Saddam Hussein Bio

Saddam Hussein was a prominent and influential leader for Iraq and rose to power from humble beginnings, this is his story. Saddam, which means "he who confronts," was born in a village called al-Auja in April 28, 1937 in northern Iraq. Saddam decided at the age of ten to live with his recently imprisoned uncle instead of living with his mother and abusive step father. Saddam didn't start primary school until he moved in with his uncle it wasn’t till he was 18 that Saddam graduated from primary school and unsuccessfully tried to join the military. Saddam then moved to Baghdad and started high school but found it tedious and much preferred politics. This was the start to his rise to political prominence.

Saddam’s uncle was the one who introduced him to politics being an ardent Arab nationalist and part of the Baath Party which Saddam later joined in 1957 at the age of 20. Starting at the lowest rungs of the Baath Party he was chosen to be one of the assassins that were tasked to assassinate the prime minister at the time Abd al-Karim Qasim failing to do so and wounded Saddam retreated to Syria and then later to Egypt for 3 years. He attended Cairo Law School (1962–63) and continued his studies at Baghdad Law College after the Baʿthists took power in Iraq in 1963. Returning from exile he then married his cousin, Sajida Tulfah. The Baath Party was overthrown after a mere nine months and Saddam was thrown in jail before escaping in July 1966. Saddam rose in rank until he was a prominent leader in the Baath party and was key in the coup that thrust the Party back in power in 1968. He became vice president and later directed the nationalization of Iraq’s oil industry.

Saddam after nearly a decade of service amassed enough power and prominence that after president Bakr resigned he took power. His goals were simple to make Egypt leader of the Arab world. Saddam led Iraq in a war that started in September 1980 and was in the height of his power and prominence that he fought against against Iran in which he used chemical weapons against Kurds within Iraq, including gassing the Kurdish town of Halabja which killed 5,000 in March 1988. The Iran-Iraq War dragged on in a stalemate