Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (
Arabic:
صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي '; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was the fifth
President of
Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the
Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organisation
Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region—which espoused
ba'athism, a mix of
Arab nationalism and
Arab socialism—Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup (later referred to as the
17 July Revolution) that brought the party to power in Iraq.
As vice president under the ailing General
Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security forces through which he tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized
oil and other industries. The state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the
Iran–Iraq War, the
Persian Gulf War, and
UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as oil money helped Iraq's economy to grow at a rapid pace. Positions of power in the country were mostly filled with
Sunnis, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population.
Saddam formally rose to power in 1979, though he had been the de facto head of Iraq for several years prior (see Succession). He suppressed several movements, particularly
Shi'a and
Kurdish movements seeking to overthrow the government or gain independence, respectively, and maintained power during the
Iran–Iraq War of 1980 through 1988. In 1990 he ordered the invasion of
Kuwait, leading to the
Gulf War of 1991. Whereas some venerated him for his opposition to
Israel—which included the use of military force—he was widely condemned in the west for the brutality of his dictatorship.
In March 2003, a coalition led by the U.S. and U.K.
invaded Iraq to depose Saddam, after
U.S. President George W. Bush and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused him of possessing
weapons of mass destruction and having
ties to al-Qaeda. Saddam's Ba'ath party was disbanded and Iraq made a transition to a
democratic system. Following
his capture on 13 December 2003, the
trial of Saddam took place under the
Iraqi interim government. On 5 November 2006, Saddam was convicted of charges related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi
Shi'ites and was sentenced to death by
hanging.
His execution was carried out on 30 December 2006.