In 1968 the Ba-ath Party seized power in a coup lead by General Bakr. The Ba-ath Party believes in the creation of a single socialists pan-Arab state that would replace all existing Arab countries and in the cold war it was strongly aligned with the Soviet Union. In 1970 all foreign businesses including the Iraq Petroleum Company were seized and Iraq declared oil would be used as "a political weapon in the struggle against imperialism and Zionism". In 1979 Saddam Hussein replaced Bakr as president of Iraq. Saddam was a particularly brutal ruthless man, he attempted to assassinate Quassim in 1959, played a major role in the 1968 coup and under Bakr he had lead the much feared Ba-athist secret police. One of his first acts as President was to call a Ba-ath Party assembly were he declared his main political rivals to be traitors and spies, they were lead from the assembly one by one to be tried and executed. | In 1968 the Ba-ath Party seized power in a coup lead by General Bakr. The Ba-ath Party believes in the creation of a single socialists pan-Arab state that would replace all existing Arab countries and in the cold war it was strongly aligned with the Soviet Union. In 1970 all foreign businesses including the Iraq Petroleum Company were seized and Iraq declared oil would be used as "a political weapon in the struggle against imperialism and Zionism". In 1979 Saddam Hussein replaced Bakr as president of Iraq. Saddam was a particularly brutal ruthless man, he attempted to assassinate Quassim in 1959, played a major role in the 1968 coup and under Bakr he had lead the much feared Ba-athist secret police. One of his first acts as President was to call a Ba-ath Party assembly were he declared his main political rivals to be traitors and spies, they were lead from the assembly one by one to be tried and executed. |