Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until his overthrow in 2003. He previously served as the vice president from 1968 to 1979 and also as the prime minister from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. Saddam was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and later its Iraqi regional branch. Ideologically, he espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, while the policies and political ideas he championed are collectively known as Saddamism.
Saddam was born in the village of Al-Awja, near Tikrit in northern Iraq, to a Sunni Arab family. He joined the Ba'ath Party in 1957, and later in 1966 the Iraqi and Baghdad-based Ba'ath parties. He played a key role in the 17 July Revolution that brought the Ba'athists to power and made him vice president under Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. During his tenure as vice president, Saddam nationalized the Iraq Petroleum Company, diversifying the Iraqi economy. He also presided over the Second Iraqi–Kurdish War (1974–1975), crushing Kurdish rebels until the Algiers Agreement with Iran ended their support and settled territorial disputes along the Iran–Iraq border. Following al-Bakr's resignation in 1979, Saddam formally took power although he had already been the de facto leader of Iraq for several years. During his presidency, positions of power in the country were mostly filled with Sunni Arabs, a minority that made up only about a fifth of the Iraqi population.
Upon taking office as President of Iraq in 1979, Saddam purged rivals within the Ba'ath Party. In 1980, he ordered the invasion of Iran in a purported effort to capture Iran's Arab-majority Khuzestan province, and end Iranian attempts to export its 1979 revolution to the Arab world. Following the end of the Iran–Iraq War in a stalemate in 1988, Saddam ordered the Anfal campaign against Kurdish rebels who sided with Iran which was recognized as an act of genocide by Human Rights Watch. Later, he accused his former ally, Kuwait, of slant-drilling Iraq's oil reserves and subsequently invaded the country. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait ultimately led to the Gulf War (1990–1991), which ended in Iraq's defeat by a United States-led multinational coalition. In the war's aftermath, Saddam's forces brutally suppressed the 1991 Iraqi uprisings launched by Kurds and Shias to gain independence and bring about a regime change. After reconsolidating his hold on power, Saddam adopted an anti-American stance and pursued an Islamist agenda for Iraq by instituting the Faith Campaign.
In 2003, a US-led coalition invaded Iraq, falsely accusing Saddam of developing weapons of mass destruction and of having ties with al-Qaeda. After the quick coalition victory in the war, the Ba'ath Party was banned and Saddam went into hiding. After his capture on 13 December 2003, his trial took place under the Iraqi Interim Government. On 5 November 2006, Saddam was convicted by the Iraqi High Tribunal of crimes against humanity related to the 1982 Dujail massacre of over 140 Shia Muslims and sentenced to death by hanging. He was executed on 30 December 2006.
A highly 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 imperialism, opposed the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and resisted foreign intervention in the region. Conversely, many Iraqis, particularly Shias and Kurds, perceive him negatively as a tyrant responsible for numerous acts of repression, mass killing and other injustices. Human Rights Watch estimated that Saddam's regime was responsible for the murder or disappearance of 250,000 to 290,000 Iraqis. Saddam's government has been described by several analysts as authoritarian and totalitarian, and by some as fascist, although the applicability of those labels has been contested.
Saddam Hussein Al-Majid Al-Tikriti was born on 28 April 1937, in al-Awja, a small village near Tikrit, to Hussein Abid Al-Majid and Subha Tulfah Al-Mussallat. They were both from the Al-Bejat clan of the Al-Bu Nasir tribe, which was descended from Sayyid Ahmed Nasiruddin bin Hussein, a descendant of Husayn ibn Ali. His father Hussein was from the Al-Majid branch of the Al-Bejat clan, his mother Subha was granddaughter of Mussallat bin Omar Al-Nasiri, a tribal leader of the Al-Bu Nasir tribe and an opponent of the Ottoman rule in Iraq. His Al-Bejat clan descended from Omar Bey bin Shabib Al-Nasiri who was appointed as a Bey by the ruling Ottomans over the region of Tikrit. The majority of the Al-Bu Nasir led a Bedouin life in Tikrit, Saddam's own father Hussein Al-Majid being a shepherd Bedouin. His Husaynid Bedouin Al-Bu Nasir originally been settled in Yemen, migrated to Syria settling in Aleppo and Harran, later settling in Tikrit in Iraq under Ottoman rule.
Saddam's name means "the fighter who stands steadfast". His father died before his birth. This made Saddam's mother, Subha, so depressed that she unsuccessfully attempted to abort her pregnancy and commit suicide. She was saved by a neighboring Jewish family. Subha "would have nothing to do with him", and Saddam was eventually taken in by an uncle. His mother remarried, and Saddam gained three half-brothers through this marriage. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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-Arab Ba'ath Party, of which his uncle was a supporter. During this time, Saddam apparently supported himself as a secondary school teacher. 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.
Revolutionary sentiment was characteristic of the era in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. In Iraq, progressives and socialists assailed traditional political elites (colonial-era bureaucrats and landowners, wealthy merchants and tribal chiefs, and monarchists). Moreover, the pan-Arab nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt profoundly influenced young Ba'athists like Saddam. 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 Iraq, Egypt, Yemen and Libya. Nasser inspired nationalists throughout the Middle East by fighting the British and the French during the Suez Crisis of 1956, modernizing Egypt, and uniting the Arab world politically. 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.
In 1958, a year after Saddam had joined the Ba'ath party, army officers led by General Abd al-Karim Qasim overthrew Faisal II of Iraq in the 14 July Revolution.
The Ba'ath Party was originally represented in Qasim's cabinet; however, Qasim—reluctant to join Nasser's newly formed union between Egypt and Syria—sided with various groups within Iraq (notably the 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". 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. His policies angered several pan-Arab organisations, including the Ba'ath Party, which later began plotting to 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. 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. Saddam himself is not believed to have received any training outside of Iraq, as he was a late addition to the assassination team.
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 Egyptian intelligence. Pertinent contemporary records relating to CIA operations in Iraq have remained classified or heavily redacted, thus "allow[ing] for plausible deniability." 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." Sale and Darwish's account has been disputed by historian Bryan R. Gibson who concludes that available U.S. declassified documents show that "while the United States was aware of several plots against Qasim, it had still adhered to [a] nonintervention policy." On the other hand, historian Kenneth Osgood writes that "the circumstantial evidence is such that the possibility of US–UAR collaboration with Ba'ath Party activists cannot be ruled out," concluding that "[w]hatever the validity of [Sale's] charges, at the very least currently declassified documents reveal that US officials were actively considering various plots against Qasim and that the CIA was building up assets for covert operations in Iraq."
At the time of the attack, the Ba'ath Party had fewer than 1,000 members; 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 president of Iraq. Kanan Makiya recounts:
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. The assassins, including Saddam, all eventually escaped to Cairo, Egypt "where they enjoyed Nasser's protection for the remainder of Qasim's tenure in power." 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 at Cairo Law School (1962–1963). It is possible that Saddam visited the U.S. embassy in Cairo during his exile, and some evidence suggests that he was "in frequent contact with US officials and intelligence agents." 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."
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, however, pertinent contemporary documents relating to the CIA's operations in Iraq have remained classified by the U.S. government, although the Ba'athists are documented to have maintained supportive relationships with U.S. officials before, during, and after the coup. 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. 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. 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. He was elected to the Regional Command, as the story goes, with help from Michel Aflaq—the founder of Ba'athist thought. In September 1966, Saddam initiated an extraordinary challenge to Syrian domination of the Ba'ath Party in response to the Marxist takeover of the Syrian Ba'ath earlier that year, resulting in the Party's formalized split into two separate factions. Saddam then created a Ba'athist security service, which he alone controlled.
In July 1968, Saddam participated in a bloodless coup led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr that overthrew Abdul Rahman Arif, 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 Prime Minister Abdul Razzaq an-Naif, whose support had been essential to the coup's success. According to a semi-official biography, Saddam personally led Naif at gunpoint to the plane that escorted him out of Iraq. 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 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.
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. At this time, Saddam 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.
Saddam actively fostered the modernization of the Iraqi economy and created a strong security apparatus to prevent coups within the power structure and insurrections apart from it. Ever concerned with broadening his base of support among the diverse elements of Iraqi society and mobilizing mass support, he closely followed the administration of state welfare and development programs.
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. 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.
With the help of increasing oil revenues, Saddam diversified the largely oil-based Iraqi economy. Saddam implemented a national infrastructure campaign that made great progress in building roads, promoting mining, and developing other industries. The campaign helped Iraq's energy industries. Electricity was brought to nearly every city in Iraq, and many outlying areas. 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 as global oil prices helped revenues to rise from less than a half billion dollars to tens of billions of dollars and the country invested into industrial expansion. He nationalized independent banks, eventually leaving the banking system insolvent due to inflation and bad loans.
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. The Ba'athists established farm cooperatives and the government also doubled expenditures for agricultural development in 1974–1975. Saddam's welfare programs were part of a combination of "carrot and stick" tactics to enhance support for Saddam. The state-owned banks were put under his thumb. Lending was based on cronyism.
Saddam also pursued to beautify the cities of Iraq. Many monuments were constructed in Baghdad, and the city's Airport was inaugurated in 1982, bearing his name "Saddam International Airport". He also proposed the Baghdad Metro project in 1980, though it did not ultimately come to fruition, due to troubles concerning the Iran-Iraq War. Throughout the 24 years of his presidency, Saddam built more than 100 palaces across the country.
By the late 1970s, Iraq had experienced significant economic growth, with a 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.
The oil revenue benefited Saddam politically. 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 Abdul 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 Persian intruders, was heavy-handed, but consistent as a drumbeat. It helped, of course, that his mukhabarat (secret police) put dozens of Arab news editors, writers and artists on the payroll."
Under his tenure, Iraq was providing unprecedented social services among Middle Eastern countries. Saddam established and controlled the "National Campaign for the Eradication of Illiteracy" and the campaign for "Compulsory Free Education in Iraq". Largely under his auspices, the government established universal free schooling up to the highest education levels; hundreds of thousands learned to read in the years following the initiation of the program, with punishments for not attending consisting of heavy fines, and even jail time. By 1979 alone, over 2 million Iraqi adults were studying in more than 28,735 literacy schools, with over 75,000 teachers.
He also introduced social security programs, with the notable parts of the program consisting of disability benefits, with disabled people in Iraq becoming eligible for financial assistance. It also introduced healthcare coverage, ensuring Iraqi citizens had access to healthcare and medication when needed. The government supported families of soldiers and gave subsidies to farmers. Iraq created one of the most modernized public health systems in the Middle East. These efforts at building welfare in Iraq earned Saddam an award from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Saddam also took steps to promote women's rights within Iraq. By the late 1970s, women in Iraq held significant roles in society, representing 46% of all teachers, 29% of all doctors, 46% of all dentists and 70% of all pharmacists. These advancements signaled progress in women's participation in various professional fields. Women also saw drastic increase in rights in other-aspects of life, with women being given equal-rights in marriage, divorce, inheritance, and custody. Women in Iraq also had the ability to pass their citizenship down to their children even if they married a non-Iraqi. Women's education no longer was a luxury, with women having the same opportunities as men in higher education.
With a Muslim majority, Iraq consists of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-sectarian population. After the Ba'athists took power in 1968, Saddam focused on attaining stability in a nation riddled with profound tensions. Long before him, Iraq had been split along social, ethnic, religious, and economic fault lines: Sunni versus Shi'ite, Arab versus Kurd, tribal chief versus urban merchant, nomad versus peasant and Jews versus Muslims. The desire for stable rule in a country rife with factionalism led Saddam to pursue both massive repression and the improvement of living standards. During his rule, numerous religious and ethnic groups existed in the country.
Following the end of the First Iraqi–Kurdish War in November 1970, Saddam signed a peace treaty with Mustafa Barzani, which agreement granted autonomy to the Kurds. They were now allowed to speak Kurdish language in schools, on television, and in newspapers, with textbooks being translated for the Kurdish regions. Iraqi Kurds were also able to elect a Kurdish representative to Baghdad with the KDP being legitimized as a legal, progressive party in Iraq. However the failure of the agreement and Arabization program in oil-rich regions around Kirkuk and Khanaqin in Northern Iraq, led to the Second Iraqi–Kurdish War. During this time, Feyil Kurds were systemically persecuted.
During his rule, Iraq retained a substantial Jewish community, around 15,000. During the early years of the Ba'ath rule, Jews were initially oppressed under the government. Saddam was given the charge of publicly hanging 13 men, including many Jews. They were accused by the government of spying for Israel. However, according to several reports, this was lesser than the harsh treatment by previous regimes. Later government abolished its repressive policies on Jews. In November 1975, the government issued a decree inviting Jews back to Iraq, who were expelled. The Israeli government panned the decree by calling it political propaganda. Only a few Jewish families returned to Iraq. Treatment later improved, and the Jews were protected and treated well by Saddam. He reportedly helped an estimated 150 remaining Jews to leave the country.
Iraqi society fissures along lines of language, religion and ethnicity. The Ba'ath Party, secular by nature, adopted Pan-Arab ideologies which in turn were problematic for significant parts of the population. Following the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Iraq faced the prospect of régime change from two Shi'ite factions (Dawa and SCIRI) which aspired to model Iraq on its neighbour Iran as a Shia theocracy. A separate threat to Iraq came from parts of the ethnic Kurdish population of northern Iraq which opposed being part of an Iraqi state and favored independence (an ongoing ideology which had preceded Ba'ath Party rule). To alleviate the threat of revolution, Saddam afforded certain benefits to the potentially hostile population. Membership in the Ba'ath Party remained open to all Iraqi citizens regardless of background, and repressive measures were taken against its opponents.
The major instruments for accomplishing this control were the paramilitary and police organizations. Beginning in 1974, Taha Yassin Ramadan (himself a Kurdish Ba'athist), a close associate of Saddam, commanded the People's 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 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.
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." Saddam's regime brought about the deaths of at least 250,000 Iraqis and committed war crimes 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.
Although Saddam is often described as a 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.
In foreign affairs, Saddam sought to have Iraq play a leading role in the Middle East.
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." 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. A 1978 crackdown on 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.
After the 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 and Toledo. In September 1975 he met with Prime Minister Jacques Chirac in Paris, France. Saddam's 1975 visit further cemented close ties with French business and ruling political circles.
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 Arab League summit that condemned and ostracized Egypt for accepting the Camp David Accords. Saddam led Arab opposition to the Camp David Accords.
Iran and Iraq had been engaged in a long-standing territorial dispute over the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which serves as the border between the two countries. Iran had backed Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq. A peace treaty, which aimed to address the Shatt al-Arab dispute, was signed in 1975. 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. It was mediated by the then president of Algeria, Houari Boumediene. Thus Algeria played a crucial role in mediating the negotiations between Iran and Iraq, with Boumediene acting as the chief mediator. Under the accord, Iraq was granted sovereignty over the eastern bank of the waterway, while Iran retained control over the western bank. The agreement also allowed for joint navigation and other provisions.
The agreement was based on the principles of territorial integrity, respect for sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, and the peaceful resolution of disputes. The agreement established a new border line along the Shatt al-Arab, dividing the waterway equally between Iran and Iraq up to the midpoint. Iran made significant concessions in the agreement, including relinquishing its claims on the eastern bank of the Shatt al-Arab, which had been under Iranian control. They also pledged to withdraw support for the Kurds. Saddam aimed to secure Iraq's territorial claims, particularly regarding the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which had been a longstanding source of contention between Iran and Iraq.
Both parties recognized each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, affirming the principle of non-aggression. The agreement called for the restoration of full diplomatic relations between Iran and Iraq, including the exchange of ambassadors. The agreement emphasized the importance of economic cooperation between the two countries, particularly in areas such as trade, transport, and joint development projects. The signing of the Algiers Agreement occurred during a period of relative stability in Iraq, with Saddam gradually consolidating power within the ruling Ba'ath Party. Saddam played a pivotal role in the negotiations leading up to the Algiers Agreement, representing Iraq's interests. Saddam's growing influence within the government allowed him to shape Iraq's approach and stance during the negotiation process.
Following the agreement, Iraq and Iran restored full diplomatic relations and exchanged ambassadors, representing a significant diplomatic breakthrough. The Shah withdrew support of the Kurds, who were promptly defeated by the Iraqis. The agreement emphasized the importance of economic cooperation between Iraq and Iran, particularly in areas like trade and joint development projects. This agreement, while ultimately unable to prevent future hostilities, remained a notable diplomatic achievement for Iraq during Saddam's early political career.
In 1976, Saddam rose to the position of general in the Iraqi armed forces, and rapidly became the strongman of the government. 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.
He soon became the architect of Iraq's foreign policy and represented the nation in all diplomatic situations. He was the de facto leader of Iraq some years before he formally came to power in 1979. He slowly began to consolidate his power over Iraq's government and the Ba'ath party. Relationships with fellow party members were carefully cultivated, and Saddam soon accumulated a powerful circle of support within the party.
In 1979, al-Bakr started to make treaties with Syria, also under Ba'athist leadership, that would lead to unification between the two countries. Syrian President Hafez al-Assad would become deputy leader in a union, and this would drive Saddam to obscurity. Saddam acted to secure his grip on power. He forced the ailing al-Bakr to resign on 16 July 1979, and formally assumed the presidency.
The first sign of consolidation of power came, when Muhyi Abd al-Hussein Mashhadi, the secretary-general of the Baՙth Party, was replaced by someone closer to Saddam. Many officers during al-Bakr's time were removed. Few survived such as Adnan Khairallah and Sa'dun Hammadi.
Saddam convened an assembly of Ba'ath party leaders on 22 July 1979. During the assembly, which he ordered videotaped, Saddam claimed to have found a fifth column within the ruling party and directed Muhyi Abdul-Hussein to read out a confession and the names of 68 alleged co-conspirators. These members were labelled "disloyal" and were removed from the room one by one and taken into custody. After the list was read, Saddam congratulated those still seated in the room for their past and future loyalty. The 68 people arrested at the meeting were subsequently tried together and found guilty of treason; 22 were sentenced to execution. Other high-ranking members of the party formed the firing squad.
A second round of purges would occur in June, 1982, when half of the sixteen RCC members who had survived the 1979 “countercoup” were removed from power.
Under Saddam's administration, positions of power in the country were mostly filled with Arab Sunni Muslims, a minority that made up about a fifth of the population. However, contrary to popular belief, Saddam was not inherently sectarian. While he did place his close relatives in key security and military positions, he also promoted individuals from other communities and minorities to the highest levels of power in Iraq. Saddam appointed representative from each religious and ethnic groups. His primary criterion for these appointments was unwavering loyalty to him and his regime. This was a strategy implied by him to maintain stability between Iraq.
Churches and synagoagues were protected. Christians flourished under Saddam's rule, which numbered 1.2 million (8–11%). Cardinal Fernando Filoni, who was Vatican's ambassador to Iraq, stated that during Saddam's time, Christians were free to practice their faith in the majority-Muslim Iraq.
Mandaeans were given state protection under Saddam. As a sign of respect, the Mandaean Book of John's first copy translation into Arabic was given to Saddam. After this he vowed to build temples for the Mandaeans, with quoting, "Iraqis have religious freedom, whether they are Muslims, Christians or Sabaeans". However, after his downfall, Mandaeans faced severe persecution, and constant kidnappings. They often expressed that they were better under Saddam's rule, and praise him for the protection they received.
Saddam improved the status of remaining Jews in Iraq and lifted discriminatory laws. He granted them protection and permission to practice their religion. In 1998, on the day of Jewish festival of Sukkot, a Palestinian man entered the Baghdad synagogue and shot four people to death, including two Jews. A cabinet meeting chaired by Saddam condemned the attack. He also said that: "Anyone who hurt the Jews in Baghdad would pay a heavy price". The attacker was arrested and executed in 1999. To gain support from the Shi'a community, Saddam made generous gestures, such as provinding financial support to endowments.
Saddam's position on Kurdish politics is debated, with events such as the Anfal Campaign leading many critics to denounce Saddam. Despite this, Saddam's government had a higher tolerance of Iraqi Kurds than in countries such as Syria and Turkey, with partial autonomy being granted to them and Kurdish being recognized as an official language that was freely spoken. The Kurds were allowed to speak Kurdish in schools, on television, and in newspapers, with textbooks being translated for the Kurdish regions. Kurds in Iraq were able to elect a Kurdish representative to Baghdad with the KDP being legitimized as a legal, progressive party in Iraq. Despite tense relations, Saddam provided the Turkmen community with opportunities to contribute to Iraq and multiple Turkmen were in the army. Iraqi Christians are predominantly Assyrians, followed by Armenians and Arabs. In the 1970s, the government recognized cultural rights of Assyrians, allowing them to use Syriac language for education and media. However, the decree did not take in-effect. Despite imposition of Arab nationalism, they often enjoyed broad religious rights. Being refrained from sensitive politics, allowed Assyrians to preserve their religious identity and language, albeit in a limited and constrained manner. Armenians in Iraq were fairly treated by Saddam. Before 2003, there were 100,000 Armenians in Iraq. On other hands, Kawliya and African community were given representation in the government.
Over 60% of the general managers in the Military Industrialization Authority and 70% of the advanced engineering and technical staff in the military, 40% of the National Assembly and majority of the ruling party's governing body were Shiites. Majority of foreign ministers and bank governors were Shi'as. Some of the well-known military figures were Shi'as such as Abdul Ghani al-Asadi, Talib Shaghati, Abu Tahsin al-Salihi and Abboud Qanbar. Important figures in the political and diplomatic spheres —Sa'dun Hammadi, Mohammed Hamza Zubeidi, and Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf were Shi'as. Jafar Dhia Jafar, known as father of the Iraqi Nuclear Program, is also Shi'a. Saddam also had multiple Kurdish ministers and generals, with the highest ranking one being Taha Yassin Ramadan one of Iraq's three Vice Presidents, as well as Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf, Mukarram Talabani, Hashim Aqrawi, and Ahmad Muhammad Saeed al-Atrushi . According to Saddam himself, two brigades were formed in the Republican Guard during the 2003 war, were composed entirely of Kurds, citing a proof that the government then did not discriminate against Kurds. Christians and Assyrians are generally well educated and served as bureaucrats, diplomats, bank governors, administrators and diplomats within the government, with the highest level was the Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, followed by Georges Sada and Kamel Hana Gegeo. All of them were also ethnic Assyrians.
Prominent Turkmen with posts of generals and commanders, were Fadel Ahmed Abdullah al-Hiyali and Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli. Rifat Chadirji, an ethnic Turkmen and architect, was selected by Saddam to oversee the preparations for an international conference to be held in Baghdad in 1983 and to assist with general plans to give Baghdad a facelift. He was Saddam's architectural consultant for Baghdad City Planning and Councillor to the Mayor, overseeing projects in Baghdad. He was often referred to as the father of modern Iraqi architecture. Saddam's nanny, along with one of his body guards, his jeweler, tailor, and housestaff were an Armenian. During the war with Iran, when the Kurds fled to avoid military service, Armenians went to fight for Iraq. Many Armenians also fought for Saddam during the Gulf War and three of them were killed. Mandaeans also worked in numerous positions, such as Abdul Razzaq, who was cultural advisor to the Ministry of Culture and Information. They were some of the best goldsmiths and jewelers in Iraq, with Saddam's personal jeweler being of Mandaean background. Also, the Jews were allowed to hold jobs as professors, doctors, teachers, and civil servants in the government and the state institutions and served in the army as engineers and doctors as well as soldier. Saddam appointed Naji Arab as Jewish representative in the government. Some of the well-known engineers and doctors in the government and military were Jews, such as Shaoul Sassoon and Dr. Eliyahu. A Jewish chemist, from Basra, Ibrahim Hesqel was sent by Saddam on a trade mission to China in 1988.
In early 1979, Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's Pahlavi dynasty were overthrown by the Islamic Revolution, thus giving way to an Islamic republic led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The influence of revolutionary Shi'ite Islam grew apace in the region, particularly in countries with large Shi'ite populations, especially Iraq. Saddam feared that the radical Islamic ideas—hostile to his secular rule—were rapidly spreading inside his country among the majority Shi'ite population. Despite Saddam's fears of massive unrest, Iran's attempts to export its Islamic Revolution were largely unsuccessful in rallying support from Shi'ites in Iraq and the Gulf states. Most Iraqi Shi'ites, who comprised the majority of the Iraqi Armed Forces, chose their own country over their Shi'ite Iranian coreligionists during the war that ensued.
There had also been bitter enmity between Saddam and Khomeini since the 1970s. Khomeini, having been exiled from Iran in 1964, took up residence in Iraq, at the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf. There he involved himself with Iraqi Shi'ites and developed a strong religious and political following against the Iranian government, which Saddam tolerated. When Khomeini began to urge the Shi'ites 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. Here, Khomeini gained media connections and collaborated with a much larger Iranian community, to his advantage. 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. 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.
The outbreak of the 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 Shia Muslims in Iraq to revolt against the ruling Ba'ath Party, and allegations of Iraqi support for ethnic separatists in Iran. 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. 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, in retaliation for a 30 March decree declaring "membership of Dawa [to be] a capital offense". On 30 April, Iraq organised an attack on the Iranian embassy in London. 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.
Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September 1980, first launching airstrikes on numerous targets in Iran, including the Mehrabad Airport of Tehran, before occupying the oil-rich Iranian province of Khuzestan, which also has a sizable Arab minority. The invasion was initially successful, as Iraq captured more than 25,900 km of Iranian territory by 5 December 1980. Saddam became "defender of the Arab world against a fundamentalist Iran." Consequently, many viewed Iraq as "an agent of the civilized world." He fought Iran mainly to prevent the expansion of Shi'a radicalism.
The blatant disregard of international law and violations of international borders were ignored. 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. In the first days of the war, there was heavy ground fighting around strategic ports as Iraq launched an attack on Khuzestan. After making some initial gains, Iraq's troops began to suffer losses from human wave attacks by Iran. Meanwhile, Saddam's efforts to develop nuclear weapons faced a setback when Iraq's nuclear reactor was destroyed on 7 June 1981 by an Israeli air strike. By 1982, Iraq was on the defensive and looking for ways to end the war. Iraq quickly found itself bogged down in one of the longest and most destructive wars of attrition of the 20th century. Khuzestan and Basra were the main focus of the war, and the primary source of their economies.
During the war, Iraq used chemical weapons 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. Tariq Aziz later acknowledged Iraq's use of chemical weapons against Iran, but said that Iran had used them against Iraq first. The Iranians, demanding that the international community should force Iraq to pay war reparations to Iran, refused any suggestions for a cease-fire. Despite several calls for a ceasefire by the United Nations Security Council, hostilities continued until 20 August 1988. The bloody eight-year war ended in a stalemate. Encyclopædia Britannica states: "Estimates of total casualties range from 1,000,000 to twice that number. The number killed on both sides was perhaps 500,000, with Iran suffering the greatest losses." Neither side had achieved what they had originally desired and the borders were left nearly unchanged.
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. Both economies, previously healthy and expanding, were left in ruins. Saddam borrowed tens of billions of dollars from other Arab states and a few billions from elsewhere. This backfired on Iraq and Arab states, as Khomeini was widely perceived as a hero 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. Faced with rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure and internal resistance, Saddam desperately re-sought cash, this time for postwar reconstruction. Iraq became a part of the Arab Cooperation Council in 1989.
The Anfal campaign was a campaign that took place during the war against the 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. The campaign was in retaliation to Kurd's support for Iran and their rebellion. This campaign also targeted Shabaks and Yazidis, Assyrians, Turkoman people and many villages belonging to these ethnic groups were also destroyed. Human Rights Watch estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 people were killed. It considers the campaign as an act of genocide. Some Kurdish sources put the number higher, estimating that 182,000 Kurds were killed.
On 16 March 1988, the Kurdish town of Halabja was attacked with a mix of mustard gas and nerve agents, killing between 3,200 and 5,000 people, and injuring 7,000 to 10,000 more, mostly civilians. 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 U.S. State Department took the official position that Iran was partly to blame for the Halabja massacre. A study by the Defense Intelligence Agency held Iran responsible for the attack, an assessment that was subsequently used by the Central Intelligence Agency for much of the early 1990s. Despite this, few observers today doubt that it was Iraq that executed the Halabja massacre. 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."
The city was largely destroyed in attacks. Shortly before the beginning the Gulf War in 1990, Saddam built a new city for the Kurds nearby, named as Saddam's Halabja (Saddamiyyat Halabja). It was built with every facilities, ranging from hospitals to universities. The employees were granted 6,000 dinars. 4,500 dinars were granted to the self-employed, and 3,000 for mortgage loans.
With the support of other Arab states, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe, and heavily financed by the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Saddam had become "the defender of the Arab world" against a revolutionary, fundamentalist and Shia Islamist Iran. The only exception was the Soviet Union, which initially refused to supply Iraq on the basis of neutrality in the conflict. Although in his memoirs, Mikhail Gorbachev claimed that Leonid Brezhnev refused to aid Saddam over infuriation of Saddam's treatment of Iraqi communists. Meanwhile, Syria supported Iran, as the government led by Hafez al-Assad was mainly dominated by Shi'as.
In a U.S. bid to open full diplomatic relations with Iraq, the country was removed from the U.S list of State Sponsors of Terrorism in February 1982. 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 terrorism ... The real reason was to help them succeed in the war against Iran." Middle East special envoy Donald Rumsfeld met Saddam on 19–20 December 1983 at Baghdad. After which, Saddam sent his deputy Aziz to visit the United States in 1984. He was hosted by Ronald Reagan at the White House, along with then vice-president George H. W. Bush. To strengthen ties with China, Saddam sent Salim Ashir, a chemist on trade mission to China in 1988.
The Soviet Union, France, and China together accounted for over 90% of the value of Iraq's arms imports between 1980 and 1988. While the United States supplied Iraq with arms, dual-use technology and economic aid, it was also involved in a covert and illegal arms deal, providing sanctioned Iran with weaponry. This political scandal became known as the Iran–Contra affair. 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 Iranian navy in the Persian Gulf. Iraq successfully gained some military and financial aid, as well as diplomatic and moral support, from the Soviet Union, China, France, and the United States, which together feared the prospects of the expansion of revolutionary Iran's influence in the region. Saddam also attended Arab League summits.
Chemical weapons were developed by Iraq from materials and technology supplied primarily by West German companies as well as using dual-use technology imported following the Reagan administration's lifting of export restrictions. The United States government also supplied Iraq with "satellite photos showing Iranian deployments." This satellite imagery may have played a crucial role in blocking the Iranian invasion of Iraq in 1982. 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."
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. 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.
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 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. The extent of Kuwaiti oil reserves also intensified tensions in the region. The oil reserves of Kuwait (with a population of 2 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.
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 Reagan administration gave Iraq roughly $4 billion in agricultural credits to bolster it against Iran. Saddam's Iraq became "the third-largest recipient of US assistance." Reacting to Western criticism in April 1990, Saddam threatened to destroy half of Israel with chemical weapons if it moved against Iraq. In May 1990 he criticized US support for Israel warning that "the US cannot maintain such a policy while professing friendship towards the Arabs." 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." The US sent warplanes and combat ships to the Persian Gulf in response to these threats.
The US ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, met with Saddam in an emergency meeting on 25 July 1990, where the Iraqi leader attacked American policy with regards to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE):
Glaspie replied:
Saddam stated that he would attempt last-ditch negotiations with the Kuwaitis but Iraq "would not accept death." US 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. Later, Iraq and Kuwait met for a final negotiation session, which failed. Saddam then sent his troops into Kuwait. 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.
On 2 August 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait, initially claiming assistance to "Kuwaiti revolutionaries", thus sparking an international crisis. On 4 August an Iraqi-backed "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. On 28 August Kuwait formally became the 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." Saddam justified the 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.
When later asked why he invaded Kuwait, Saddam first claimed that it was because Kuwait was rightfully Iraq's 19th province and then said "When I get something into my head I act. That's just the way I am." 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." It was revealed during his 2003–2004 interrogation that in addition to economic disputes, an insulting exchange between the Kuwaiti emir 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. Shortly before he invaded Kuwait, Saddam shipped 100 new 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."
George H. W. Bush responded cautiously for the first several days. 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. 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. The invasion immediately triggered fears that the world's price of oil, and therefore control of the world economy, was at stake. The United Kingdom profited heavily from billions of dollars of Kuwaiti investments and bank deposits. Bush was perhaps swayed while meeting with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who happened to be in the U.S. at the time.
Yasser Arafat supported Saddam during the war. During the period of negotiations and threats following the invasion, Saddam focused renewed attention on the Palestinian problem by promising to withdraw his forces from Kuwait if Israel would relinquish the occupied territories in the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip. Saddam's proposal further split the Arab world, pitting US- and Western-supported Arab states against the Palestinians. The allies ultimately rejected any linkage between the Kuwait crisis and Palestinian issues.
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. 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. 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. Saddam ignored the Security Council deadline. Backed by the Security Council, a U.S-led coalition launched round-the-clock missile and aerial attacks on Iraq, beginning 16 January 1991. Israel, though subjected to attack by Iraqi missiles, refrained from retaliating in order not to provoke Arab states into leaving the coalition. 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.
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, 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." 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. Some 175,000 Iraqis were taken prisoner and casualties were estimated at over 85,000. As part of the cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to scrap all poison gas and germ weapons and allow UN observers to inspect the sites. UN trade sanctions would remain in effect until Iraq complied with all terms. Saddam publicly claimed victory at the end of the war.
Iraq's ethnic and religious divisions, together with the brutality of the conflict that this had engendered, laid the groundwork for postwar rebellions. In the aftermath of the fighting, social and ethnic unrest among Shi'ite Muslims, Kurds, and dissident military units threatened the stability of Saddam's government. Uprisings erupted in the north, south and central parts of Iraq, but were ruthlessly repressed. The uprisings led to the death of 100,000–180,000 people, mostly civilians. The U.S., which had urged Iraqi people to rise up against Saddam, did nothing to assist the rebellions. Despite the widespread Shi'ite 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'ite revolution. 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.
Saddam routinely cited his survival as "proof" that Iraq had in fact won the war against the U.S. This message earned Saddam a great deal of popularity in many sectors of the Arab world. 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." 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 feelings.
One U.S. Muslim observer noted: "People forgot about Saddam's record and concentrated on America ... Saddam Hussein might be wrong, but it is not America who should correct him." A significant shift became visible among many Islamic movements in the post war period, "from an initial Islamic ideological rejection of Saddam Hussein, the secular persecutor of Islamic movements, and his invasion of Kuwait to a more populist Arab nationalist, anti-imperialist support for Saddam (or more precisely those issues he represented or championed) and the condemnation of foreign intervention and occupation."
To gain support from religious Muslims, Saddam started the Faith Campaign in 1993. It was under the supervision of vice president Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri. Some elements of Sharia law were re-introduced, and the phrase "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great"), in Saddam's handwriting, was added to the national flag. Saddam also commissioned the production of a "Blood Qur'an", written using 27 litres of his own blood, to thank God for saving him from various dangers and conspiracies. Under the campaign, numerous mosques and Islamic institutes were built across Iraq. It had a huge impact on the society of Iraq, specially around Mosul, that became more tribal and would fuel the rise of ISIS after 2003.
The United Nations-placed sanctions against Iraq for invading Kuwait were not lifted, blocking Iraqi oil exports. Economic hardship followed within the country as GDP plummeted from US$44.36 billion in 1990 to US$9 billion by 1995. Iraq had lost around US$170 billion of oil revenues. Sanctions also restricted basic-medical equipment and supplies from getting into Iraq. During the mid-1990s, the UN considered relaxing the sanctions imposed because of the hardships suffered by ordinary Iraqis. Studies dispute the number of people who died in south and central Iraq during the years of the sanctions. On 9 December 1996, Saddam's government accepted the Oil-for-Food Programme that the UN had first offered in 1992.
Relations with the U.S. remained tense following the war. The U.S. launched a 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. 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. Also, Bill Clinton maintained sanctions and ordered air strikes in the "Iraqi no-fly zones", in the hope that Saddam would be overthrown by political enemies inside Iraq. 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. After two years of intermittent activity, U.S. and British warplanes struck harder at sites near Baghdad in February 2001. Former CIA case officer Robert Baer reports that he "tried to assassinate" Saddam in 1995, amid "a decade-long effort to encourage a military coup in Iraq."
By the end of 1990s, diplomatic isolation of Iraq with Arab states were gradually disappearing, and the economy of Iraq had improved by 2000, with its GDP increasing to $23.73 billion. Saddam later decided to use Euro, instead of Dollars for Iraqi oil. Almost all of Iraq's oil exports under the Oil-for-food program were paid in Euros since 2001. Approximately 26 billion euros (£17.4bn) was paid for 3.3 billion barrels of oil into an escrow account in New York. Saddam launched a broad plan to reorganize Baghdad as a cultural center. The city's monuments, streets, urban spaces, mosques, churches and synagogues were restored.
Saddam continued involvement in politics abroad. Video tapes retrieved after show his intelligence chiefs meeting with Arab journalists, including a meeting with the former managing director of Al-Jazeera, Mohammed Jassem al-Ali, in 2000. In the video Saddam's son Uday advised al-Ali about hires in Al-Jazeera: "During your last visit here along with your colleagues we talked about a number of issues, and it does appear that you indeed were listening to what I was saying since changes took place and new faces came on board such as that lad, Mansour." He was later sacked by Al-Jazeera.
On 25 April 2001, the British government started investigation on alleged war crimes done by Saddam and a foreign coup d'état was planned to overthrow Saddama after the September 11 attacks, but the plan did not take effect.
In October 2000, Saddam was visited by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's daughter Ayesha Gaddafi.
In May 2001, the ruling party held its 12th Regional Congress. Saddam commenced the congress with a speech advising the more than 300 delegates on how to vote. After the speech, the elections took place, and Saddam was reelected as party general secretary at the Ba'ath congress in Baghdad, with every delegate in the hall rising to their feet. The state television reported that 24 candidates stood, and eight new members were elected for positions in the Ba'ath's 18-member executive, known as the Iraqi Regional Command. The deputy secretary general of the command — Izzat Ibrahim, was re-elected, and according to the constitution, he would become the interim president in the event of Saddam's sudden death. Saddam's youngest son and heir apparent Qusay was elected for the first time into the Command. A surprise was the election of Huda Saleh Mehdi Ammash, the first woman to win a seat on the party executive. Saddam had recently encouraged women to play a greater role in Iraq. Among those who lost their executive seats was the deputy prime minister, Mohammed Hamza al-Zubaidi.
Saddam also invited Kurds to the negotiation table.
In 2002, Austrian prosecutors investigated Saddam government's transactions with Fritz Edlinger that possibly violated Austrian money laundering and embargo regulations. Fritz Edlinger, president of the General Secretary of the Society for Austro-Arab relations (GÖAB) and a former member of Socialist International's Middle East Committee, was an outspoken supporter of Saddam Hussein. In 2005, an Austrian journalist revealed that Fritz Edlinger's GÖAB had received $100,000 from an Iraqi front company as well as donations from Austrian companies soliciting business in Iraq. In 2002, a resolution sponsored by the European Union was adopted by the Commission for Human Rights, which stated that there had been no improvement in the human rights crisis in Iraq. The statement condemned Saddam's government for its "systematic, widespread and extremely grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law." The resolution demanded that Iraq immediately put an end to its "summary and arbitrary executions ... the use of rape as a political tool and all enforced and involuntary disappearances."
In foreign affairs, Saddam sought to have Iraq play a leading role in the Middle East. Saddam rarely left Iraq and had Tariq Aziz, one of his deputies, travel abroad extensively and represent Iraq at many diplomatic meetings. Despite this, Saddam made numerous foreign visits. Most of the visits to western countries he made, when he was the vice president of Iraq.
Saddam enjoyed a close relationship with Russian intelligence agent Yevgeny Primakov that dated back to the 1960s; Primakov may have helped Saddam to stay in power in 1991. Saddam visited the Soviet Union several times. In July 2001, Russian president Vladimir Putin sent a message to Saddam, seeking to improve diplomatic relations between Iraq and Russia. Saddam also opposed Chechen separatism in Russia.
Saddam had friendly relations with Jacques Chirac. Several Iraqi leaders, Lebanese arms merchant Sarkis Soghanalian and others have claimed that Saddam financed Chirac's party. After France participated in the Gulf War against Iraq, Saddam threatened to expose those who had taken largesse from him: "From Mr. Chirac to Mr. Chevènement, politicians and economic leaders were in open competition to spend time with us and flatter us. We have now grasped the reality of the situation. If the trickery continues, we will be forced to unmask them, all of them, before the French public." France armed Saddam and it was Iraq's largest trade partner throughout Saddam's rule. Seized documents show how French officials and businessmen close to Chirac, including Charles Pasqua, his former interior minister, personally benefited from the deals with Saddam. Later, France opposed the invasion of Iraq by the United States, which would topple Saddam.
Iraq's relations with the Arab world have been extremely varied. Egypt's strong material and diplomatic support for Iraq in the war with Iran led to warmer relations and numerous contacts between senior officials, despite the continued absence of ambassadorial-level representation. Since 1983, Iraq has repeatedly called for restoration of Egypt's "natural role" among Arab countries. Iraq was part of the Arab Cooperation Council, that included Jordan, North Yemen and Egypt. However, it was dissolved after the Gulf War.
In August 2000, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez made a visit to Iraq and met Saddam. He was first leader of a foreign state to visit the country, since the Gulf War. His meeting with Saddam was criticized by the United States, a major importer of Venezuela's oil. During the tour to invite the leaders of 10 OPEC member states to a summit the following month, Chávez expressed that he had engaged in "fruitful" discussions with Saddam regarding the future role of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and the defense of reasonable oil prices. He emphasized the significance of bilateral cooperation between their nations in these matters. The discussions between Chávez and Saddam took place in the past, during a period when both leaders were active. Chávez sought to strengthen ties and foster collaboration among OPEC member states, focusing on the organization's future trajectory and the importance of maintaining oil prices at a reasonable level. The aim was to ensure stability and fairness in the global oil market.
Saddam was widely know for pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel stance. He appeared on television threatening to burn and destroy Israel. However, Saddam's official position was that the relations of Iraq with Israel will be determined by the solution accepted by Palestinians. Relations between Iraq and Egypt deteriorated in 1977, as a result of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's peace initiatives with Israel. Relations improved after Egypt supported Iraq in the 1980–1988 war.
Saddam supported several Palestinian guerilla movements. He provided financial support to Palestinians. Under Saddam, Iraq hosted numerous Palestinians as refugees and were given full rights as an Iraqi citizen, unlike situation of Palestinians in other countries. Saddam had support of Yasser Arafat and had close relations with other Palestinian politicl leaders such as Muhammad Hassan Abd al-Rahman Melhem, and invited many to Iraq. According to reports by The Observer, Saddam held secret negotiations with the Israel government. In May 2000, Saddam and his representatives had secret meetings with the Israeli government. He offered that Iraq will end its anti–Israel foreign policy, if Israel will resolve Palestinian refugees issue in Lebanon. However, later this was denied by the government.
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. Saddam also provided financial assistance from Iraq's oil revenue, to the families of the Palestinian victims and militants. Around 20% of Iraq's oil revenue, by the oil-for-food program was for donating to the Palestinians. Contrary to the claims of the United States and the Israelis, not all the money was sent to support suicide bombing. On eve of Christmas in 2000, Saddam wrote a public letter, calling for Muslims and Christians of Iraq, to lead jihad against the Zionist movement. In 2001, Saddam declared on the state Iraqi television:
In 2002, the Arab League summit was held in Beirut, Lebanon, where the Arab Peace Initiative was proposed, calling for an end of the Arab-Israeli conflict if Israel withdrew from territory they occupied beyond the 1967 lines. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri represented Iraq at the summit. Al-Douri did not oppose the plan. At the summit, the League also rejected any attack on Iraq. Same year, following an Israeli offensive into Palestinian territory, Saddam stopped supplying oil to Western countries in order to force Israel to abandon its offensive, a move supported by Iran and Libya.
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. In his January 2002 state of the union address to Congress, President George W. Bush spoke of an "axis of evil" consisting of Iran, North Korea, and Iraq. Moreover, Bush announced that he would possibly take action to topple the Iraqi government, because of the threat of its weapons of mass destruction. Bush stated that "The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade ... Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror."
After the passing of UN Security Council Resolution 1441, which demanded that Iraq give "immediate, unconditional and active cooperation" with UN and IAEA inspections, Saddam allowed U.N. weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix to return to Iraq. 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.
With war still looming on 24 February 2003, Saddam took part in an interview with CBS News reporter Dan Rather. Talking for more than three hours, he denied possessing any weapons of mass destruction, or any other weapons prohibited by the UN guidelines. He also expressed a wish to have a live televised debate with George W. Bush, which was declined. It was his first interview with an American reporter in over a decade. CBS aired the taped interview later that week. 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.
The United States-led coalition forces launched invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2003. The Iraqi government and military collapsed within three weeks of the beginning of the invasion. By the beginning of April, the coalition forces occupied much of Iraq. 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. He was last seen in a video which purported to show him in the Baghdad suburbs surrounded by supporters. When Baghdad fell to US-led forces on 9 April, marked symbolically by the toppling of his statue, Saddam was nowhere to be found and his government was completely overthrown.
In April 2003, Saddam's whereabouts remained in question during the weeks following the fall of Baghdad and the conclusion of the major fighting of the war. Various sightings of Saddam were reported in the weeks following the war, but none were authenticated. At various times he released audio tapes promoting popular resistance to his ousting. On 22 July 2003, his sons Uday and Qusay and 14-year-old grandson Mustafa were killed in a three-hour gunfight with the U.S. forces in Mosul. Upon their deaths, he commemorated them as "martyrs" on radio. Saddam was placed at the top of the US list of most-wanted Iraqis, which included officials of his government and the party members.
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. Following his capture, Saddam was transported to a US base near Tikrit, and later taken to the American base near Baghdad Airport. Documents obtained and released by the National Security Archive detail FBI interviews and conversations with Saddam while he was in US custody. On 14 December, US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer confirmed that Saddam had indeed been captured at a farmhouse in ad-Dawr near Tikrit. Bremer presented video footage of Saddam in custody. He was shown with a full beard and hair longer than his familiar appearance. He was described by US officials as being in good health. Bremer reported plans to put Saddam on trial, but claimed that the details of such a trial had not yet been determined. 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."
British tabloid newspaper 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. During this period Saddam was interrogated by FBI agent George Piro.
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. 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. The tour was conducted by US Marine Maj. Gen. Doug Stone, overseer of detention operations for the US military in Iraq at the time. 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.
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 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. 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. There were assassinations and attempted assassinations of several of Saddam's lawyers. The replacement of the chief presiding judge midway through the trial had impact on the trial.
On 5 November 2006, Saddam was found guilty of crimes against humanity — the killing of 148 Shia residents in the town of Dujail in 1982, and was sentenced to death by hanging. His half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court in 1982, were convicted of similar charges. The verdict and sentencing were both appealed, but subsequently affirmed by Iraq's Supreme Court of Appeals.
Saddam was executed by hanging on the first day of Eid ul-Adha, 30 December 2006, despite his wish to be executed by firing squad (which he argued was the lawful military capital punishment, citing his military position as the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi military). The execution was carried out at Camp Justice, an Iraqi army base in Kadhimiya, a neighborhood of northeast Baghdad.
Saudi Arabia condemned Iraqi authorities for carrying out the execution on a holy day. 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."
Video of the execution was recorded on a mobile phone and his captors could be heard insulting Saddam. The video was leaked to electronic media and posted on the Internet within hours, becoming the subject of global controversy. 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. 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. 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. Not long before the execution, Saddam's lawyers released his last letter.
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." Then one of the crowd repeatedly said the name of the Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr. Saddam laughed and later said, "Do you consider this manhood?" The crowd shouted, "go to Hell." Saddam replied, "To the hell that is Iraq!?" Again, one of the crowd asked those who shouted to keep quiet for God. 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 [dictator] has collapsed!" Saddam said, "May God's blessings be upon Muhammad and his household (family)". 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. 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.
Saddam was buried at his birthplace of Al-Awja in Tikrit, Iraq, on 31 December 2006. He was buried 3 km (2 mi) from his sons Uday and Qusay Hussein. His tomb was reported to have been destroyed in March 2015. Before it was destroyed, a Sunni tribal group reportedly removed his body to a secret location, fearful of what might happen.
In August 1995, Raghad and her husband, Hussein Kamel al-Majid, and Rana and her husband, Saddam Kamel al-Majid, defected to Jordan, taking their children with them. They returned to Iraq when they received assurances that Saddam would pardon them. Within three days of their return in February 1996, both of the Kamel brothers were attacked and killed in a gunfight with other clan members who considered them traitors.
In August 2003, Saddam's daughters Raghad and Rana received sanctuary in Jordan. That month, they spoke with CNN and the Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya in Amman. 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." Her sister Rana also remarked, "He had so many feelings and he was very tender with all of us."
Saddam developed a reputation for liking expensive goods, such as his diamond-coated Rolex wristwatch, and sent copies of them to his friends around the world.
On 28 April 2001, Saddam celebrated his birthday, in form of a mega event.
In 1979, Jacob Yasso of Sacred Heart Chaldean Church in Detroit, Michigan congratulated Saddam Hussein on his presidency. In return, Yasso said that Saddam Hussein donated US$250,000 to his church, which is made up of at least 1,200 families of Middle Eastern descent. In 1980, Detroit Mayor Coleman Young allowed Yasso to present the key to the city of Detroit to Saddam Hussein. At the time, Saddam then asked Yasso, "I heard there was a debt on your church. How much is it?" After the inquiry, Saddam then donated another $200,000 to Chaldean Sacred Heart Church. Yasso said that Saddam made donations to Chaldean churches all over the world, and even went on record as saying "He's very kind to Christians." Saddam helped in the restoration of Meir Taweig Synagogue and construction a new cemetery for Jews in Baghdad.
In 1991, the Iraqi government awarded Saddam the Rafidain medal, also known as Order of the Two Rivers, the country's highest honor, as a recognition of his "historic role" and "noble services to Iraq". This announcement was made following a Cabinet meeting, and Information Minister Hamid Youssef Hummadi stated that the decision was unanimous. The award was bestowed on Saddam, during his 54th birthday, in appreciation of his exceptional contributions and significant impact on Iraq.
He was honored by titles such as "Field Marshal" and "Comrade". Saddam Hussein is one of the recipients of the Key to the City. In 1980, Saddam Hussein was awarded a key to the city of Detroit after he donated almost half a million dollars to a church in the city. The government led by Saddam successfully turned Iraq into a leading hub for healthcare and education. This improved quality of life in Iraq. For improving quality of life of Iraqis, Saddam was honored by an award from UNESCO.
Saddam received a number of medals, which were displayed at a museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. He received the Order of Merit (Wisam al-Jadara), which is rare and was awarded to only a few Iraqi rulers. 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. Saddam received medals for the 1948–'49 Palestinian War, crushing the Kurdish rebellion, the 1963 and 1968 revolutions, cooperation with Syria, peace in 1970, and the 1973 war with Israel.
The political ideas and politics pursued by Saddam became known as Saddamism ("Saddamiyyat"). This doctrine was officially endorsed by his government and promoted by the Iraqi daily newspaper Babil owned by his son Uday Hussein.
During his leadership, Saddam promoted the idea of dual nationalism which combines Iraqi nationalism and Arab nationalism, a much broader form of ethnic nationalism which supports Iraqi nationalism and links it to matters that impact Arabs as a whole. Saddam believed that the recognition of the ancient Mesopotamian origins and heritage of Iraqi Arabs was complementary to supporting Arab nationalism.
It is believed that Saddam had a soft spot for Jews because his mother was saved by her Jewish neighbors. According to the chairman of the Institute for Babylonian Jewish Heritage Mordechai Ben-Porat, "Saddam is fond of the remaining of Jews in his country". According to Baghdad synagogue caretaker Tawfik Soafer, “Saddam has given Jews liberty to do business again, to become doctors, engineers. There is no problem for Jews in Iraq,”
Saddam's Bedouin tribal nature often carried a sense of nobility, reflected in certain aspects of his character and behavior. A notable example occurred upon the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, his long-time adversary. Addressing his cabinet after receiving the news, Saddam said:
Saddam himself personally enjoyed Kurdish culture, often wearing traditional Kurdish clothing in state visits to northern Iraq. He expressed personal admiration for Kurds. In the course of his reign, the government officially included the historic Kurdish Muslim leader Saladin as a patriotic symbol in Iraq, while Saddam called himself son of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and had stamped the bricks of ancient Babylon with his name and titles next to him. During the Gulf War, Saddam claimed the historic roles of Nebuchadnezzar, Saladin and Gamal Abdel Nasser.
He also conducted two show elections, in 1995 and 2002. In the 1995 referendum, conducted on 15 October, he reportedly received 99.96% of the votes in a 99.47% turnout, getting 3,052 negative votes among an electorate of 8.4 million.
In the 15 October 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.
He erected statues around the country, which Iraqis toppled after his fall.
The popular cartoon South Park satirized Hussein on several different occasions. He first appeared in the episode Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus. The show incorporates a running gag where Saddam finds a love interest in a cartoon version of Satan.
Many Arabs praise Saddam as a true leader who stood up to Western imperialism, Israeli occupation of Palestine, and foreign intervention in the region, while many Iraqis, especially Shias and Kurds, view him negatively as a dictator responsible for brutal authoritarianism, repression and injustices.
Supporters noted that under Saddam, the government invested heavily in infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges, and public buildings. This development contributed to the modernization of Iraq's cities and improved the country's overall infrastructure. Under Saddam's regime, there was an emphasis on improving access to education and healthcare. The government invested in building schools and hospitals, and literacy rates in Iraq increased significantly during his rule. He implemented policies aimed at advancing women's rights in Iraq. Women were encouraged to participate in education and the workforce, and many held high-ranking positions in government and public institutions. For his policies, Saddam is remembered well among Iraqi women. Saddam's regime had a secular character, which meant that religion did not play a dominant role in the government's policies. This allowed for a degree of religious diversity and tolerance within Iraq. Still today, many Iraqi Jews respect Saddam, for his fair treatment of Jews. This was also seen for the Iraqi Mandaeans, with many Iraqi Mandaeans holding strong-respect for Saddam's protection of the Mandaeans; Saddam even constructed temples for the Mandaean people. Saddam's regime later placed greater emphasis on Islam in all sectors of Iraqi life from 1993 through the Faith Campaign. In 1977, Saddam stated "our Party does not take a neutral stance between faith and atheism; it is always on the side of faith."
By contrast, critics have condemned Saddam as a repressive totalitarian leader. His regime was notorious for its repressive tactics, including widespread surveillance, torture, and extrajudicial killings. Human rights organizations documented numerous cases of human rights abuses committed by his government. Saddam's regime suppressed political dissent and opposition through a combination of violence, intimidation, and censorship. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press were severely curtailed, and political opponents were often executed or imprisoned. He initiated three military conflicts, including the Iran-Iraq War, Invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf War. These actions resulted in significant loss of life and destabilized the region. 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. The economic sanctions imposed on Iraq during his rule further exacerbated hardships for the country's population. Saddamism has been described by critics as a mix of "Sunni Arab nationalism, confused Stalinism, and fascist zeal for the fatherland and its leader".
In the Arab world, Saddam is well-regarded, especially for his support of the Palestinian cause. A memorial dedicated to Saddam was built in Qalqilya, Palestine. Additionally, many portraits and other forms of memorials are found throughout Palestine. During his regime, Iraq and India shared a strong relationship. Even today, Saddam has a huge fan following in India. Indian singer Sidhu Moose Wala mentioned Saddam in his song "Bambiha Bole", stating that he was a well-reputed person. Saddam was an admirer of Indira Gandhi, whom he met in 1974 during an international trip to India. In July 2016, then US presidential candidate Donald Trump praised Saddam for militant suppression and stability during his presidency in Iraq. A beach near the Indian city of Malappuram has been named Saddam Beach. Saddam is still loved by many Jordanians. Despite having tense relations with Kurdish separatists, Saddam developed good relations with some Kurds who supported him. Libyan politician and commander of the Libyan National Arab Army, Khalifa Haftar, named his son Saddam Haftar after Saddam Hussein.
Cultural depictions of Saddam can be found in various movies, including three documentary movies made on Saddam. Saddam's Tribe, released in 2007, explores the complex relationship between Saddam Hussein and the Al-Bu Nasir, a powerful tribal group 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.