ignored.<ref name="PIRRR" /> Instead Iraq received economic and military support from its allies, who overlooked Saddam's use of chemical warfare against the Kurds and the Iranians, in addition to Iraq's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.<ref name="PIRRR" /> In the first days of the war, there was heavy ground fighting around strategic ports as Iraq launched an attack on Khuzestan.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> After making some initial gains, Iraq's troops began to suffer losses from [[human wave attack]]s by Iran.<ref name="PIRRR" /> Meanwhile, Saddam's efforts to develop nuclear weapons faced a setback when Iraq's [[Osirak Nuclear Reactor|nuclear reactor]] was destroyed on 7 June 1981 by an Israeli [[Operation Opera|air attack]].<ref name="Osirak">BBC, [https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/7/newsid_3014000/3014623.stm 1981: Israel bombs Baghdad nuclear reactor], ''BBC On This Day 7 June 1981'' referenced 6 January 2007</ref> By 1982, Iraq was on the defensive and looking for ways to end the war.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Iraq quickly found itself bogged down in one of the longest and most destructive [[Attrition warfare|wars of attrition]] of the 20th century.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" />

During the war, Iraq used [[chemical weapon]]s against Iranian forces fighting on the southern front and Kurdish separatists who were attempting to open up a northern front in Iraq with the help of Iran.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> [[Tariq Aziz]] later acknowledged [[Iraqi chemical attacks against Iran|Iraq's use of chemical weapons against Iran]], but said that Iran had used them against Iraq first.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Schmemann |first1=Serge |date=2 July 1988 |title=Iraq Acknowledges Its Use of Gas But Says Iran Introduced It in War |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/02/world/iraq-acknowledges-its-use-of-gas-but-says-iran-introduced-it-in-war.html |access-date=16 February 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> The Iranians, demanding that the international community should force Iraq to pay war reparations to Iran, refused any suggestions for a cease-fire.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Despite several [[United Nations Security Council Resolutions concerning Iraq|calls for a ceasefire]] by the [[United Nations Security Council]], hostilities continued until 20 August 1988.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> It was not until 20 July 1988 that Iran accepted [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 598|Resolution 598]], mainly due to poor morale, economic collapse, and Iraq's highly successful [[Tawakalna ala Allah Operations]], which reversed all of Iran's territorial gains and effectively brought the war to an end.<ref name="efraimkarsh">{{cite book |author=Karsh, Efraim |title=The Iran–Iraq War: 1980–1988 |date=25 April 2002 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-1-84176-371-2 |pages=1–8, 12–16, 19–82}}</ref> [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] states: "Estimates of total casualties range from 1,000,000 to twice that number.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> The number killed on both sides was perhaps 500,000, with Iran suffering the greatest losses."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Iran-Iraq War |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Iran-Iraq-War |access-date=27 January 2022}}</ref> Neither side had achieved what they had originally desired and the borders were left nearly unchanged.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" />
[[File:Iraqi Navy Officers receiving awards in 1988.png|thumb|Navy Commanders receiving awards shortly after the end of the war from Saddam, 1988]]
The southern, oil rich and prosperous areas were almost completely destroyed and were left at pre-1979 border, while Iran managed to make some small gains on its borders in the Northern Kurdish area.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Both economies, previously healthy and expanding, were left in ruins.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Saddam borrowed tens of billions of dollars from other Arab states and a few billions from elsewhere.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> This backfired on Iraq and Arab states, as Khomeini was widely perceived as a hero by his supporters for managing to defend Iran and maintain the war with little foreign support against the heavily backed Iraq and only managed to boost Islamic radicalism not only within the Arab states, but within Iraq itself, creating new tensions between the Sunni Ba'ath Party and the majority Shi'a population.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> Faced with rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure and internal resistance, Saddam desperately re-sought cash, this time for postwar reconstruction.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" />

==== Anfal campaign: 1986–1989 ====
{{Main|Anfal campaign|Halabja massacre}}
[[File:Saddam Hussain Duty Uniform.jpg|thumb|244x244px|Saddam in duty uniform|left]]The [[Anfal campaign]] was a campaign that took place during the war against the [[Kurds|Kurdish people]] and many others in Kurdish regions of Iraq led by the government and headed by [[Ali Hassan al-Majid]]. The campaign takes its name from [[Qur'anic chapter 8]] (''al-ʾanfāl''), which was used as a [[code name]] by the administration for a series of attacks against the ''peshmerga'' rebels and the mostly Kurdish civilian population of rural Northern Iraq, conducted between 1986 and 1989 culminating in 1988.<ref name="Kurds-1993">[https://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2006/08/14/genocide-iraq-anfal-campaign-against-kurds] The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds. A Middle East Watch Report: Human Rights Watch 1993.</ref> The campaign was in retaliation to Kurd's support for Iran and their rebellion.<ref name="Kurds-1993" /> This campaign also targeted [[Shabak people|Shabaks]] and [[Yazidi]]s, [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]], [[Iraqi Turkmen|Turkoman people]] and many villages belonging to these ethnic groups were also destroyed.<ref name="Kurds-1993" /> Human Rights Watch estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 people were killed.<ref>{{cite web |title=Iraqi Anfal, Human Rights Watch, 1993 |url=https://hrw.org/reports/1993/iraqanfal/ |access-date=20 September 2013 |publisher=Human Rights Watch}}</ref> It considers the campaign as an act of genocide.<ref name="Kurds-1993" /> Some Kurdish sources put the number higher, estimating that 182,000 Kurds were killed.<ref>{{cite web |date=15 May 2005 |title=Ethnic Cleansing and the Kurds |url=http://www.jafi.org.il/education/actual/iraq/4.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202235943/http://www.jafi.org.il/education/actual/iraq/4.html |archive-date=2 December 2008 |access-date=20 September 2013 |publisher=Jafi.org.il}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Burns |first=John F. |author-link=John Fisher Burns |date=26 January 2003 |title=How Many People Has Hussein Killed? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/26/weekinreview/the-world-how-many-people-has-hussein-killed.html |access-date=20 February 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]] |quote=The largest number of deaths attributable to Mr. Hussein's regime resulted from the war between Iraq and Iran between 1980 and 1988, which was launched by Mr. Hussein. Iraq says its own toll was 500,000, and Iran's reckoning ranges upward of 300,000. Then there are the casualties in the wake of Iraq's 1990 occupation of Kuwait. Iraq's official toll from American bombing in that war is 100,000—surely a gross exaggeration—but nobody contests that thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians were killed in the American campaign to oust Mr. Hussein's forces from Kuwait. In addition, 1,000 Kuwaitis died during the fighting and occupation in their country. Casualties from Iraq's gulag are harder to estimate. Accounts collected by Western human rights groups from Iraqi émigrés and defectors have suggested that the number of those who have 'disappeared' into the hands of the secret police, never to be heard from again, could be 200,000.}}</ref><ref name="250k" />

On 16 March 1988, the Kurdish town of [[Halabja]] was [[Halabja massacre|attacked]] with a mix of [[mustard gas]] and [[nerve agent]]s, killing between 3,200 and 5,000 people, and injuring 7,000 to 10,000 more, mostly civilians.<ref name="Halabja">[https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/18714.htm Saddam's Chemical Weapons Campaign: Halabja, 16 March 1988]&nbsp;– Bureau of Public Affairs</ref><ref name="die">{{cite news |title=BBC ON THIS DAY &#124; 16 &#124; 1988: Thousands die in Halabja gas attack |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/16/newsid_4304000/4304853.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210230111/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/16/newsid_4304000/4304853.stm |archive-date=10 February 2018 |access-date=28 August 2013 |work=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Halabja, the massacre the West tried to ignore |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6991512.ece |archive-url=https://swap.stanford.edu/20100128200211/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6991512.ece |archive-date=28 January 2010 |access-date=28 August 2013 |work=The Times}}</ref> The attack occurred in conjunction with the Anfal campaign designed to reassert central control of the mostly Kurdish population of areas of northern Iraq and defeat the Kurdish [[peshmerga]] rebel forces. Following the incident, the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] took the official position that [[Halabja massacre#Allegations of Iranian involvement|Iran was partly to blame]] for the Halabja massacre.<ref name="mind">{{cite web |last=Hiltermann |first=Joost R. |date=17 January 2003 |title=Halabja – America didn't seem to mind poison gas |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/17/opinion/17iht-edjoost_ed3_.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120724051247/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/17/opinion/17iht-edjoost_ed3_.html |archive-date=24 July 2012 |access-date=26 March 2025 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> A study by the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] held Iran responsible for the attack,<ref name="Fas.org-2012">{{cite web |title=FMFRP 3-203 – Lessons Learned: Iran-Iraq War |url=http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/war/docs/3203/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504002439/http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/war/docs/3203/ |archive-date=4 May 2012 |access-date=28 August 2013 |publisher=Fas.org}}</ref> an assessment that was subsequently used by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] for much of the early 1990s.<ref name="Fas.org-2012" /> Despite this, few observers today doubt that it was Iraq that executed the Halabja massacre.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hiltermann |first=Joost R. |author-link=Joost Hiltermann |title=A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-87686-5 |page=183 |quote=Today, few observers question the assertion that it was Iraq that gassed Halabja.}}</ref> According to [[Joost Hiltermann]]: "Analysis of thousands of captured Iraqi secret police documents and declassified U.S. government documents, as well as interviews with scores of Kurdish survivors, senior Iraqi defectors and retired U.S. intelligence officers, show (1) that Iraq carried out the attack on Halabja, and (2) that the United States, fully aware it was Iraq, accused Iran, Iraq's enemy in a fierce war, of being partly responsible for the attack."<ref name="mind"/>

==== International support and opposition ====
{{Main|International aid to combatants in the Iran–Iraq War|United States support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War}}
[[File:Cardoen Saddam.jpg|thumb|Saddam greeting [[Carlos Cardoen]] — a Chilean businessman who provided Iraq with weapons]]Backed by the [[United States]], the [[United Kingdom]], several European nations, and heavily financed by the [[Arab states of the Persian Gulf]], Saddam positioned himself as "the defender of the Arab world" against a revolutionary, fundamentalist and [[Shia Islamism|Shi'a Islamist]] Iran. The only exception was the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>This section: Mesbahi pp.74–78</ref><ref name="ivapn">{{cite journal |date=1 January 1968 |title=Iraq and U.S.S.R.: Oil Agreement |journal=International Legal Materials |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=307–311 |doi=10.1017/s0020782900052517 |jstor=20690330 |s2cid=249004473}}</ref> It initially refused to supply Iraq on the basis of neutrality in the conflict.<ref>Sajjadpour pp.32</ref> In his memoirs, Mikhail Gorbachev claimed that Brezhnev initially refused to aid Saddam due to anger over the regime's treatment of Iraqi communists.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> However, by 1982, the [[Soviet Union]] began [[Soviet Union during the Iran-Iraq War|supplying Iraq with military aid]], and in the final years (1986–1988), it actively supported Iraq.<ref>Sajjadpour p.35</ref>

In a U.S. bid to open full diplomatic relations with Iraq, the country was removed from the [[State Sponsors of Terrorism (U.S. list)|U.S list of State Sponsors of Terrorism]] in February 1982.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/13/world/confrontation-gulf-us-aid-helped-hussein-s-climb-now-critics-say-bill-due.html Confrontation in the Gulf; U.S. Aid Helped Hussein's Climb; Now, Critics Say, the Bill Is Due] ''The New York Times'', 13 August 1990.</ref> Ostensibly, this was because of improvement in the regime's record, although former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Noel Koch later stated, "No one had any doubts about [the Iraqis'] continued involvement in [[State terrorism|terrorism]] ... The real reason was to help them succeed in the war against Iran."<ref name="Borer">{{cite web |url=http://www.army.mil/professionalWriting/volumes/volume1/july_2003/7_03_2v2.html |title=Inverse Engagement: Lessons from U.S.-Iraq Relations, 1982–1990 |access-date=12 October 2006 |last=Borer |first=Douglas A. |year=2003 |work=U.S. Army Professional Writing Collection |publisher=U.S. Army |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061011195656/http://www.army.mil/professionalwriting/volumes/volume1/july_2003/7_03_2v2.html |archive-date=11 October 2006}}</ref> Middle East special envoy [[Donald Rumsfeld]] met Saddam on 19–20 December 1983 at Baghdad.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Borger |first=Julian |date=2002-12-31 |title=Rumsfeld 'offered help to Saddam' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/dec/31/iraq.politics |access-date=2025-04-08 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=When Rumsfeld was chummy with Saddam.. |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/9/4/when-rumsfeld-was-chummy-with-saddam |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=ABC News |title=Saddam Hussein's Gift to Donald Rumsfeld: Video of Syrian 'Atrocities' |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-rumsfeld-video-saddam-hussein-depicts-barbaric-syrian/story?id=13087737 |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=ABC News |language=en}}</ref> After which, Saddam sent his deputy Aziz to visit the United States in 1984.<ref name="Al-Marashi-1936">{{Cite web |last=Al-Marashi |first=Ibrahim |title=A divisive legacy: Tariq Aziz (1936-2015) |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/6/6/a-divisive-legacy-tariq-aziz-1936-2015 |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> He met with President [[Ronald Reagan]] and then vice-president [[George H. W. Bush]] at the [[White House]] and secured further [[United States support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War|U.S support for Iraq]].<ref name="Al-Marashi-1936" />

The Soviet Union, [[France]], and [[China]] together accounted for over 90% of the value of Iraq's arms imports between 1980 and 1988.<ref>[http://armstrade.sipri.org/armstrade/page/values.php SIPRI Database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125105813/http://armstrade.sipri.org/armstrade/page/values.php |date=25 November 2015 }} Indicates that of $29,079 million of arms exported to Iraq from 1980 to 1988 the Soviet Union accounted for $16,808 million, France $4,591 million, and China $5,004 million (Info must be entered)</ref> While the U.S. supplied Iraq with arms, dual-use technology and economic aid, it was also involved in a covert and controversial illegal arms deal, providing sanctioned Iran with weaponry.<ref name="HISTORY-2021" /> This political scandal became known as the [[Iran–Contra affair]].<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB210/ ''The Iran-Contra Affair 20 Years On'']. The National Security Archive (George Washington University), 24 November 2006</ref> Saddam reached out to other Arab governments for cash and political support during the war, particularly after Iraq's oil industry severely suffered at the hands of the [[Islamic Republic of Iran Navy|Iranian navy]] in the [[Persian Gulf]].<ref name="HISTORY-2021" />

Chemical weapons were developed by Iraq from materials and technology supplied primarily by [[West Germany|West German]] companies as well as using dual-use technology imported following the [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]]'s lifting of export restrictions.<ref name="Isa">Dr. Khalil Ibrahim Al Isa, [https://fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/cw/az120103.html Iraqi Scientist Reports on German, Other Help for Iraq Chemical Weapons Program], ''Al Zaman (London)'', 1 December 2003.</ref> The [[Federal government of the United States|United States government]] also supplied Iraq with "satellite photos showing Iranian deployments."<ref>{{cite news |author1=Dickey, Christopher |author2=Thomas, Evan |date=22 September 2002 |title=How Saddam Happened |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2002/09/22/how-saddam-happened.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111213041515/http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2002/09/22/how-saddam-happened.html |archive-date=13 December 2011 |access-date=20 August 2011 |newspaper=Newsweek}}</ref> This satellite imagery may have played a crucial role in blocking the [[Operation Ramadan|Iranian invasion of Iraq]] in 1982.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blight |first1=James G. |title=Becoming Enemies: U.S.-Iran Relations and the Iran-Iraq War, 1979-1988 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] Publishers |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-4422-0830-8 |pages=21, 97, 113–119 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> However, Saddam's government later blamed the Iraqi defeat in the [[First Battle of al-Faw]] in February 1986 on "misinformation from the U.S."<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 January 1987 |title=IRAQ ASCRIBES A KEY DEFEAT IN '86 TO MISINFORMATION FROM THE U.S. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/19/world/iraq-ascribes-a-key-defeat-in-86-to-misinformation-from-the-us.html |access-date=17 February 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

=== Gulf War: 1990–1991 ===
{{Main|Gulf War}}

==== Tensions with Kuwait: 1988–1990 ====
The end of the war with Iran served to deepen latent tensions between Iraq and its wealthy neighbor Kuwait. Saddam urged the Kuwaitis to waive the Iraqi debt accumulated in the war, some $30 billion, but they refused.<ref name="Humphreys, 105">Humphreys, 105</ref> Saddam pushed oil-exporting countries to raise oil prices by cutting back production; Kuwait refused, then led the opposition in [[OPEC]] to the cuts that Saddam had requested. Kuwait was pumping large amounts of oil, and thus keeping prices low, when Iraq needed to sell high-priced oil from its wells to pay off its huge debt.<ref name="Humphreys, 105" />

Saddam had consistently argued that Kuwait had historically been an integral part of Iraq, and had only come into being as a result of interference from the [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]]; echoing a belief that Iraqi nationalists had supported for the past fifty years. This belief was one of the few articles of faith uniting the political scene in a nation rife with sharp social, ethnic, religious, and ideological divides.<ref name="Humphreys, 105" /> The extent of Kuwaiti oil reserves also intensified tensions in the region. The oil reserves of Kuwait (with a population of 2&nbsp;million next to Iraq's 25) were roughly equal to those of Iraq. Taken together, Iraq and Kuwait sat on top of some 20 percent of the world's known oil reserves; [[Saudi Arabia]] held another 25 percent. Saddam still had an experienced and well-equipped army, which he used to influence regional affairs. He later ordered troops to the Iraq–Kuwait border.<ref name="Humphreys, 105" />

As Iraq–Kuwait relations rapidly deteriorated, Saddam was receiving conflicting information about how the US would respond to the prospects of an invasion. For one, Washington had been taking measures to cultivate a constructive relationship with Iraq for roughly a decade. The [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]] gave Iraq roughly $4&nbsp;billion in agricultural credits to bolster it against Iran.<ref>A free-access on-line archive relating to U.S.–Iraq relations in the 1980s is offered by ''The National Security Archive'' of the [[George Washington University]]. It can be read on line at [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/]. The Mount Holyoke International Relations Program also provides a free-access document briefing on U.S.–Iraq relations (1904–present); this can be accessed on line at [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/iraq.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208105755/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/iraq.htm|date=8 February 2019}}.</ref> Saddam's Iraq became "the third-largest recipient of US assistance."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/08/31/the_true_iraq_appeasers/ |title=The true Iraq appeasers |work=The Boston Globe |access-date =16 July 2008 |date=31 August 2006 |first=Peter W. |last=Galbraith}}</ref> Reacting to Western criticism in April 1990, Saddam threatened to destroy half of Israel if it moved against Iraq.<ref>Alan Cowell, [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/03/world/iraq-chief-boasting-of-poison-gas-warns-of-disaster-if-israelis-strike.html? "Iraq Chief, Boasting of Poison Gas, Warns of Disaster if Israelis Strike"], ''The New York Times'', 3 April 1990</ref> In May 1990, he criticized US support for Israel warning that "the US cannot maintain such a policy while professing friendship towards the Arabs."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/29/world/iraqi-takes-harsh-line-at-meeting.html |last=Cowell |first=Alan |title=Iraqi Takes Harsh Line at Meeting |work=The New York Times |date=29 May 1990 |access-date=20 September 2013}}</ref> In July 1990 he threatened force against Kuwait and the UAE saying "The policies of some Arab rulers are American ... They are inspired by America to undermine Arab interests and security."<ref>Youssef M. Ibrahim, [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/18/business/iraq-threatens-emirates-and-kuwait-on-oil-glut.html? "Iraq Threatens Emirates And Kuwait on Oil Glut"], ''The New York Times'', 18 July 1990</ref> The US sent warplanes and combat ships to the Persian Gulf in response to these threats.<ref>Michael R. Gordon, [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/25/world/us-deploys-air-and-sea-forces-after-iraq-threatens-2-neighbors.html? "U.S. Deploys Air and Sea Forces After Iraq Threatens 2 Neighbors"], ''The New York Times'', 25 July 1990</ref>

[[File:April Glaspie, Sadoun al-Zubaydi and Saddam Hussein.jpg|thumb|[[United States Ambassador to Iraq|U.S. Ambassador to Iraq]] [[April Glaspie]] calls upon Saddam for an emergency meeting.]]
On 25 July 1990, Saddam summoned the US ambassador to Iraq, [[April Glaspie]], for an emergency meeting where the Iraqi leader attacked American policy with regards to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. During the meeting, Glaspie stated that "we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait," which was interpreted as tacit approval for the invasion of Kuwait.<ref name="nytimes1990">[https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/23/world/confrontation-in-the-gulf-excerpts-from-iraqi-document-on-meeting-with-us-envoy.html? "CONFRONTATION IN THE GULF; Excerpts From Iraqi Document on Meeting With U.S. Envoy"], ''The New York Times'', 23 September 1990</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Walt |first=Stephen M. |date=2025-05-06 |title=WikiLeaks, April Glaspie, and Saddam Hussein |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/01/09/wikileaks-april-glaspie-and-saddam-hussein/ |access-date=2025-05-03 |website=Foreign Policy |language=en-US}}</ref>

Saddam stated that he would attempt last-ditch negotiations with the Kuwaitis but Iraq "would not accept death."<ref name="nytimes1990" /> U.S. officials attempted to maintain a conciliatory line with Iraq, indicating that while [[George H. W. Bush]] and [[James Baker]] did not want force used, they would not take any position on the Iraq–Kuwait boundary dispute and did not want to become involved.<ref>Greg Palast: ''Armed Madhouse'' Chapter 2, "Plume".</ref> Later, Iraq and Kuwait met for a final negotiation session, which failed. Saddam then sent his troops into Kuwait.<ref name="Heritage-1990" /> As tensions between Washington and Saddam began to escalate, the Soviet Union, under Mikhail Gorbachev, strengthened its military relationship with the Iraqi leader, providing him military advisers, arms and aid.<ref name="Heritage-1990">{{Cite web|url=http://www.heritage.org/dataconvert/pdf/em0280.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923224607/http://www.heritage.org/dataconvert/pdf/em0280.pdf|url-status=unfit|title="Bush to Gorbachev: Choose Between Saddam and the West," by Jay P. Kosminsky and Michael Johns, Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum #280, 30 August 1990.|archive-date=23 September 2013}}</ref>

==== Invasion of Kuwait ====
{{Main|Invasion of Kuwait}}
[[File:Kuwaiti_Prime_Minister_Alaa_Hussein_Ali_1990_with_Iraqi_President_Saddam_Hussein.jpg|left|thumb|Saddam welcomes [[Alaa Hussein Ali|Colonel Alaa Hussein Ali]], Prime Minister of Kuwait [[Republic of Kuwait|Provisional Free Government]] for unification talks in Baghdad, 1990]]
On 2 August 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait, initially claiming assistance to "Kuwaiti revolutionaries", thus sparking an international crisis.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kreitner |first=Richard |date=2015-08-02 |title=August 2, 1990: Iraq Invades Kuwait |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/august-2-1990-iraq-invades-kuwait/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378}}</ref> On 4 August an Iraqi-backed "[[Republic of Kuwait|Provisional Government of Free Kuwait]]" was proclaimed, but a total lack of legitimacy and support for it led to an 8 August announcement of a "merger" of the two countries.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Security Council Meeting, August 4, 1990 |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/24309-national-security-council-meeting-august-4-1990 |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=National Security Archive}}</ref> On 28 August Kuwait formally became the [[Kuwait Governorate|19th Governorate of Iraq]]. Just two years after the 1988 Iraq and Iran truce, "Saddam did what his Gulf patrons had earlier paid him to prevent." Having removed the threat of Iranian fundamentalism he "overran Kuwait and confronted his Gulf neighbors in the name of Arab nationalism and Islam."<ref name="PIRRR" /> Saddam justified the [[Iraqi invasion of Kuwait|invasion of Kuwait]] in 1990 by claiming that [[Kuwait]] had always been an integral part of Iraq and only became an independent nation due to the interference of the [[British Empire]].<ref>R. Stephen Humphreys, ''Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age'', University of California Press, 1999, p. 105.</ref>

When later asked why he invaded Kuwait, Saddam first claimed that it was because Kuwait was rightfully Iraq's 19th [[Governorates of Iraq|province]] and then said "When I get something into my head I act. That's just the way I am."<ref name="economist2007" /> As per observers, Saddam could pursue such military aggression with a "military machine paid for in large part by the tens of billions of dollars Kuwait and the Gulf states had poured into Iraq and the weapons and technology provided by the Soviet Union, Germany, and France."<ref name="PIRRR" /> It was revealed during his 2003–2004 interrogation that in addition to economic disputes, an insulting exchange between the Kuwaiti [[emir]] [[Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah|Jaber al-Ahmd Al Sabah]] and Iraq's foreign minister – during which Saddam claimed that the emir stated his intention to turn "every Iraqi woman into a $10 prostitute" by ruining Iraq financially – was a decisive factor in triggering the invasion.<ref name="cbsnews.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/interrogator-shares-saddams-confessions/4/|title=Interrogator Shares Saddam's Confessions |website=CBS News |date=24 January 2008}}</ref> Shortly before he invaded Kuwait, Saddam shipped 100 new [[Mercedes-Benz|Mercedes cars]] 200 Series cars to top editors in Egypt and Jordan. Two days before the first attacks, Saddam reportedly offered Egypt's [[Hosni Mubarak]] $50 million in cash, "ostensibly for grain."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/605fgcob.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030429005735/http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/605fgcob.asp |archive-date=29 April 2003 |title=Saddam's Cash |date=5 May 2003 |work=The Weekly Standard |last=Hayes |first=Stephen F.}}</ref>

[[George H. W. Bush]] responded cautiously for the first several days.<ref name="LaFeber-2002" /> On one hand, Kuwait, prior to this point, had been a virulent enemy of Israel and was the Persian Gulf monarchy that had the most friendly relations with the Soviets.<ref name="LaFeber-2002">Walter LaFeber, ''Russia, America, and the Cold War'', McGraw-Hill, 2002, p. 358.</ref> On the other hand, Washington foreign policymakers, along with Middle East experts, military critics, and firms heavily invested in the region, were extremely concerned with stability in this region.<ref>For a statement asserting the overriding importance of oil to U.S. national security and the U.S. economy, see, e.g., the declassified document, "Responding to Iraqi Aggression in the Gulf", The White House, National Security Directive (NSD 54), top secret, 15 January 1991. This document can be read on line in [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB21/ George Washington University's National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 21] at [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB21/06-01.htm].</ref> The invasion immediately triggered fears that the world's [[Crude oil#Pricing|price of oil]], and therefore control of the world economy, was at stake.<ref name="See Margaret Thatcher-1979" /> The United Kingdom profited heavily from billions of dollars of Kuwaiti investments and bank deposits.<ref name="See Margaret Thatcher-1979" /> Bush was perhaps swayed while meeting with British prime minister [[Margaret Thatcher]], who happened to be in the U.S. at the time.<ref name="See Margaret Thatcher-1979">See Margaret Thatcher, ''The Downing Street Years'' (1979–1990), 817.</ref>

[[Yasser Arafat]] supported Saddam during the war.<ref name="Totts-2023">{{Cite web |date=2023-07-02 |title=Saddam and the Palestinian cause, facts and myths |url=https://task-totts.org/en/uncategorized-en/2023/07/02/6393/ |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=Task - Totts |language=en-US}}</ref> During the period of negotiations and threats following the invasion, Saddam focused renewed attention on the [[Palestine|Palestinian]] problem by promising to withdraw his forces from Kuwait if Israel would relinquish its occupation over [[Palestine]] and the [[Golan Heights|Syrian Golan Heights]].<ref name="Totts-2023" /> Saddam's proposal further split the Arab world, pitting US- and Western-supported Arab states against the Palestinians.<ref name="Totts-2023" /> The allies ultimately rejected any linkage between the Kuwait crisis and Palestinian issues.<ref name="Totts-2023" />

==== Operation Desert Storm ====
{{Main|Gulf War air campaign|Liberation of Kuwait campaign}}
Cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union made possible the passage of resolutions in the United Nations Security Council giving Iraq a deadline to leave Kuwait and approving the use of force if Saddam did not comply with the timetable.<ref name="economist2004" /> The United States officials feared that the Iraqi retaliation against oil-rich Saudi Arabia, since the 1940s a close ally of Washington, for the Saudis' opposition to the invasion of Kuwait.<ref name="economist2004" /> Accordingly, the United States and a group of allies, including countries as diverse as Egypt, Syria and [[Czechoslovakia]], deployed a massive number of troops along the Saudi border with Kuwait and Iraq in order to encircle the Iraqi army, which was the largest in the Middle East.

Saddam's officers looted Kuwait, stripping even the marble from its palaces to move it to Saddam's own palace.<ref name="economist2004" /> Saddam ignored the Security Council deadline.<ref name="Pierson 2011" /> Backed by the Security Council, a U.S-led coalition launched round-the-clock missile and aerial attacks on Iraq, beginning 16 January 1991.<ref name="Pierson 2011" /> Israel, though [[1991 Iraqi missile attacks against Israel|subjected to attacks by Iraqi missiles]], refrained from retaliating in order not to provoke Arab states into leaving the coalition.<ref name="Pierson 2011" /> A ground force consisting largely of U.S. and British armored and infantry divisions ejected Saddam's army from Kuwait in February 1991 and occupied the southern portion of Iraq as far as the [[Euphrates]].<ref name="Pierson 2011">{{cite web |url=http://milmag.com/2011/02/battle-at-rumaila/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811182711/http://milmag.com/2011/02/battle-at-rumaila/ |archive-date=11 August 2011 |title=Battle at Rumalia |work=Military Magazine |last=Pierson |first=David S. |access-date=9 January 2017}}</ref>

On 6 March 1991, Bush announced "What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea—a [[New world order (politics)|new world order]], where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law."<ref name="Bush 2017">{{Cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=19253 |title=Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union |last=Bush |first=George |work=The American Presidency Project |publisher=University of California |access-date=9 January 2017 |archive-date=29 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129133253/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=19253 }}</ref> In the end, the Iraqi army proved unable to compete on the battlefield with the highly mobile coalition land forces and their overpowering air support.<ref name="Bush 2017" /> Some 175,000 Iraqis were taken prisoner and casualties were estimated at over 85,000.<ref name="Bush 2017" /> As part of the cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to scrap all poison gas and [[biological warfare|germ weapons]] and allow UN observers to inspect the sites.<ref name="Bush 2017" /> UN trade sanctions would remain in effect until Iraq complied with all terms.<ref name="Bush 2017" /> Saddam publicly claimed victory at the end of the war.<ref name="Bush 2017" />

=== Later years: 1990s to 2003 ===
{{Main|1991 Iraqi uprisings|Faith Campaign}}
[[File:Alkhoi-saddam.jpg|thumb|Saddam meeting Ayatollah [[Abu al-Qasim Khoei]] after the failure of the rebellions, 1991]]

Iraq's ethnic and religious divisions, together with the brutality of the conflict that this had engendered, laid the groundwork for postwar rebellions.<ref name="Moore-2006">{{cite news |last1=Moore |first1=Solomon |date=5 June 2006 |title=2 Mass Graves in Iraq Unearthed |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jun-05-fg-graves5-story.html |access-date=23 September 2018 |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> In the aftermath of the fighting, social and ethnic unrest among Shi'a Muslims, Kurds, and dissident military units threatened the stability of Saddam's government.<ref name="Moore-2006" /> Uprisings erupted in the north, south and central parts of Iraq, but were ruthlessly repressed.<ref name="Moore-2006" /> The [[1991 Iraqi uprisings|uprisings]] led to the death of 100,000–180,000 people, mostly civilians.<ref name="Moore-2006" /> The U.S., which had urged Iraqi people to rise up against Saddam, did nothing to assist the rebellions.<ref name="PIRRR" /><ref name="Moore-2006" /> Despite the widespread Shi'a rebellions, Iran had no interest in provoking another war, while [[Turkey]] opposed any prospect of Kurdish independence, and the Saudi Arabia and other conservative Arab states feared an Iran-style Shi'a revolution.<ref name="PIRRR" /><ref name="Moore-2006" /> Saddam, having survived the immediate crisis in the wake of defeat, was left firmly in control of Iraq, although the country never recovered either economically or militarily from the Gulf War, until a modest recovery recorded in the early 2000s.<ref name="PIRRR" /> 

Saddam routinely cited his survival as "proof" that Iraq had in fact won the war against the U.S.<ref name="PIRRR" /> This message earned Saddam a great deal of popularity in many sectors of the Arab world.<ref name="PIRRR" /> John Esposito wrote, "Arabs and Muslims were pulled in two directions. That they rallied not so much to Saddam Hussein as to the bipolar nature of the confrontation (the West versus the Arab Muslim world) and the issues that Saddam proclaimed: Arab unity, self-sufficiency, and social justice."<ref name="PIRRR" /> As a result, Saddam appealed to many people for the same reasons that attracted more and more followers to Islamic revivalism and also for the same reasons that fueled [[Anti-Western sentiment|anti-Western]] feelings.<ref name="PIRRR" />

To gain support from religious communities, Saddam initiated the [[Faith Campaign]] in 1993, which was under the supervision of vice president [[Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri]].<ref name="BBC-2000" /> Some elements of [[Sharia]] law were introduced, and the phrase "[[Takbir|Allahu Akbar]]" ("God is great"), in Saddam's handwriting, was added to the national flag.<ref name="BBC-2000" /> Saddam also commissioned the production of a "[[Blood Quran]]", written using 27 litres of his own blood, to thank God for saving him from various dangers and conspiracies.<ref name="BBC-2000">[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/941490.stm "Iraqi leader's Koran 'written in blood'"]. BBC News, 25 September 2000</ref> Under the campaign, numerous mosques and Islamic institutes were built across Iraq.<ref name="BBC-2000" /> The [[United Nations]]-placed [[International sanctions against Iraq|sanctions against Iraq]] for invading Kuwait were not lifted, blocking Iraqi oil exports.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Review of Saddam's Iraq: Three Years after the Gulf War, Part II: Social and Economic Problems |url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/review-saddams-iraq-three-years-after-gulf-war-part-ii-social-and-economic-problems |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=The Washington Institute |language=en}}</ref> Economic hardship followed within the country as GDP plummeted from US$44.36 billion in 1990 to US$9 billion by 1995.<ref name="ReliefWeb-2000">{{Cite web |date=2000-03-14 |title=Iraq: A decade of sanctions |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/iraq-decade-sanctions |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=ReliefWeb |language=en}}</ref> Iraq had lost around US$170 billion of oil revenues.<ref name="ReliefWeb-2000" /> Sanctions also restricted basic-medical equipment and supplies from getting into Iraq.<ref>[https://enablingpeace.org/healthcare-in-crisis/ "Iraq's Public Healthcare System in Crisis"] Enabling Peace, Retrieved April 2024.</ref><ref name="ReliefWeb-2000" /> During the mid-1990s, the UN considered relaxing the sanctions imposed because of the hardships suffered by ordinary Iraqis.<ref name="ReliefWeb-2000" /> Studies dispute the number of people who died in south and central Iraq during the years of the sanctions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unicef.org/newsline/99pr29.htm|title=Iraq surveys show 'humanitarian emergency'|date=12 August 1999|access-date=29 November 2009|archive-date=6 August 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806193122/http://www.unicef.org/newsline/99pr29.htm}}</ref><ref name="Spagat">{{cite journal |title=Truth and death in Iraq under sanctions |first=Michael |last=Spagat |date=September 2010 |journal=[[Significance (journal)|Significance]] |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=116–120 |doi=10.1111/j.1740-9713.2010.00437.x |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Rubin |first=Michael |title=Sanctions on Iraq: A Valid Anti-American Grievance? |journal=[[Middle East Review of International Affairs]] |volume=5 |issue=4 |url=http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/meria-rubin-sanctions-1201.htm |pages=100–115 |date=December 2001 |author-link=Michael Rubin (historian) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028003924/http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/meria-rubin-sanctions-1201.htm |archive-date=28 October 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Dyson|first1=Tim|last2=Cetorelli|first2=Valeria|title=Changing views on child mortality and economic sanctions in Iraq: a history of lies, damned lies and statistics|journal=[[The BMJ|BMJ Global Health]]|language=en|volume=2|issue=2|date=24 July 2017|article-number=e000311|doi=10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000311|pmid=29225933|issn=2059-7908|pmc=5717930}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Sly|first=Liz|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/08/04/saddam-hussein-said-sanctions-killed-500000-children-that-was-a-spectacular-lie/|title=Saddam Hussein said sanctions killed 500,000 children. That was 'a spectacular lie.'|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=4 August 2017|access-date=27 January 2022}}</ref> On 9 December 1996, Saddam's government accepted the [[Oil-for-Food Programme]] that the UN had first offered in 1992.<ref name="ReliefWeb-2000" />[[File:Saddam Hussein in 1998.jpg|left|thumb|Saddam on the occasion of 10th anniversary of the end of Iran-Iraq War, 1998]]

Relations with the U.S. remained tense following the war.<ref name="Sagal-2015" /> The U.S. launched a [[1993 cruise missile strikes on Iraq|missile attack]] aimed at Iraq's intelligence headquarters in Baghdad on 26 June 1993, citing evidence of repeated violations of the "no fly zones" imposed after the war and for incursions into Kuwait.<ref name="Sagal-2015" /> American officials continued to accuse Saddam of violating the terms of the Gulf War's ceasefire, by developing [[weapons of mass destruction]] and other banned weaponry, and violating the UN-imposed sanctions.<ref name="Sagal-2015" /> [[Bill Clinton]] maintained sanctions and ordered [[1998 bombing of Iraq|air strikes]] in the "Iraqi no-fly zones", in the hope that Saddam would be overthrown by political enemies inside Iraq.<ref name="Sagal-2015" /> Western charges of Iraqi resistance to U.N access to suspected weapons were the pretext for crises between 1997 and 1998, culminating in intensive U.S. and British missile strikes on Iraq, 16–19 December 1998.<ref name="Sagal-2015" /> After two years of intermittent activity, U.S. and British warplanes [[February 2001 airstrike in Iraq|struck]] harder at sites near Baghdad in February 2001.<ref name="Ignatius-2003" /> Former CIA case officer [[Robert Baer]] reports that he "tried to assassinate" Saddam in 1995,<ref name="Sagal-2015">{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/01/10/376096789/not-my-job-former-cia-officer-robert-baer-gets-quizzed-on-bears|title=Not My Job: Former CIA Officer Robert Baer Gets Quizzed On Bears|publisher=NPR|date=10 January 2015|access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref> amid "a decade-long effort to encourage a military coup in Iraq."<ref name="Ignatius-2003">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2003/05/16/the-cia-and-the-coup-that-wasnt/0abfb8fa-61e9-4159-a885-89b8c476b188/|title=The CIA And the Coup That Wasn't|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=16 May 2003|access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref>
By the end of the 1990s, diplomatic isolation of Iraq with Arab states was gradually dissipating, and the economy of Iraq had improved by 2000, with its GDP increasing to $23.73 billion.<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 October 2009 |title=Saddam Gives Defiant Speech - 2001-01-17 |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-a-2001-01-17-1-saddam-66959432/378246.html |access-date=13 July 2024 |website=Voice of America |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mehdi |first=Abbas S. |date=22 June 2003 |title=The Iraqi Economy under Saddam Hussein: Development or Decline. |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=10611924&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA103799916&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=Middle East Policy |language=English |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=139–142}}</ref> Saddam later decided to use [[euro]]s, instead of [[United States dollar|U.S. dollars]] for Iraqi oil.<ref name="Islam 2003">{{Cite news |last1=Islam |first1=Faisal |date=16 February 2003 |title=Iraq nets handsome profit by dumping dollar for euro |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2003/feb/16/iraq.theeuro |access-date=13 July 2024 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}</ref> Almost all of Iraq's oil exports under the Oil-for-food program were paid in euros since 2001.<ref name="Islam 2003" /> Approximately 26 billion euros (£17.4bn) was paid for 3.3 billion barrels of oil into an escrow account in New York.<ref name="Islam 2003" />

==== Arab–Israeli conflict ====
{{Main|Israeli support for Iran during the Iran–Iraq war|1991 Iraqi missile attacks against Israel}}
[[File:Iraq, Saddam Hussein (222).jpg|thumb|Saddam addresses the Iraqi state television, in January 2001.]]
Saddam was widely known for his pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel stance.<ref name="Frantzman-2016">{{Cite web |date=2016-05-21 |title=Red fire on the mountain: Saddam Hussein's secrets still haunt the landscape |url=https://www.jpost.com/magazine/red-fire-on-the-mountain-452483 |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=The Jerusalem Post |language=en}}</ref> He appeared on television threatening to burn and destroy Israel.<ref name="Frantzman-2016" /> However, Saddam's official position was that the relations of Iraq with Israel will be determined by the solution accepted by Palestinians.<ref name="Frantzman-2016" /> Relations between Iraq and Egypt deteriorated in 1977, as a result of Egyptian President [[Anwar Sadat]]'s peace initiatives with [[Israel]].<ref name="Frantzman-2016" /> Relations improved after Egypt supported Iraq in the 1980–1988 war.<ref name="Frantzman-2016" /> During the Iran–Iraq War, Israel was one of the main [[Israeli support for Iran during the Iran–Iraq war|suppliers of military and intelligence support to Iran]]. In 1981, it carried out [[Operation Opera]], a surprise attack on Iraq's unfinished [[Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center|Osirak nuclear reactor]], with Iranian intelligence support.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Kaye |first1=Dalia Dassa |title=A Brief History of Israeli-Iranian Cooperation and Confrontation |date=2011 |work=Israel and Iran |pages=9–18 |series=A Dangerous Rivalry |publisher=RAND Corporation |doi=10.7249/mg1143osd.7?seq=6 |isbn=978-0-8330-5860-7 |last2=Nader |first2=Alireza |last3=Roshan |first3=Parisa|doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 |jstor=10.7249/mg1143osd.7 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Parsi |first=Trita |url=https://archive.org/details/treacherousallia00pars_0 |title=Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-300-12057-8 |language=en |url-access=registration}}</ref> Amid the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq initiated a [[1991 Iraqi missile attacks against Israel|missile campaign against Israel]].<ref name="Pierson 2011" />

Saddam supported various Palestinian guerrilla movements, provided financial support to Palestinians, and allowed Palestinian refugees in Iraq to obtain full citizenship rights, unlike the situation of Palestinians in other countries.<ref name="Ibrahim-2025">{{Cite web |last=Ibrahim |first=Arwa |title=The US-led war in Iraq and Saddam's Arab legacy |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/22/hldthe-us-led-invasion-of-iraq-and-saddams-arab-legacy |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> Saddam maintained close relations with Palestinian leaders such as [[Yasser Arafat]].<ref name="Ibrahim-2025" /> In May 2000, Saddam and his representatives allegedly had secret meetings with the Israeli government.<ref name="Burke 2000">{{Cite news |last1=Burke |first1=Jason |last2=Vulliamy |first2=Ed |last3=Beaver |first3=Paul |last4=York |first4=New |date=21 May 2000 |title=Saddam in secret talks with Israel |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/may/21/iraq.edvulliamy |access-date=18 August 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> He supposedly offered that Iraq will end its anti-Israel foreign policy if the issue of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon was resolved.<ref name="Burke 2000" /> However, this was later denied by the government.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-03-20 |title=Behind the Headlines; in Secret, Israel and Iraq Fostered Ties in Mid-1980s |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/behind-the-headlines-in-secret-israel-and-iraq-fostered-ties-in-mid-1980s |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref>

Following the outbreak of the [[Second Intifada]] in the [[Palestinian territories]], Saddam openly expressed solidarity with the Palestinians, and established the [[Jerusalem Army]], a volunteer force in solidarity with the Palestinians.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CNN.com - Saddam ends campaign for volunteers to fight Israel - November 10, 2000 |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/11/10/iraq.saddam.reut/index.html |access-date=13 July 2024 |website=CNN}}</ref><ref name="Brookings">{{Cite web |title=Who Will Fight for Saddam? |url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/who-will-fight-for-saddam/ |access-date=18 August 2024 |website=Brookings |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Thinking About the History of Militias in Iraq |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/thinking-about-history-militias-iraq |access-date=18 August 2024 |website=Wilson Center |date=3 December 2020 |language=en}}</ref> Saddam also provided financial assistance from Iraq's oil revenue, to the families of the Palestinian victims and militants.<ref name="Reuter-2000" /> Around 20% of Iraq's oil revenue was directed to Palestinians.<ref name="Reuter-2000">{{Cite web |date=10 December 2000 |title=Iraq pledges Palestinians billion euros from oil |url=https://gulfnews.com/uae/iraq-pledges-palestinians-billion-euros-from-oil-1.436565 |access-date=18 August 2024 |website=gulfnews.com |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Independent 2003">{{cite web |date=6 May 2003 |title=Palestinians mourn fall of their hero Saddam after flow of dollars for |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/palestinians-mourn-fall-of-their-hero-saddam-after-flow-of-dollars-for-martyrs-dries-up-103638.html |website=[[Independent.co.uk]]}}</ref> Contrary to the claims of the United States and the Israel, the financial support was not exclusively used to support suicide bombing.<ref name="Independent 2003" /> On the eve of [[Christmas]] in 2000, Saddam wrote a [[Open letter|public letter]] urging Muslims and Christians in Iraq to lead jihad against the Zionist movement.<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 December 2000 |title=Saddam calls for jihad against Israel |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/dec/25/iraq |access-date=18 August 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> In 2001, Saddam declared on the state Iraqi television:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wistrich |first=Robert |title=Muslim Anti-Semitism: A Clear and Present Danger |year=2002 |page=43}}</ref>{{Blockquote|text=Palestine is Arab and must be liberated [[from the river to the sea]] and all the [[Zionism|Zionists]] who emigrated to the land of Palestine must leave.|author=Saddam Hussein}}

In 2002, following an [[Operation Defensive Shield|Israeli incursions]] into Palestinian territory, Saddam stopped supplying oil to Western countries in order to force Israel to abandon its incursions, a move supported by [[Iran]] and [[Libya]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=MacAskill |first1=Ewen |last2=Macalister |first2=Terry |date=9 April 2002 |title=Saddam chokes off oil to put pressure on west |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/09/iraq.oil |access-date=18 August 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

== 2003 invasion and war ==
{{Main|2003 invasion of Iraq|Saddam Hussein statue destruction|Iraq War}}

===Background===
{{Anchor|Invasion of Iraq in 2003}}
[[File:SaddamStatue.jpg|thumb|Statue of Saddam [[Firdos Square statue destruction|being toppled in Firdos Square]] after the invasion]]
Many members of the [[international community]], especially the U.S., continued to view Saddam as a bellicose tyrant who was a threat to the stability of the region.<ref name="Bush 2002a" /><ref name="Bush 2002b">{{cite news |last=Bush |first=George W. |date=30 January 2002 |title=Full text: State of the Union address |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1790537.stm |access-date=31 December 2006 |work=BBC News}}</ref> In his January 2002 [[2002 State of the Union Address|state of the union address]] to Congress, President [[George W. Bush]] spoke of an "[[axis of evil]]" consisting of Iran, North Korea, and Iraq.<ref name="Bush 2002a" /> Moreover, Bush announced that he would possibly take action to topple the Iraqi government, because of the threat of its weapons of mass destruction.<ref name="Bush 2002b" /> Bush stated that "The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop [[anthrax]], and [[nerve gas]], and [[nuclear weapon]]s for over a decade&nbsp;... Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror."<ref name="Bush 2002a">{{cite speech|first=George W.|last=Bush|date=29 January 2002|location=Washington, D.C.|url=https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/stateoftheunion/2002/index.html|title=State of the Union|access-date=31 December 2006}}</ref>

After the passing of [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441|UN Security Council Resolution 1441]], which demanded that Iraq give "immediate, unconditional and active cooperation" with UN and IAEA inspections,<ref name="CNN Transcript of Blix 2003">{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/27/sprj.irq.transcript.blix/ |title=CNN Transcript of Blix's remarks |publisher=CNN |date= 27 January 2003|access-date=5 August 2010}}</ref> Saddam allowed U.N. weapons inspectors led by [[Hans Blix]] to return to Iraq.<ref name="CNN Transcript of Blix 2003" /> During the renewed inspections beginning in November 2002, Blix found no stockpiles of WMD and noted the "proactive" but not always "immediate" Iraqi cooperation as called for by Resolution 1441.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=6383&Cr=iraq&Cr1=inspect |title=UN news briefing |publisher=United Nations |date=7 March 2003 |access-date=5 August 2010}}</ref>

With war still looming on 24 February 2003, Saddam took part in [[February 2003 Saddam Hussein interview|an interview]] with [[CBS News]] reporter [[Dan Rather]].<ref name="Behind The Scenes With Saddam" /> Talking for more than three hours, he denied possessing any weapons of mass destruction, or any other weapons prohibited by the UN guidelines.<ref name="Behind The Scenes With Saddam" /> He also expressed a wish to have a live televised debate with [[George W. Bush]], which was declined.<ref name="Behind The Scenes With Saddam" /><ref name="cbsnews.com" /> It was his first interview with an American reporter in over a decade.<ref name="Behind The Scenes With Saddam">{{Cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/behind-the-scenes-with-saddam/ |title=Behind The Scenes With Saddam |publisher=CBS News |date=24 February 2003 |access-date=31 December 2006 |archive-date=24 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130924112935/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/eveningnews/main541817.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="cbsnews.com" /> CBS aired the taped interview later that week.<ref name="Reuters-2009" /> Saddam later told an FBI interviewer that he once left open the possibility that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to appear strong against Iran.<ref name="Reuters-2009">{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/2009/07/02/us-iran-saddam-idUSTRE56113O20090702 |title=FBI says Saddam's weapons bluff aimed at Iran |work=Reuters |date=2 July 2009 |access-date=8 January 2012 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924142415/http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/07/02/us-iran-saddam-idUSTRE56113O20090702 }}</ref><ref name="cbsnews.com" />

=== Invasion and overthrow ===
The [[Multi-National Force – Iraq|United States-led coalition forces]] initiated the invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2003.<ref name="AP News 2023">{{Cite web |date=17 March 2023 |title=Timeline of events: 20 years since U.S.-led invasion of Iraq |url=https://apnews.com/article/iraq-invasion-war-timeline-saddam-hussein-50828061c98e410063753045179bdcfb |access-date=2 November 2024 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref> The Iraqi government and military collapsed within three weeks of the beginning of the invasion.<ref name="AP News 2023" /> By the beginning of April, the coalition forces occupied much of Iraq.<ref name="AP News 2023" /> The resistance of the much-weakened Iraqi Armed Forces either crumbled or shifted to [[guerrilla]] tactics, and it appeared that Saddam had lost control of Iraq.<ref name="AP News 2023" /> He was last seen in a video which purported to show him in the Baghdad suburbs surrounded by supporters.{{Citation needed|date=July 2025}} When [[Battle of Baghdad (2003)|Baghdad fell to US-led forces]] on 9 April, marked symbolically by the [[Firdos Square statue destruction|toppling of his statue]],<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=7107 |title=Smashing statues through the ages |newspaper=[[Socialist Worker]] |access-date=13 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326211523/http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=7107 |archive-date=26 March 2010 }}</ref> Saddam was nowhere to be found and his government was completely overthrown.<ref name="AP News 2023" />

=== Capture and interrogation ===
{{Main|Capture of Saddam Hussein|Interrogation of Saddam Hussein}}
[[File:Saddamcapture.jpg|thumb|Saddam shortly after being captured|left|253x253px]]
[[File:Sadam hussein fingerprints fbi.pdf|thumb|right|Saddam's fingerprints, obtained by the National Security Archive]]

In April 2003, Saddam's whereabouts remained in question during the weeks following the [[Battle of Baghdad (2003)|fall of Baghdad]] and the conclusion of the major fighting of the war.<ref name="AP News 2023" /> Various sightings of Saddam were reported in the weeks following the war, but none were authenticated.<ref name="AP News 2023" /> At various times he released audio tapes promoting popular resistance to his ousting.<ref name="AP News 2023" /> On 22 July 2003, his sons [[Uday Hussein|Uday]] and [[Qusay Hussein|Qusay]] and 14-year-old grandson Mustafa were killed [[Killing of Qusay and Uday Hussein|in a three-hour gunfight with the U.S. forces]] in [[Mosul]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Borger |first1=Julian |last2=Steele |first2=Jonathan |date=24 July 2003 |title=The last moments of Saddam's grandson |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jul/24/iraq.jonathansteele |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Borger |first1=Julian |last2=Younge |first2=Gary |date=23 July 2003 |title=Dead: the sons of Saddam |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jul/23/iraq.garyyounge |access-date=16 July 2008 |work=The Guardian |location=UK}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=9 April 2003 |title=Online NewsHour Update: Coalition Says Iraqi Regime Has Lost Control of Baghdad&nbsp;— 9 April 2003 |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/baghdad_04-09-03.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201163438/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/baghdad_04-09-03.html |archive-date=1 December 2010 |access-date=13 March 2011 |publisher=PBS}}</ref> Upon their deaths, he commemorated them as "martyrs" on radio.<ref name="AP News 2023" /> Saddam was placed at the top of the [[U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis|US list of most-wanted Iraqis]], which included officials of his government and the party members.<ref name="AP News 2023" />

On 13 December 2003, in [[Operation Red Dawn]], Saddam was captured by American forces after being found hiding in a hole in the ground near a farmhouse in [[ad-Dawr]], near Tikrit.<ref name="AP News 2023" /> Following his capture, Saddam was transported to a US base near Tikrit, and later taken to the American base near Baghdad Airport.<ref name="AP News 2023" /><ref name="Battle-2009" /> Documents obtained and released by the National Security Archive detail FBI interviews and conversations with Saddam while he was in US custody.<ref name="Battle-2009">{{cite web|title=Saddam Hussein Talks to the FBI: Twenty Interviews and Five Conversations with "High Value Detainee # 1" in 2004|editor=Joyce Battle|publisher=[[National Security Archive]]|url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB279/index.htm|access-date=15 August 2018|date=1 July 2009}}</ref> On 14 December, US administrator in Iraq [[Paul Bremer]] confirmed that Saddam had indeed been captured at a farmhouse in ad-Dawr near Tikrit.<ref name="Saddam 2003">{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/14/sprj.irq.saddam.operation/ |title=Saddam 'caught like a rat' in a hole |access-date =16 July 2008 |date=14 December 2003 |publisher=CNN}}</ref> Bremer presented video footage of Saddam in custody.<ref name="Saddam 2003" /> He was shown with a full beard and hair longer than his familiar appearance.<ref name="Saddam 2003" /> He was described by US officials as being in good health.<ref name="Saddam 2003" /> Bremer reported plans to put Saddam on trial, but claimed that the details of such a trial had not yet been determined.<ref name="Saddam 2003" /> Iraqis and Americans who spoke with Saddam after his capture generally reported that he remained self-assured, describing himself as a "firm, but just leader."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/30/world/middleeast/30saddam.html |title=Saddam Hussein, Defiant Dictator Who Ruled Iraq With Violence and Fear, Dies |last=MacFarquhar |first=Neil |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date =2 September 2014 |date=30 December 2006}}</ref>

British tabloid newspaper ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'' posted a picture of Saddam wearing white briefs on the front cover of a newspaper. Other photographs inside the paper show Saddam washing his trousers, shuffling, and sleeping. The U.S. government stated that it considered the release of the pictures a violation of the [[Geneva Convention]] and that it would investigate the photographs.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4565505.stm |title=Saddam underwear photo angers US |date=20 May 2005 |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=9 August 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/05/20/saddam.photos/|last1=Clark|first1=Roger|last2=McIntyre|first2=Jamie|last3=Payne|first3=Ed|last4=Starr|first4=Barbara|publisher=CNN|title=Pentagon vows to probe Saddam photos|date=21 May 2005|access-date=22 October 2007}}</ref> During this period [[Interrogation of Saddam Hussein|Saddam was interrogated]] by [[FBI]] agent [[George Piro]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Pelley |first=Scott |title=Interrogator Shares Saddam's Confessions |publisher=[[CBS News]] |date=27 January 2008 |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/interrogator-shares-saddams-confessions/ |access-date=8 February 2008 |archive-date=24 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130924094030/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/24/60minutes/main3749494.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

The guards at the Baghdad detention facility called their prisoner "Vic", which stands for "Very Important Criminal" and let him plant a small garden near his cell.<ref name="VIC" /> The nickname and the garden are among the details about the former Iraqi leader that emerged during a March 2008 tour of the Baghdad prison and cell where Saddam slept, bathed, kept a journal, and wrote poetry in the final days before his execution; he was concerned to ensure his legacy and how the history would be told.<ref name="VIC" /> The tour was conducted by US Marine Maj. Gen. [[Douglas M. Stone|Doug Stone]], overseer of detention operations for the US military in Iraq at the time.<ref name="VIC" /> During his imprisonment he exercised and was allowed to have his personal garden; he also smoked his cigars and wrote his diary in the courtyard of his cell.<ref name="VIC">{{cite news|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/27/hussein.journal/index.html |title=Tour of prison reveals the last days of Saddam Hussein |publisher=CNN |access-date =16 July 2008 |date=27 March 2008}}</ref>

=== Trial ===
{{Main|Trial of Saddam Hussein}}

[[File:Saddam Hussein at trial, July 2004.JPEG|thumb|Saddam speaking in court during his trial|285x285px]]
On 30 June 2004, Saddam, held in custody by US forces at the US base "[[Camp Cropper]]", along with 11 other senior Ba'athist leaders, was handed over to the interim Iraqi government to stand trial for [[crimes against humanity]] and other offences.

A few weeks later, he was charged by the [[Iraqi Special Tribunal]] with [[Dujail Massacre|crimes committed against residents of Dujail]] in 1982, following a failed assassination attempt against him. Specific charges included the murder of 148 people, torture of women and children and the illegal arrest of 399 others.<ref name="HRW1">{{cite web|date=19 November 2006 |title=Judging Dujail |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |url=https://www.hrw.org/en/node/11112/section/1 |access-date=14 December 2009}}<br />393 members of the pro Iranian Dawa Party (a banned organisation) were arrested as suspects of which 148, including ten children, confessed to taking part in the plot. It is believed more than 40 suspects died during interrogation or while in detention. Those arrested who were found not guilty were either exiled if relatives of the convicted or released and returned to Dujail. Only 96 of the 148 condemned were actually executed, two of the condemned were accidentally released while a third was mistakenly transferred to another prison and survived. The 96 executed included four men mistakenly executed after having been found not guilty and ordered released. The ten children were originally believed to have been among the 96 executed, but they had in fact been imprisoned near the city of Samawah.</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.softpedia.com/news/Saddam-Formally-Charged-23683.shtml |title=Saddam Formally Charged |publisher=Softpedia |date=15 May 2006 |access-date=2 January 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070830040133/http://news.softpedia.com/news/Saddam-Formally-Charged-23683.shtml |archive-date=30 August 2007 }}</ref> Numerous challenges came during his trial. Saddam and his lawyers contested the court's authority and maintained that he was still the [[President of Iraq]].<ref name="FoxNews-2006">{{Cite news |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,187923,00.html |title=Judge Closes Trial During Saddam Testimony |publisher=Fox News |date=15 March 2006 |access-date=31 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202053302/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,187923,00.html |archive-date=2 February 2011 }}</ref> There were assassinations and attempted assassinations of several of Saddam's lawyers.<ref name="FoxNews-2006" /> The replacement of the chief presiding judge midway through the trial had impact on the trial.<ref name="FoxNews-2006" />

On 5 November 2006, Saddam was found guilty of crimes against humanity — the killing of 148 Shi'a residents in the town of Dujail in 1982, and was [[sentenced to death]] by hanging.<ref name="Karouny-2006" /> His half-brother, [[Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti|Barzan Ibrahim]], and [[Awad Hamed al-Bandar]], head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court in 1982, were convicted of similar charges and were themselves sentenced to death. The verdict and sentencing were both appealed, but subsequently affirmed by Iraq's Supreme Court of Appeals.<ref name="Karouny-2006">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/26/AR2006122600297_pf.html |title=Iraq court upholds Saddam death sentence |agency=Reuters |date=26 December 2006 |access-date=12 November 2008 |last1=Karouny |first1=Mariam |last2=Villelabeitia |first2=Ibon |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>

=== Execution ===
{{Main|Execution of Saddam Hussein}}

Saddam was [[executed]] by [[hanging]] on the first day of [[Eid al-Adha|Eid ul-Adha]], 30 December 2006,<ref name="BBCexecution">{{cite news |date=30 December 2006 |title=Saddam Hussein executed in Iraq |work=BBC News |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6218485.stm}}</ref> despite his request to be executed by [[firing squad]], which he argued was the most appropriate method due to his role as commander-in-chief of the Iraqi military.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1228824,00.html |title= 'I Want a Firing Squad'| work= sky.com |publisher=Sky News |date=5 November 2006 |access-date=7 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011232542/http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0%2C%2C30000-1228824%2C00.html |archive-date=11 October 2007 }}</ref> The execution was carried out at [[Camp Justice (Iraq)|Camp Justice]], an Iraqi army base in Baghdad's [[Kadhimiya]] neighborhood.

Saudi Arabia condemned the Iraqi authorities for carrying out the execution on a holy day.<ref name="Temko-2006" /> A presenter from the Al-Ikhbariya television station officially stated: "There is a feeling of surprise and disapproval that the verdict has been applied during the holy months and the first days of Eid al-Adha. Leaders of Islamic countries should show respect for this blessed occasion ... not demean it."<ref name="Temko-2006">{{Cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/dec/31/iraq.peterbeaumont|title=Frame by frame: last moments of a tyrant|last1=Temko|first1=Ned|date=31 December 2006 |work= The Observer|access-date=13 December 2017|last2=Beaumont|first2=Peter|language=en-GB|issn=0029-7712}}</ref>

An unofficial video of the execution was recorded on a mobile phone and his captors could be heard insulting Saddam.<ref name="Bauder-2007" /> The execution video was leaked and widely circulated online within hours, sparking global controversy.<ref name="Bauder-2007">{{cite news| url=http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070102/saddam-web-tv.htm |title=Saddam Execution Images Shown on TV, Web |last=Bauder |first=David |work=International Business Times |date=2 January 2007 |access-date=2 January 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205073754/http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070102/saddam-web-tv.htm |archive-date=5 February 2008}}</ref> It was later claimed by the head guard at the tomb where his remains lay that Saddam's body had been stabbed six times after the execution.<ref>{{cite news|last=Haynes|first=Deborah|author-link=Deborah Haynes|date=1 November 2008|title=Saddam Hussein's body was stabbed in the back, says guard|work=[[The Times]]|location=London|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/saddam-husseins-body-was-stabbed-in-the-back-says-guard-3vmjfw7g2n6|access-date=1 November 2008}}</ref> Saddam's demeanor while being led to the gallows has been discussed by two witnesses, Iraqi Judge Munir Haddad and Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie.<ref name="CNN-2023" /> The accounts of the two witnesses are contradictory as Haddad describes Saddam as being strong in his final moments whereas al-Rubaie says Saddam was clearly afraid, but the common view is not of the latter.<ref name="CNN-2023">{{Cite web|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/30/hussein/|title=Witness: Saddam Hussein argued with guards moments before death|publisher=CNN|language=en|access-date=13 December 2017|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326043428/http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/30/hussein/}}</ref> Not long before the execution, Saddam's lawyers released his last letter.<ref name="Hussein's last letter">{{Cite news |date=30 December 2006 |title=Saddam's final words |url=http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20990518-5001021,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211160131/http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20990518-5001021,00.html |archive-date=11 December 2008 |access-date=12 November 2008 |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=UK}}</ref>

Saddam spoke his last words during the execution, "May God's blessings be upon Muhammad and his household. And may God hasten their appearance and curse their enemies."<ref name="Guardian-2007" /> Then one of the crowd repeatedly said the name of the Iraqi Shi'a cleric [[Muqtada al-Sadr]].<ref name="Guardian-2007" /> Saddam laughed and later said, "Do you consider this manhood?"<ref name="Guardian-2007" /> The crowd shouted, "go to Hell." Saddam replied, "To the hell that is Iraq!?"<ref name="Guardian-2007" /> Again, one of the crowd asked those who shouted to keep quiet for God.<ref name="Guardian-2007" /> Saddam started recitation of final Muslim prayers, "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." One of the crowd shouted, "The tyrant has collapsed!" Saddam said, "May God's blessings be upon Muhammad and his household".<ref name="Guardian-2007" /> He recited the shahada one and a half times, as while he was about to say 'Muhammad' on the second [[shahada]], the trapdoor opened, cutting him off mid-sentence. The rope broke his neck, killing him instantly.<ref name="Guardian-2007">{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jan/01/iraq.iraqtimeline|title=How Saddam died on the gallows|date=1 January 2007|website=The Guardian}}</ref> A second unofficial video, apparently showing Saddam's body on a trolley, emerged several days later. It sparked speculation that the execution was carried out incorrectly as Saddam had a gaping hole in his neck.<ref name="newvideo">{{cite news |last=Abdul-Zahra |first=Qassum |date=9 January 2007 |title=New Video of Saddam's Corpse on Internet |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/09/AR2007010900258.html |access-date=9 January 2006 |newspaper=The Washington Post |agency=Associated Press}}</ref>

Saddam was buried at his birthplace of Al-Awja in Tikrit, Iraq, on 31 December 2006. He was buried {{convert|3|km|mi|abbr=on|sigfig=1}} from his sons Uday and Qusay Hussein.<ref name="burial">{{Cite news| url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna11669236 | title=Tribal chief: Saddam buried in native village |agency=Reuters | date=30 December 2006 | access-date=30 December 2006 }}</ref> His tomb was reported to have been destroyed in March 2015.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31901568 |title=Iraq conflict: Saddam's tomb destroyed in Tikrit fighting |publisher=BBC |date=16 March 2015 |access-date=29 March 2017}}</ref> Before it was destroyed, a Sunni tribal group reportedly removed his body to a secret location, fearful of what might happen.<ref>{{cite news|last=Rasheed |first=Ahmed |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-saddam-idUSKBN0G61GM20140806 |title=Saddam's allies moved his corpse, fearful Shi'ite militias would harm it: tribal leader |work=Reuters |date=6 August 2014 |access-date=29 March 2017}}</ref>

==Personal life and family ==
{{Main|Family of Saddam Hussein}}

[[File:Saddam-family-Pre1995.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Saddam Hussein's family, mid-late 1980s]]

* Saddam married his first wife and cousin [[Sajida Talfah]] in 1963.<ref name="Sheri & Bob Stritof">{{Cite news| url=http://marriage.about.com/od/infamous/p/saddamhussein.htm| title=Marriages of Saddam Hussein| publisher=About.com| date=1 January 2004| access-date=28 February 2010| author=Sheri & Bob Stritof| archive-date=16 July 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716090549/http://marriage.about.com/od/infamous/p/saddamhussein.htm}}</ref> They became engaged in Egypt during his exile, and married in Iraq after Saddam's 1963 return.<ref>{{cite book|author-link1=Efraim Karsh|last1=Karsh|first1=Efraim|last2=Rautsi|first2=Inari|title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography|publisher=[[Grove Press]]|year=2002|isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8|page=20}}</ref> The couple had five children.<ref name="Sheri & Bob Stritof" />
** [[Uday Hussein]] (1964–2003), who was Saddam's oldest son, who ran the [[Iraqi Football Association]], [[Fedayeen Saddam]], and several media corporations in Iraq including [[Iraqi TV]] and the newspaper ''[[Babel (newspaper)|Babel]]''. Uday, while originally Saddam's favorite son and likely successor, eventually fell out of favor with his father due to his erratic behavior. He was briefly married to [[Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri]]'s daughter, but later divorced her. The couple had no children.
** [[Qusay Hussein]] (1966–2003), who was Saddam's second son. Qusay was believed to have been Saddam's later intended successor, as he was less erratic than his older brother and kept a low profile. He was second in command of the military (behind his father) and ran the elite [[Iraqi Republican Guard]] and the [[Iraqi Special Security Organization|SSO]]. He was married once and had three children.
** [[Raghad Hussein]] (1968), who is Saddam's oldest daughter. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Raghad fled to [[Amman]], Jordan where she received sanctuary from the royal family. She is currently wanted by the Iraqi government for allegedly financing and supporting the insurgency of the now banned Iraqi Ba'ath Party.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/02/iraq.main/ |title=Hussein's wife, daughter on new 'wanted' list |publisher=CNN |date=2 July 2006 |access-date=20 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071205152841/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/02/iraq.main/|archive-date=5 December 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://euronews.net/create_html.php?page=detail_info&article=366962&lng=1 |title=Saddam's family on Iraq wanted list |work=EuroNews |date=30 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930185345/http://euronews.net/create_html.php?page=detail_info&article=366962&lng=1|archive-date=30 September 2007}}</ref> The Jordanian royal family refused to hand her over. She was married to [[Hussein Kamel al-Majid]] and has had five children from this marriage.
** [[Rana Hussein]] (1969), who is Saddam's second daughter. She, like her sister, fled to Jordan and has stood up for her father's rights. She was married to [[Saddam Kamel]] and has had four children from this marriage.
** Hala Hussein (1972), who is Saddam's third and youngest daughter. Very little information is known about her. Her father arranged for her to marry General Jamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti in 1998. She fled with her children and sisters to [[Jordan]]. In June 2021, an Iraqi court ordered the release of her husband after 18 years in prison.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/iraq-frees-saddam-hussein-s-son-in-law-after-18-years-in-prison/2279214 |title=Iraq frees Saddam Hussein's son-in-law after 18 years in prison |website=aa.com.tr |last=Jawad |first=Ali |date=19 June 2021 |access-date=20 September 2021 }}</ref>
* Saddam met his second wife, [[Samira Shahbandar]], in 1979 and married her in 1986.<ref name="Sheri & Bob Stritof" /> She was originally the wife of an [[Iraqi Airways]] executive, but later became the mistress of Saddam. Eventually, Saddam forced Samira's husband to divorce her so he could marry her.<ref name="Sheri & Bob Stritof" /> After the war, Samira fled to [[Beirut]], Lebanon.
** Ali Saddam Hussein ({{circa|1981}}), who is believed to be Saddam's youngest child. He is listed on United States' Treasury sanctions list.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/js1242 | title=Treasury Designates 16 Family Members of the Former Iraqi Regime, Submits 191 Iraqi Entities to United Nations | date=19 July 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.opensanctions.org/entities/NK-cvRAALbpGgdhQcRAGvFbYG/ | title=Ali Saddam Hussein Al-Tikriti | date=1980 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/sanctions/1518/materials/summaries/individual/ali-saddam-hussein-al-tikriti | title=ALI SADDAM HUSSEIN AL-TIKRITI &#124; Security Council }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/Details.aspx?id=8187 | title=Sanctions List Search }}</ref> Not very much is known about him other than the fact that his mother is Samira Shahbandar.<ref name="Sheri & Bob Stritof" /> His existence was repeatedly denied by Saddam's family.<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 February 2021 |title=رغد صدام حسين ترد على حقيقة وجود أخ غير معلن عنه لها |trans-title=Raghad Saddam Hussein responds to allegations regarding the existence of an undisclosed brother of hers |url=https://arabic.cnn.com/middle-east/article/2021/02/20/saddam-hussain-daughter-denies-hvaing-hiddenbrother |access-date=3 August 2024 |website=CNN Arabic |language=ar}}</ref>
[[File:Defense.gov News Photo 030722-A-0000W-001.jpg|thumb|Saddam Hussein's sons [[Qusay Hussein|Qusay]] and [[Uday Hussein|Uday]] were killed in a gun battle in [[Mosul]] on 22 July 2003.]]
* Saddam had allegedly married a third wife, Nidal al-Hamdani, the general manager of the Solar Energy Research Center in the Council of Scientific Research.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://cdn.deseretnews.com/media/photos/a041303bil.pdf |title=Saddam's billions |work=Herald Sun |date=2 January 2007 |access-date=6 January 2007 |first=Michael |last=Harvey |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811144128/http://cdn.deseretnews.com/media/photos/a041303bil.pdf |archive-date=11 August 2017 }}</ref>
* Wafa Mullah Huwaysh is rumored to have married Saddam as his fourth wife in 2002. There is no firm evidence for this marriage. Wafa is the daughter of [[Abd al-Tawab Mullah Huwaysh]], a former minister of military industry in Iraq and Saddam's last deputy Prime Minister.

In August 1995, Raghad and her husband, [[Hussein Kamel al-Majid]], and Rana and her husband, [[Saddam Kamel|Saddam Kamel al-Majid]], defected to [[Jordan]] with their children. They returned to Iraq after receiving assurances that Saddam would pardon them. Within three days of their return in February 1996, the Kamel brothers were killed in a gunfight with clan members who considered them traitors.

In August 2003, Saddam's daughters Raghad and Rana were granted sanctuary in Jordan.<ref name="daughtersinterview" /> That month, they spoke with [[CNN]] and the Arab satellite station [[Al-Arabiya]] in [[Amman]].<ref name="daughtersinterview" /> When asked about her father, Raghad told CNN, "He was a very good father, loving, has a big heart." Asked if she wanted to give a message to her father, she said: "I love you and I miss you."<ref name="daughtersinterview" /> Her sister Rana also remarked, "He had so many feelings and he was very tender with all of us."<ref name="daughtersinterview">{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-08-01-saddams-daughters_x.htm |title=Saddam's daughters express love for dad |work=USA Today |date=1 August 2003 |access-date=31 December 2006}}</ref>

Saddam was known for his lavish tastes, including wearing a diamond-coated [[Rolex]] wristwatch, which he reportedly gifted to political allies and friends.

On 28 April 2001, Saddam marked his 64th birthday with a large state-sponsored celebration.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Margonelli |first=Lisa |date=28 April 2010 |title=Remembering Saddam's Birthday: April 28, 2001 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/04/remembering-saddams-birthday-april-28-2001/39653/ |access-date=13 July 2024 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref>

== Honors and awards ==
In 1991, the [[Iraqi government]] awarded Saddam the [[Order of the Two Rivers]], the country's highest honor, as a recognition of his "historic role" and "noble services to Iraq".<ref name="latimes.com">{{Cite web |date=30 April 1991 |title=Iraq Rewards Hussein With Medal for 'Historic Role, Noble Services' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-30-mn-986-story.html |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Zee News-2003">{{Cite web |date=1 April 2003 |title=Saddam showers southern fighters with medals |url=https://zeenews.india.com/news/world/saddam-showers-southern-fighters-with-medals_89487.html |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Zee News |language=en}}</ref> This announcement was made following a Cabinet meeting, and Information Minister [[Hamid Yusif Hummadi|Hamid Youssef Hummadi]] stated that the decision was unanimous.<ref name="latimes.com" /><ref name="Zee News-2003" /> The award was bestowed on Saddam, during his 54th birthday, in appreciation of his exceptional contributions and significant impact on Iraq.<ref name="latimes.com" />

He was honored by titles such as "Field Marshal" and "Comrade". Saddam Hussein is one of the recipients of the [[Key to the City]].<ref name="detroitkey">{{cite news |date=26 March 2003 |title=Guess Who Got The Key To Detroit? |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/guess-who-got-the-key-to-detroit/ |access-date=22 August 2015 |publisher=CBS News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=9 October 2021 |title=Saddam Hussein Given Keys to Detroit, 1980 |url=https://historyandthings.com/2021/10/09/saddam-hussein-given-keys-to-detroit-1980/ |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=History and Things |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 1980, Saddam received a ceremonial key to the city of Detroit after making a donation of nearly half a million dollars to a local church.<ref name="Bidoun">{{Cite web |title=Saddam Hussein's Key to the City of Detroit |url=https://www.bidoun.org/articles/saddam-hussein-s-key-to-the-city-of-detroit |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Bidoun |language=en}}</ref> Saddam successfully turned Iraq into a leading hub for healthcare and education.<ref>{{Cite web |author1=We Are The Mighty |date=12 July 2022 |title=11 Crazy Facts About Saddam Hussein |url=https://www.military.com/history/11-crazy-facts-saddam-hussein |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Military.com |language=en}}</ref> This improved the quality of life in Iraq.<ref>{{Cite web |title=12 unusual facts about Saddam Hussein |url=https://www.history.co.uk/articles/facts-about-saddam-hussein |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Sky HISTORY TV channel |language=en}}</ref> For this reason, Saddam was honored by an award from UNESCO.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Moore |first=Kathleen |date=9 April 2008 |title=Iraq: The Rise And Fall Of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's 'Great Uncle' |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1102909.html |access-date=16 March 2024 |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |language=en}}</ref>

A collection of medals attributed to Saddam was once displayed in a museum in [[Johannesburg]], South Africa.<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 January 2007 |title=Saddam Hussein's medals displayed in South Africa |url=https://www.jpost.com/international/saddam-husseins-medals-displayed-in-south-africa |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=The Jerusalem Post |language=en}}</ref> He received the [[Order of Merit]] (''Wisam al-Jadara''), which is rare and was awarded to only a few Iraqi rulers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Saddam medals on show in SA |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/saddam-medals-on-show-in-sa-20070116 |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}</ref> Order of the Mother of Battles was awarded to Saddam Hussein for his role in the [[1991 Gulf War]] against [[Kuwait]] and the [[United States]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 January 2007 |title=Saddam medals on display in Jo'burg |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2007-01-16-saddam-medals-on-display-in-joburg/ |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> He received numerous medals from the Iraqi state commemorating his involvement or leadership during various events.<ref>{{Cite web |title=afrol News – South African museum displays Saddam's medals |url=http://www.afrol.com/articles/23896 |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=www.afrol.com}}</ref>

== Political and cultural image ==
{{Main|Saddamism}}
{{Multiple image
| image1            = Stamped brick at the ancient city of Babylon bearing the name of Saddam Hussein.jpg
| image2            = Palace of Saddam Hussein (30629368765).jpg
| image3            = 
| alt1              = Stamped brick at the ancient city of Babylon bearing the name of Saddam Hussein
| caption1          = Stamped brick at the ancient city of [[Babylon]] bearing the name of Saddam Hussein
| caption2          = Saddam's palace near the ruins of the North Palace of [[Nebuchadnezzar II]] at [[Babylon]]
}}
The political ideas and policies pursued by Saddam became known as [[Saddamism]].<ref name="ofrabengio" /> This doctrine was officially endorsed by his government and promoted by the Iraqi daily newspaper ''[[Babel (newspaper)|Babil]]'' owned by his son [[Uday Hussein]].<ref name="ofrabengio">{{cite book |last=Bengio |first=Ofra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xhonDwAAQBAJ |title=Saddam's Word: Political discourse in Iraq |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-511439-3 |location=Oxford, England, UK; New York, New York, USA |page=208 |format=Paperback}}</ref>

During his leadership, Saddam promoted the idea of dual nationalism that combined [[Iraqi nationalism]] and [[Arab nationalism]], linking Iraq's identity to wider matters that impact [[Arabs]] as a whole.<ref name="Orit Bashkin 2009. Pp. 174">Orit Bashkin. ''The other Iraq: pluralism and culture in Hashemite Iraq''. Stanford, California, USA: Stanford University Press, 2009. Pp. 174.</ref> Saddam viewed Iraq's ancient [[Mesopotamia]]n heritage as compatible with his vision of Arab nationalism.<ref name="Orit Bashkin 2009. Pp. 174" /> In the course of his reign, the government adopted the historic Muslim leader [[Saladin]] as a national symbol, while Saddam styled himself as the modern successor of [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Babylonian]] King [[Nebuchadnezzar II|Nebuchadnezzar]] and had stamped the bricks of ancient [[Babylon]] with his name and titles next to him.<ref name="Kiernan, Ben 2007. Pp. 587">Kiernan, Ben. ''Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur''. Yale University Press, 2007. Pp. 587.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Magid |first=Pesha |date=2 December 2019 |title=Inside the Abandoned Babylon That Saddam Hussein Built |url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/babylon-iraq-saddam-hussein |access-date=5 April 2022 |website=Atlas Obscura |language=en}}</ref> During the [[Gulf War]], Saddam claimed the historic roles of Nebuchadnezzar, Saladin, and [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]].<ref name="PIRRR" />

Saddam often emphasized his nomadic [[Bedouin]] roots, framing them as a source of honor and traditional values.<ref name="Message Heard-2022" /> Following the [[Death and state funeral of Ruhollah Khomeini|death of Ayatollah Khomeini]], his long-time adversary, Saddam instructed media outlets not to gloat, stating that it was part of Arab cultural tradition to show restraint in speaking about the dead and that "when he is dead, that's it. You don't talk ill of the dead."<ref name="Message Heard-2022">{{Cite web |date=7 September 2022 |title=Conflicted S3 E17: Saddam vs. Ayatollah |url=https://messageheard.com/conflicted-transcripts/saddam-vs-ayatollah |access-date=13 December 2024 |website=Message Heard |language=en-US}}</ref>

He organized two [[show election]]s in 1995 and 2002. In the [[1995 Iraqi presidential referendum|1995 referendum]], he reportedly received 99.96% of the votes with 99.47% turnout, gaining 3,052 negative votes among an electorate of 8.4 million.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/17/world/no-surprise-in-iraqi-vote.html |title=No surprise in Iraqi vote |work=The New York Times |access-date=29 January 2012 |date=17 October 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6507/is_4_57/ai_n28932894/ |title=Iraq – July 22 – Saddam Plans Referendum |via=Find Articles |access-date=29 January 2012 |year=2002 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120715194635/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6507/is_4_57/ai_n28932894/ |archive-date=15 July 2012 }}</ref> In the [[2002 Iraqi presidential referendum|2002 referendum]], he officially achieved 100% of approval votes and 100% turnout, as the electoral commission reported the next day that every one of the 11,445,638 eligible voters cast a "Yes" vote for the president.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/2331951.stm |title=Saddam 'wins 100% of vote' |publisher=BBC |access-date=29 January 2012 |date=16 October 2002}}</ref>

== Reception and legacy ==
{{See also|De-Ba'athification|Leadership analysis#Saddam Hussein}}
{{Ba'athism sidebar|people}}
Throughout the [[Arab world]], many Arabs praise Saddam as a resolute leader who stood up to [[Western world|Western]] [[imperialism]], [[Israeli-occupied territories|Israeli occupation of Palestine]], and foreign intervention in the region, while many Iraqis, especially Shi'as and Kurds, view him negatively as a dictator responsible for brutal authoritarianism, repression and injustices.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ibrahim |first=Arwa |title=The US-led war in Iraq and Saddam's Arab legacy |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/22/hldthe-us-led-invasion-of-iraq-and-saddams-arab-legacy |access-date=10 June 2024 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref>

Supporters noted that under Saddam, the government invested heavily in infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges, and public buildings.<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 September 1999 |title=Saddam Hussein's Iraq|url=https://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/saddam-husseins-iraq |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=ReliefWeb |language=en}}</ref><ref name="auto7"/> The government invested in building schools and hospitals, and literacy rates in Iraq increased significantly during his rule.<ref name="auto3"/><ref name="auto8"/><ref name="auto1"/> Women were encouraged to participate in education and the workforce, and many held high-ranking positions in government and public institutions.<ref name="auto6"/><ref name="auto2"/><ref name="aljazeera.com">{{Cite web |title=Baghdad Jews: Exodus or extinction? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/10/19/baghdad-jews-exodus-or-extinction |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> Saddam's regime was secular in character. Religion did not play a dominant role in the government's policies.<ref name="aljazeera.com" /> Saddam's regime later placed greater emphasis on Islam in all sectors of Iraqi life from 1993 through the [[Faith Campaign]].<ref name="aljazeera.com" /> In 1977, Saddam stated "[[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region|our Party]] does not take a neutral stance between faith and atheism; it is always on the side of faith."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Legacy Of Saddam's Islam |url=https://www.hoover.org/research/legacy-saddams-islam |access-date=24 March 2024 |website=Hoover Institution |language=en}}</ref>

By contrast, critics described Saddam as a repressive totalitarian leader.<ref name="Sassoon 2017" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Blaydes |first=Lisa |title=State of Repression: Iraq under Saddam Hussein |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4008-9032-3 |oclc=1104855351}}</ref><ref>*{{cite book |last=Makiya |first=Kanan |author-link=Kanan Makiya |title=Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising, and the Arab World |date=1993 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |isbn=978-0-393-31141-9 |page=19}}
*{{cite book |last=Bengio |first=Ofra |title=Saddam's Word: The Political Discourse in Iraq |date=1998 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-511439-3}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Woods |first1=Kevin M. |last2=Stout |first2=Mark E. |date=16 December 2010 |title=New Sources for the Study of Iraqi Intelligence during the Saddam Era |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02684527.2010.537033 |journal=[[Intelligence and National Security]] |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=547–587 |doi=10.1080/02684527.2010.537033 |s2cid=153605621 |access-date=11 March 2022}}
*{{cite book |last=Faust |first=Aaron M. |title=The Ba'thification of Iraq: Saddam Hussein's Totalitarianism |date=15 November 2015 |publisher=[[University of Texas Press]] |isbn=978-1-4773-0557-7}}</ref> His regime was notorious for its repressive tactics. These included [[Surveillance|widespread surveillance]], [[torture]], and [[extrajudicial killings]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Complex Legacy of Saddam Hussein |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-complex-legacy-of-saddam-hussein |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Imperial War Museums |language=en}}</ref><ref name="politicalscience.stanford.edu">{{Cite web |title=State of Repression: Iraq under Saddam Hussein  |url=https://politicalscience.stanford.edu/publications/state-repression-iraq-under-saddam-hussein |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Political Science  |language=en}}</ref> Numerous cases of human rights abuses committed by his government were documented by human rights organizations.<ref>{{Cite web |author1=Alfadhel Ahmad |author2=Hayder Al-Shakeri |title=The long shadow of Saddam's dictatorship in Iraq |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/4/16/the-long-shadow-of-saddams-dictatorship-in-iraq |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> Saddam's regime suppressed political opposition through a combination of violence, intimidation, and censorship.<ref name="politicalscience.stanford.edu" /> Freedom of speech and freedom of the press were severely curtailed, and political opponents were often executed or imprisoned.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Waterbury |first=John |date=16 October 2018 |title=State of Repression: Iraq Under Saddam Hussein |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2018-10-16/state-repression-iraq-under-saddam-hussein |access-date=16 March 2024 |work=Foreign Affairs |language=en-US |volume=97 |issue=6 |issn=0015-7120}}</ref> He initiated three military conflicts, including the [[Iran–Iraq War]], the [[Iraqi invasion of Kuwait]], and the [[Gulf War]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 May 2020 |title=The Gulf War |url=https://millercenter.org/statecraftmovie/gulf-war |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Miller Center |language=en}}</ref> These actions led to heavy casualties and widespread regional instability.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kelidar |first=Abbas |date=1 October 1992 |title=The wars of Saddam Hussein |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=778–798 |doi=10.1080/00263209208700928 |issn=0026-3206}}</ref> While there were economic development initiatives, Saddam's regime was also marked by mismanagement and widespread corruption, particularly during the final years of his regime.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Corruption is the forgotten legacy of the Iraq invasion |url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/corruption-is-the-forgotten-legacy-of-the-iraq-invasion/ |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Brookings |language=en-US}}</ref> The [[International sanctions against Iraq|economic sanctions imposed on Iraq]] during his rule further exacerbated hardships for the country's population.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 January 2023 |title=Why sanctions fell short of their objectives in the First Gulf War |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/economichistory/2023/01/05/why-sanctions-fell-short-of-their-objectives-in-the-first-gulf-war/ |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=Economic History}}</ref> [[Saddamism]] has been described by critics as a mix of "[[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] [[Arab nationalism]], confused [[Stalinism]], and [[Arab fascism|fascist]] zeal for the fatherland and its leader".<ref>{{Cite book |last=MacDonald |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xf-EBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA213 |title=Overreach: Delusions of Regime Change in Iraq |date=2014 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-72910-0 |pages=212–215 |language=en}}</ref>

In July 2016, then US presidential candidate [[Donald Trump]] praised Saddam for militant suppression and stability during his presidency in [[Ba'athist Iraq|Iraq]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Diamond |first=Jeremy |author-link=Jeremy Diamond |date=6 July 2016 |title=Trump praises Saddam Hussein's efficient killing of 'terrorists,' calls today's Iraq 'Harvard for terrorism' |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/05/politics/donald-trump-saddam-hussein-iraq-terrorism/index.html |work=[[CNN]]}}</ref> Libyan politician and commander of the [[Libyan National Army|Libyan National Arab Army]], [[Khalifa Haftar]], named his son [[Saddam Haftar]] after Saddam Hussein.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Campbell |first=Matthew |date=16 September 2023 |title=Gaddafi's 'spiritual son': the general blamed over flood catastrophe |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/libya-flood-gaddafi-civil-war-khalifa-haftar-q8500qkgx |work=[[The Times]] |language=en |issn=0140-0460}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=21 September 2023 |title=Khalifa Haftar will use Libya's floods to deepen his control |url=https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/09/21/khalifa-haftar-will-use-libyas-floods-to-deepen-his-control |newspaper=[[The Economist]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Uddin |first=Rayhan |date=19 September 2023 |title=Libya floods: Elseddik and Saddam Haftar, the brothers vying for power after disaster |url=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/libya-floods-elseddik-saddam-haftar-brothers-vying-power |work=[[Middle East Eye]]}}</ref>

Cultural depictions of Saddam can be found in various movies, including three documentary movies made about Saddam. Saddam's Tribe, released in 2007, explores the complex relationship between Saddam Hussein and the [[Al-Bu Nasir (Iraqi tribe)|Al-Bu Nasir]], a powerful Arab tribe in Iraq to which Saddam belongs. In 2008, a TV series based on his life — [[House of Saddam]] — was released. Irish actor [[Barry Keoghan]] will appear in a new movie about Saddam which was announced in 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Roxborough |first=Scott |date=15 February 2024 |title=Barry Keoghan to Star in Film From 'Chernobyl' Director Johan Renck About Saddam Hussein's Final Days (Exclusive) |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/barry-keoghan-johan-renck-film-saddam-hussein-final-days-1235825751/ |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Iraq|Biography|Politics|Middle East}}
* {{annotated link|Modern history of Iraq}}
* {{annotated link|Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards}}
* {{annotated link|Saddam Hussein's novels}}
* [[U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis|US list of most-wanted Iraqis]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book |last=Al-Ani |first=Abdul-Haq |title=The Trial of Saddam Hussein |publisher=Clarity Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-932863-58-4}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Iran-Iraq War: New International Perspectives |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-415-68524-5 |editor-last=Ashton |editor-first=Nigel |doi=10.4324/9780203074787 |editor-last2=Gibson |editor-first2=Bryan}}
* {{Cite book |last=Balaghi |first=Shiva |title=Saddam Hussein: A Biography |publisher=Greenwich Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-313-33077-3}}
* {{Cite book |last=Baram |first=Amatzia |title=Saddam Husayn and Islam, 1968–2003: Ba'thi Iraq from Secularism to Faith |publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center Press/Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4214-1582-6}}
* {{Cite book |last=Bozo |first=Frédéric |title=A History of the Iraq Crisis: France, the United States, and Iraq 1991–2003 |publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center Press/Columbia University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-231-70444-1 |pages= |translator-last=Emanuel |translator-first=Susan}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Braut-Hegghammer |first=Målfrid |date=Summer 2020 |title=Cheater's Dilemma: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Path to War |journal=[[International Security (journal)|International Security]] |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=51–89 |doi=10.1162/isec_a_00382|hdl=10852/85353 |url=http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-88006 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Faust |first=Aaron M. |title=The Ba'thification of Iraq: Saddam Hussein's Totalitarianism |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4773-0557-7}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gibson |first=Bryan R. |title=Sold Out? US Foreign Policy, Iraq, the Kurds, and the Cold War |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-137-48711-7}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Karsh |first1=Efraim |url=https://archive.org/details/saddamhusseinpol0000kars |title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography |last2=Rautsi |first2=Inari |publisher=Grove Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8 |url-access=registration |via=the Internet Archive}}
* {{Cite book |last=MacKey |first=Sandra |title=The Reckoning: Iraq and the Legacy of Saddam Hussein |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-393-32428-0}}
* {{Cite book |last=Makiya |first=Kanan |title=Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq |publisher=University of California Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-520-21439-2 |edition=Updated}}
* {{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Williamson|last2=Woods|first2=Kevin M.|title=The Iran–Iraq War: A Military and Strategic History|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-1-107-06229-0}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Newton |first1=Michael A. |title=Enemy of the State: The Trial and Execution of Saddam Hussein |last2=Scharf |first2=Michael P. |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-312-38556-9}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sassoon |first=Joseph |title=Saddam Hussein's Ba'th Party: Inside an Authoritarian Regime |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-521-14915-0}}

== External links ==
{{sister project links|c=Category: Saddam Hussein|d=yes|q=yes|n=yes|s=yes|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|wikt=no|species=no}}
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000930170810/http://www.uruklink.net/iraq/ |date=30 September 2000 |title=Government of Iraq }} (2000–2003)
* [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1100529.stm Saddam Hussein Profile] by [[BBC News]]
* [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/special/iraq/index.htm The Saddam Hussein Sourcebook]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513202524/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/special/iraq/index.htm |date=13 May 2008 }}. [[National Security Archive|National Security Archive at The George Washington University]].
* [https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552703 Saddam Hussein and the Iran–Iraq War] from the [https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552494 Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives]
* [https://vault.fbi.gov/Saddam%20Hussein Federal Bureau of Investigation Records: The Vault – Saddam Hussein] (226 pages)
*{{C-SPAN|15928}}

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{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|rows=2|before=[[Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[President of Iraq]]|years=1979–2003}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Jay Garner]]<br />''{{Small|as [[Coalition Provisional Authority|Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance of Iraq]]}}''}}
|-
{{s-ttl|title=[[Prime Minister of Iraq]]|years=1979–1991}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Sa'dun Hammadi]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Ahmad Husayn Khudayir as-Samarrai]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Prime Minister of Iraq]]|years=1994–2003}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Mohammad Bahr al-Ulloum]]|as=Acting President of the [[Iraqi Governing Council|Governing Council of Iraq]]}}
|-
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Leader of the [[Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-led faction)|Ba'ath Party]]|years=1979–2006}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Iraq topics}}
{{Saddam Hussein}}
{{IraqiPres}}
{{IraqiPMs}}
{{Ba'ath Party}}
{{U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis}}
{{Arab nationalism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hussein, Saddam}}
[[Category:Saddam Hussein| ]]
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:2006 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Iraqi novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Iraqi politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century presidents in Asia]]
[[Category:21st-century executions by Iraq]]
[[Category:21st-century Iraqi novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century Iraqi politicians]]
[[Category:Anti-American sentiment in the Middle East]]
[[Category:Anti-Iranian sentiment in Asia]]
[[Category:Anti-Zionism in Iraq]]
[[Category:Anti-Zionism in the Arab world|Saddam]]
[[Category:Arabic-language novelists]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Ba'athist Iraq]]
[[Category:Cairo University alumni]]
[[Category:Capital punishment in Iraq]]
[[Category:Executed Iraqi people]]
[[Category:Executed presidents]]
[[Category:Filmed executions in Iraq]]
[[Category:Kurdish genocide perpetrators]]
[[Category:Heads of government convicted of war crimes]]
[[Category:Heads of state and government who were later imprisoned]]
[[Category:Heads of state convicted of war crimes]]
[[Category:Iraqi Arab nationalists]]
[[Category:Iraqi people convicted of crimes against humanity]]
[[Category:Iraqi philanthropists]]
[[Category:Iraqi politicians convicted of crimes]]
[[Category:Iraqi Sunni Muslims]]
[[Category:Iraq War prisoners of war]]
[[Category:Iraqi prisoners of war]]
[[Category:Members of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction)]]
[[Category:Members of the Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region]]
[[Category:Muslim socialists]]
[[Category:People executed for crimes against humanity]]
[[Category:People executed by Iraq by hanging]]
[[Category:People from Tikrit]]
[[Category:People of the 1991 Iraqi uprisings]]
[[Category:Politicians killed in wars]]
[[Category:Politicide perpetrators]]
[[Category:Presidents of Iraq]]
[[Category:Prime ministers of Iraq]]
[[Category:Tulfah family]]
[[Category:Vice presidents of Iraq]]
[[Category:Political prisoners]]