|
Saddam Hussein0 Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, born April 28, 1937 1, was the President of Iraq from 1979 until the United States-led invasion of Iraq reached Baghdad on April 9, 2003.
A leading member of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, which espoused secular pan-Arabism, economic modernization, and socialism, Saddam (see 2 regarding names) played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to long-term power. Saddam's ba'ath party came to power through the help of the CIA. The Ba'ath party secretary general Ali Saleh Sa'adi said, "We came to power on a CIA train". [1] After the Ba'ath party came to power the then head of the CIA James H. Critchfield said, "We regarded it as a great victory". [2]
As vice president under his cousin, the frail General Ahmed Bakr, Saddam tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces by creating repressive security forces and cementing his own firm authority over the apparatus of government.
|