I.

Introduction

Hussein, Saddam (1937-2006), authoritarian president of Iraq (1979-2003), who led his country into three devastating wars. Born on April 28, 1937, to a poor farming family in Tikrit, a town north of Baghdad, Hussein was raised by his widowed mother and other relatives. He moved to Baghdad in 1955 and became involved in politics, joining the opposition Baath Party, an Arab nationalist movement. Hussein rose quickly within the party and in 1959 helped organize an assassination attempt on 'Abd al-Karim Kassem, the military president of Iraq. Both Kassem and Hussein were injured in the gun battle, and Hussein fled to Cairo.