influence on Husayn’s developing political con-
sciousness, infusing him with nationalist, antico-
lonialist, and antiregime sentiments.
Husayn attended primary and secondary
school in Baghdad, where he became active in
student politics and was attracted to the pan-
Arab vision of Jamal abd al-nasir (d. 1970) and
the Baathist ideas of Michel Aflaq (d. 1989). He
joined the Baath Party in 1957 and was sent to
jail after becoming involved in antiregime activi-
ties. Husayn later participated in a failed plot to
assassinate ruling general Abd al-Karim Qasim
(d. 1963) soon after fleeing to syria and egypt,
where he completed his secondary education and
entered Cairo University to study law.
Husayn returned to Iraq when the Baath Party
seized power in February 1963 and was soon in
charge of the party’s military organization and
the Peasant Bureau, which helped him build an
important constituency. But the Baathists were
ousted from power nine months later, at which
time Husayn married his cousin Sajida Talfah
and politically reestablished close ties with senior
Baathists. He was arrested again for antiregime
activity and sentenced to two years in jail, where
he continued his political activities and resumed
his education. This period left an important
impression on his tactics, forcing him to become
self-reliant, wary of opponents, and intolerant of
internal party divisions.
After escaping from prison in 1966, Husayn
played a major role in reorganizing and rebuilding
the Baath Party in Iraq, leading to the overthrow
of the regime in 1968. During the early years of
the second Baath government, Husayn gradually
strengthened his power base, championing party
unity, a strong military, an end to the Kurdish
rebellion, and a modernized society. He played
a major role in the nationalization of the Iraqi
oil industry, securing its income to finance his
reform policies. In 1979, Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr
(d. 1982) relinquished the presidency to Husayn,
who quickly purged his party and executed a
number of top officials.
Aware of the ethnosectarian structure of Iraqi
society, Husayn adopted a secular domestic pol-
icy that avoided any politicization of religion,
emphasized Iraq’s unique character and history,
and developed a cult of personality as a modern
populist. Focus was placed on absorbing modern
technology and linking military and industrial
production. In terms of foreign policy, Iraq signed
an aid pact with the Soviet Union in 1972, which
lasted until 1978, at which time Iraq settled
within the American sphere of influence until- However, Husayn sought a leading role in
the Middle East for Iraq, opposing a policy of
dependence on either the Soviet Union or the
United States, and favored establishing close
cooperation with Europe, particularly France, to
balance international relations.
After the iranian revolUtion oF 1978–1979,
relations rapidly deteriorated between the two
countries. Husayn believed the new regime posed
a serious threat to Iraq’s internal stability and
favored confrontation. Soon, the two countries
entered into eight years of bloody and costly
war. Iraq ultimately emerged as the victor, albeit
an exhausted one. In the meantime, the regime
waged a harsh campaign against Kurdish insur-
gents, which culminated in the destruction of
villages, forced resettlements, and the use of
chemical weapons at Halabja. Husayn came to
believe that the United states and its allies were
unhappy with Iraq’s victory over iran and wanted
to punish him for Iraq’s independent posturing
and the enlargement of its military arsenal. In the
post–cold war era, he began to warn other Arab
states about the need to resist American imperial
ambitions in the Middle East.
The invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was spurred
on by Husayn’s need to finance debt incurred dur-
ing the war with Iran, his belief that Kuwait was
historically an integral part of Iraq, and conflict-
ing signals he received from the United States.
This event revealed Husayn’s high ambition and
self-confidence, which allowed him to consult
widely while ultimately making decisions alone
K 316 Husayn, Saddam