Saddam Hussein Takes Power
DOCUMENT IN CONTEXT
Saddam Hussein dominated Iraq for more than one-third of the period between the
establishment of Iraq as an independent country following World War I and the first
decade of the twenty-first century. He built a power structure based on loyalty to him
rather than to the state of Iraq and anchored in security services, the Baath Party, and
family allegiances from his home region around Tikrit. All these splintered after the
United States forced Hussein from power in 2003.
Hussein’s rise to unrivaled power began with a 1968 coup by leaders of the Baath
Party, which had briefly governed Iraq five years earlier. Maj. Gen. Ahmad Hasan
al-Bakr, the central figure in the coup, ultimately emerged as president of Iraq and
chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, which ran the government. Within
a year, however, Bakr’s tribal relative and fellow native of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein,
assumed much of the real power as vice chairman of the council. Unlike Bakr and
most other senior leaders, Hussein did not have a military background, but as a Baath
Party organizer he possessed valuable political experience, which he used to maneuver
past his rivals.
During the 1970s, Iraq improved its often-strained relations with other Arab coun-
tries and its economic performance, largely because of the increase in world oil prices
after the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Troubled by ill health, Bakr increasingly
yielded power to Hussein until July 16, 1979, when Bakr resigned suddenly. Hussein
immediately succeeded to all the top positions, becoming president of the country,
commander in chief of the military, chairman of the Revolutionary Command Coun-
cil, and head of the Baath Party. In a speech on July 17—the eleventh anniversary of
the Baath Party’s return to power—Hussein asserted that the passage of leadership
from Bakr to himself had been a “moral and normal constitutional” event for Iraq. In
an example of the grandiose rhetoric that was to become one of his trademarks, Hus-
sein also characterized this peaceful leadership change as “unique among all the exper-
iments in the ancient and contemporary worlds.”
Despite his supposed admiration for constitutional processes, Hussein immediately
demonstrated just how ruthless his rule would be by purging the government and
Baath Party of those he suspected of not being sufficiently loyal to him. Much of this
took place in public at a special Baath Party meeting shortly after he seized power. As
Hussein smoked a cigar and pretended to be shocked by the presentation of evidence
of disloyalty, dozens of party members were led from the room, one by one, never to
be seen again.
Little more than a year after taking power, Hussein led Iraq into a war with Iran,
apparently expecting an easy victory over his neighbor’s army, which had been deci-
mated in the fallout of the Islamic revolution. The war proved to be a disaster for Iran
and for Iraq, lasting eight years, ending in defeat for both countries, and serving as a
prelude to future wars (Iran-Iraq War and Diplomacy, p. 430).
420 IRAQ AND THE GULF WARS