Saddam Hussein’s Rise to Power

EARLY YEARS

Growing up in a small town in a primarily agricultural region of Iraq, Saddam Hussein was influenced by politics from an early age. Politics sparked an interest in Hussein and he developed his political stances from influences from his childhood. Early in his life, Saddam Hussein was introduced to politics by his Uncle Khairallah Talfah. Talfah was part of the Anglo-Iraqi war and was an Iraqi nationalist as well as part of the Ba’ath party which favored Arab nationalism. Talfah introduced Saddam to the party when Saddam was a teenager, this was his first introduction to politics. In the year 1957, Saddam followed the political ideals of his uncle and joined the Ba’ath party. He dropped out of school that same year at the age of 20 because he found school too boring.

EARLY YEARS IN BAATH PARTY

Revolutionary Sediment was common in Iraq during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Assaults lead by Arab nationalists on merchants, tribal leaders, and landowners was a frequent occurrence. These Arab nationalists, like Hussein, were inspired by the leadership of Gamel Abdel Nasser (EGYPTIAN). Nasser was a pan-Arab leader as well as a central influence on the nationalist movement. Nasser inspired the nationalists by fighting the British and French during the Suez crisis in 1956, modernizing Egypt, and uniting the Arab world politically. Nasser would be one of the major people in blazing the trail for Saddam Hussein’s later rise to power.

In 1958, a year after Saddam had joined the Ba'ath party, Faisal II who was the leader of Iraq at the time was overthrown by army officers led by General Abd al-Karim Qasim. This event became known as the 14th July revolution. This coup d’état was the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy established in 1921 under the power of the British. King Faisal II, the regent and Crown Prince'Abd al-Ilah, and Prime Minister Nuri as-Said were all assassinated during this coup causing a complete replacement of power in Iraq.

General Qasim took power after the coup and ruled until he came into conflict with Nasser. Even though Qasim had the political power, Nasser was still the ideological leader for most of the population in Iraq including the Arab nationalist movement. Nasser had a grand scheme to unite all the Arab countries politically but Qasim did not want to join Nasser’s the United Arab Republic and in a counter movement Qasim allied with the Iraqi communist party who were strongly opposed to any joint Arab alliance. This is when Qasim ran into problems with Nasser. It was not long after this disagreement that Nasser, in joint collaboration with the Iraqi Ba’ath party, planned the assassination of Qasim. Saddam Hussein rose up as one of the leaders in the assassination plot because of his background as an educated man as well as his long-term support of the Ba’ath party. On October 7th, 1959 there was an assassination plot on Qasim. As his car drove by, two assailants, one of them being Hussein, came up to the windows and opened fire. Hussein fired prematurely and Qasim was only injured, and the assailants fled for fear of being caught. Hussein fled to Egypt where he stayed until 1964. Qasim was eventually overthrown by Iraqi army officers who had ties to the Ba’ath party in the Ramadan Revolution coup of 1963. It was at that time that the Ba’ath party gained power.

RISING TO POWER

In 1968, Hussein was a leader in a bloodless coup in cooperation with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. After the coup, al-Bakr was named the president of Iraq and Hussein was his deputy. Although al-Bakr was in power, Hussein was gaining more power within the party. Throughout the early 1970’s Hussein continued to rise in power as he built up a strong reputation as being progressive and effective politically. Hussein also gained favor in the government by promoting party cohesiveness, as this was the reason that Hussein thought that the first rule of the Ba’ath party failed in Iraq. Saddam did this by addressing the standard of living in Iraq, specifically by using Iraq’s oil resources to boost the economy. On June 1st, 1972 Hussein took over Iraq’s international oil trading which, after the energy crisis of 1973, skyrocketed revenues. With the influx of new money, Hussein could proceed with his agenda of providing social services that could not be rivaled by any other countries in the area. Hussein also put newspapers on his payroll, and they praised him as the defender of the Arab world against the influence of Judaism. He always gave the nationalist front exactly what they wanted.

By 1976, Hussein had risen to the position of general in the Iraqi forces. This new position allowed him to strong-arm his political opponents, and as al-Bakr aged and could not fulfill all of his duties, Hussein arose as a growing figure in Iraqi politics.

CONSOLIDATION

Saddam Hussein called a meeting of the Ba’ath party leaders shortly after he claimed the presidency. At this meeting, he made false claims of a plot to assassinate him. He called out 68 names of alleged conspirators within the party. Those with their name called out were escorted out of the meeting and executed. This scare tactic from Hussein had huge implications on his constituency. No one dared confront Hussein for the fear of execution.

Saddam Hussein rose to power in a time of instability in Iraq. His appointment to the presidency was not of democratic means. Although he was in favor of the people at the time he became president, he gained his position by consolidating power in the government and seizing the presidency when the chance arose. He is similar to other dictators like Hitler in the way that he became a champion of the people. Like Hitler, Hussein rose to power after a long period of instability and poor living conditions in his country. Both leaders used the economy as a way to win the hearts of the people. Just as Hitler industrialized Germany and improved their transportation system through the creation of the Autobahn, Hussein seized control of the oil industry and brought unprecedented revenues to Iraq. Both of them then used the army as a way of controlling their political enemies. As Hitler used the concentration camps, Hussein led his Al-Anfal campaign against the Kurdish regions of Iraq. Estimates say that up to 182,000 Kurdish people were killed (Johns, Dave).

Looking at the situation through American eyes, it is hard to see how such a radical like Hussein could ever be in the favor of the people, but he was a champion of the people. He brought them back into the modern times after the region was being controlled by Britain, post-World War II. He modernized the public health system, agricultural system, and he raised the economy. All of these issues were very important to the Iraqi people. Furthermore, he controlled the media so he made his atrocities out to be a nationalist purge of non-supporters who had betrayed the party.

This highlights a major flaw in the democracy which is that the government can be swayed easily by popular opinion. People who can control public opinion can gain power easily because they can rise up under the support of the people. This is how both Hitler and Hussein came to power. Although Hussein did his through a coup and eventually seizing power instead of a public election, he kept his power for a long period of time by controlling his people. Once he had built up enough supporters and enough power in the military, he could do whatever he liked because no one in the country could gain enough power to overthrow him. In conclusion, Saddam Hussein rose to power through the consolidation of power internally in the government and externally through the support of the Iraqi people.