| The Rise and Fall
of Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein, Iraq, and the United
States
Read a biography of Saddam Hussein and
learn more about the “dark and painful era” the
Iraqis endured during his tyrannical rule. Gain an understanding
of U.S.-Iraq relations over the past quarter century and the
events leading up to the capture of Saddam Hussein.
Saddam Hussein: The Early Years
The Politics of Saddam Hussein
A Rising Dictator
The Iraq-Iran War
Invading Kuwait: Bully of the Middle East
A Brutal Regime: Saddam’s House of Cards
Disarming Saddam
Building a Case Against the Ace of Spades
Saddam Hussein: The Early Years
Saddam Hussein was born on April 28, 1937,
in the small village of Al Awja near Tikrit, Iraq. His family
was poor and had a tragic history. Both his father, Saddam
al-Majid, and older brother died before he was born. His mother,
Subha, attempted suicide while she was still pregnant with
Saddam. His mother, in keeping with tribal custom, later married
her husband’s brother, Ibrahim Hassan.
Even at an early age, Saddam was ambitious
and eager to learn. Mistreated and denied an education, Saddam
abandoned village life for Baghdad in the middle of the night—at
the age of 10—to live with his Uncle Khayrallah Tulfah.
His uncle had an early and lasting influence on Saddam’s
politics.
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The Politics of Saddam Hussein
At 16 Saddam applied to—but was denied
admission to—the Baghdad Military Academy. He turned
his attention instead to radical politics.
In 1957, at the age of 20, Saddam joined
the Ba’ath party, a struggling organization of radicals
that supported pan-Arab nationalism. In 1959, not long after
joining the party, Saddam was chosen to take part in an assassination
attempt on Iraqi leader General Abdel Karim Kassem (Qasim).
The assassination attempt failed and Saddam was forced to
flee Iraq for Egypt, where he studied law at the Cairo Law
School. While in Cairo, Saddam became involved in the Ba’ath
party student cell, taking part in revolution plans to overthrow
Iraq’s General Kassem.
Saddam returned to Iraq in 1963, when the
Ba’ath party assassinated Kassem in a
coup d’ etat and seized power over Iraq. It was during
this time that Saddam married his cousin, Sajida. The couple
had five children—Uday, Qusai, Raghad, Rina, and Hala.
Shortly thereafter, the Ba’ath Party was overthrown
and Saddam was imprisoned for his involvement as an interrogator
and torturer. While in prison, he studied the politics of
Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
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A Rising Dictator
In July 1968, the Ba’ath party again orchestrated a
successful coup d’etat and seized control of Iraq. Saddam
gained power and influence during the 1970s, serving as deputy
chairman of the new Revolutionary Command Council under his
cousin, General Ahmad Hassan Al Bakr.
From 1968 to 1979, Saddam Hussein and General
Bakr instituted both foreign policy and conflict with their
aggressive actions. A treaty signed with the Soviet Union—during
the Cold War—nationalized the Iraqi Petroleum Company.
Profits from oil were “pumped” back into Iraq,
improving industry, education, and health care. During this
time, Saddam began placing his relatives and allies in important
government and business positions.
On July 16, 1979, Saddam Hussein forced General Ahmad Hassan
Al Bakr to resign and seized the presidency. In the days that
followed a reported 450 people were executed as Hussein purged
the government of rivals and dissidents.
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The Iraq-Iran War
Meanwhile, in neighboring Iran, Islamic fundamentalists overthrew
the Shah and Saddam feared the revolution would spread to
Iraq's Shiite majority. He defied a 1975 treaty and invaded
Iran, sending more than 200,000 Iraqi troops into the Iranian
province of Khuzestan.
On March 16, 1988, Iraq attacked the Kurdish
city of Halabja with bombs filled with mustard
gas, Sarin, and Tabun, killing approximately 5,000 Kurds.
As the war waged on, Hussein continued
to use chemical warfare. The Anfal Offensive resulted in the
death or disappearance of 50,000 to 100,000 Kurdish villagers.
On July 18, 1988, Iraq and Iran agreed
to the terms of a U.N.-sponsored truce. A ceasefire officially
ended the war on August 20, 1988.
It is estimated that more than 400,000
people were killed and 750,000 injured in the Iraq-Iran
War. With a price tag of 400 billion per side, the brutal
war left both countries financially devastated.
During the war, the United States supported Iraq because it,
too, feared the spread of radical Islam. The United States
actually removed Iraq from its infamous list of “nations
supporting terrorism” in 1982. The Iran-Contra
scandal left a bitter taste in Saddam’s mouth, however,
when he learned that the United States had been secretly selling
weapons to Iran.
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Invading Kuwait: Bully of the Middle East
Despite massive casualties and war debt,
Saddam instigated yet another conflict with neighboring Kuwait
in 1990. Iraq and Kuwait were already at odds over the cost
of oil. When Kuwait refused to forgive Iraq’s war debt,
an indignant Saddam invaded the small oil-rich country on
August 2, 1990.
In response to the invasion, President
George Bush said, “America
does not seek conflict, but America will stand by her friends.”
Saddam was ordered to evacuate Kuwait by
January 15, 1991.
The deadline came and went.
- On January 17, 1991, the Gulf War began. Operation
Desert Storm was swift and massive.
- Over a period of six weeks, coalition forces peppered
Iraq with more bombs—85,000 tons—than were used
during all of World War II.
- The United States launched cruise missiles for the first
time.
- Allied planes flew more than 116,000 sorties.
- Smart bombs were used to pinpoint targets such as military
headquarters, airfields, bridges, communication centers,
and power plants.
That same day, in response to the allied
campaign, Saddam targeted Israel with Scud missiles. Israel
did not take the bait; instead, it relied on Patriot missiles
to intercept the Scuds.
Saddam was ordered to evacuate Kuwait by
February 23.
Again, the deadline came and went. In an
act of defiance, Iraqi troops set fire to 600 Kuwaiti oil
fields and released 8 million barrels of Kuwaiti oil into
the Persian Gulf.
On February 24, the allied forces launched
a ground-air-sea campaign that devastated Iraqi troops within
100 hours of its initiation.
The war officially ended on March 3, 1991,
after Iraq agreed to end its occupation of Kuwait and Iraqi
commanders agreed to the terms of the U.N.-sponsored ceasefire.
Saddam Hussein did not attend the formal meeting between U.N.
officials and his commanders.
After the ceasefire, uprisings were staged
by Shi’ah Muslims in southern Iraq and Kurds in northern
Iraq. Saddam suppressed the uprisings while U.S. forces were
ordered not to intervene (due to the U.S. policy of containment).
It is estimated that tens of thousands of Shi’ah Muslims
were killed and more than a million Kurds fled from Iraq to
avoid Saddam’s forces.
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A Brutal Regime: Saddam’s House of Cards
Saddam’s regime consisted of many
of his relatives, long-time members of the Ba’ath party,
and residents of his village of Tikrit. In such a brutal regime,
trust and loyalty were at a premium, as little was to be had.
In a statement presented to the House Armed Services Committee
in December 1990, Dr. Jerrold M. Post explained Saddam’s
rationale:
“Commitments and loyalty are a matter
of circumstance, and circumstances change. If an individual,
or a nation, is perceived as an impediment or a threat, no
matter how loyal in the past, that individual or nation will
be eliminated violently without a backward glance, and the
action will be justified by the ‘exceptionalism of revolutionary
needs.’”
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Pocket Aces: Saddam’s Two Sons
Ace of Hearts
Uday Hussein, Saddam’s temperamental eldest son, was
infamous for his unbridled brutality. He and his brother,
Qusai, were killed by U.S. forces in a four-hour firefight
on July 22, 2003.
Uday was “elected” to the Iraqi
parliament in 1999, capturing 99 percent of the vote. He rarely
attended parliament sessions. He also controlled Iraq's most
popular newspaper, Babil. He established a media empire in
Iraq, featuring Western programs on his television and radio
channels.
Uday was most known for his position as
head of the National Iraqi Olympic Committee. He reportedly
tortured and jailed athletes who failed to win.
In 1988, Uday murdered Hanna Jajou, Saddam's
valet and food taster. Saddam was furious with his eldest
son, and he had him jailed and sentenced him to death. Only
the intervention of King Hussein of Jordan spared Uday’s
life, as he convinced Saddam to exile Uday for one year to
Switzerland.
In 1995, Uday shot and wounded Saddam's
half-brother, Watban Ibrahim.
A 1996 assassination attempt left Uday
paralyzed from the waist down.
At one time, Uday was the heir apparent to Saddam. However,
even Saddam grew tired of his eldest son’s actions,
grooming instead his younger son, Qusai, as a potential heir.
Ace of Clubs
Qusai Hussein was killed by U.S. military forces alongside
his younger brother on July 22, 2003.
Qusai was quiet, calculating, and
just as violent as his father. He was one of the most feared
men in Iraq. Once Uday had fallen from Saddam’s graces,
Saddam looked to his youngest son to some day take over the
leadership of the tyrannical regime.
Qusai’s responsibilities were
vast. He led Iraq's intelligence and security services, the
Republican
Guard and the Special
Republican Guard. Beginning in the 1990s, he was responsible
for the group that allegedly hid weapons of mass destruction
from U.N. weapons inspectors.
Learn
more about Saddam’s regime and view the playing cards
issued by the U.S. government, featuring its 55 most wanted.
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Disarming Saddam
On April 3, 1991, the United Nations passed Resolution
687, creating UNSCOM
for the sole purpose of performing weapons inspections in
Iraq. The United Nations also imposed sanctions
and established no-fly zones. The Oil-for-Food
Program was created to soften the blow of these economic sanctions
on the people of Iraq. Saddam agreed to the program in 1995,
but the Iraqi people did not receive any aid until 1997 because
of Saddam’s corrupt ways.
UNSCOM’s first inspection took place
in June 1991. In September, UNSCOM uncovered documents featuring
Saddam’s plans to create nuclear weapons. The cat-and-mouse
game between Saddam and inspectors continued until December
1998. Saddam’s outright refusal to allow weapons inspections
resulted in President Bill Clinton ordering Operation
Desert Fox.
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Building a Case Against the Ace of Spades
On September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon.
In an address to the American people, President
George W. Bush warned that the United States would “make
no distinction between the terrorists who committed these
acts and those who harbor them.”
Speeches that followed hammered out the
president’s foreign policy and the government’s
plans for Saddam’s regime:
On November 8, 2002, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution
1441, calling for unrestricted weapons inspections in
Iraq.
In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin
Powell informed the U.N. that the inspections had not been
effective in disarming Saddam.
On March 20, 2003, the United States launched
Operation Iraqi Freedom, an offensive to remove Saddam Hussein
from power and to free the Iraqi people from the cruel dictator.
By early April, U.S. forces had control over the Iraqi capital
of Baghdad and the search was on for Saddam.
On December 13, U.S. troops took
part in Operation
Red Dawn, capturing
former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
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