Following are excerpts from a speech by Saddam Hussein as the new president of
Iraq on July 17, 1979.DOCUMENT
Hussein’s First Presidential
Address to the Nation
JULY17, 1979In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate. Citizens, masses of our great
people: On this blessed occasion—the anniversary of our people’s revolution, the rev-
olution of honest strugglers—I greet you from the depths of my heart. My speech to
you today will not be official or traditional. I will not deal with political or general
affairs as is customary. It is a special speech from the heart to the great people in great
Iraq and to the great Arab nation.
Yesterday you listened to the speech of the father and great comrade, Abu
Haytham [Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr]. What his speech described is a unique example
among all the experiments in the world. Today I will clarify to you other basic aspects,
dimensions and facts of this 15-year experiment.
The transfer of power from leader to leader in the moral and constitutional
manner that took place in our country, party and revolution is unique among all
the experiments in the ancient and contemporary worlds. It is unique but not
strange because it emanates from the Arab nation’s nobility, the greatness of the
message of Islam and the principles of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party—the stan-
dard bearer of the nation’s resurgence in the current age. It is a phenomenon that
is compatible with the nature of the 17 July revolution’s march in all its details
and dimensions.
During the revolution’s march, we dealt with the issue of authority as Ba’athists
and as the grandsons of those great men who propagated the most brilliant human-
itarian messages to the farthest corners of the world and who were glorious models
of good breeding, courage and chivalry. In our opinion, authority is not power, dom-
inance and self-satisfaction. It is a burden that we carry to apply practical principles
in the service of the people, in support of the nation and in order to end injustice.
This concept, brothers, is the result of our party’s rich experiment in Iraq, particu-
larly the [1963] Ramadan revolution experiment and our party’s experiment in the
pan-Arab arena. These experiments helped us safeguard this concept and played a
major role in fortifying us against error....
[In the next section of his speech, Hussein asserts that he had requested that he not be given a
formal position in the government once the Baath Party took power. His party colleagues
rejected his request, however, and made him vice chairman of the Revolution Command Coun-
cil in July 1968.]
IRAQ AND THE GULF WARS 421