Editing Saddam Hussein (section)

== Vice Presidency (1968–1979) ==
=== Political program ===
[[File:Saddam Hussein and Hassan al-Bakr 1978.jpg|thumb|Saddam and al-Bakr]]
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, as vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, formally al-Bakr's second-in-command, Saddam built a reputation as a progressive, effective politician.<ref>{{cite web |website=CNN |title=Hussein was a symbol of autocracy, cruelty in Iraq |date=30 December 2003 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/29/hussein.obit/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240301122020/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/29/hussein.obit/index.html |archive-date= 1 March 2024 }}</ref> At this time, he moved up the ranks in the new government by aiding attempts to strengthen and unify the Ba'ath party and taking a leading role in addressing the country's major domestic problems and expanding the party's following.

At the center of this strategy was Iraq's oil. On 1 June 1972, Saddam oversaw the seizure of international oil interests, which, at the time, dominated the country's oil sector.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 June 2003 |title=Iraq's economy: Past, present, future – Iraq |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/iraqs-economy-past-present-future |access-date=16 February 2024 |website=ReliefWeb |language=en}}</ref> A year later, world oil prices rose dramatically as a result of the [[1973 energy crisis]], and skyrocketing revenues enabled Saddam to expand his agenda.<ref name="cbc">{{Cite news |title=The price of oil – in context |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/oil/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609145246/http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/oil/ |archive-date=June 9, 2007 |access-date=May 29, 2007 |work=CBC News}}</ref> Saddam subsequently implemented a national infrastructure campaign that made progress in building roads, promoting mining, and developing other industries.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=Role in the Middle East |url=https://ripsaddamhussein.weebly.com/role-in-the-middle-east.html |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=Saddam Hussein}}</ref> Electricity was brought to nearly every city in Iraq, and many outlying areas.<ref name=":6" /> Before the 1970s, most of Iraq's people lived in the countryside and roughly two-thirds were peasants. This number would decrease quickly during the 1970s. He nationalized independent banks, eventually leaving the banking system insolvent due to [[inflation]] and bad loans.<ref name="economist2004">{{cite news |date=24 June 2004 |title=Banking in Iraq&nbsp;– A tricky operation |url=http://www.economist.com/node/2792407?story_id=2792407 |newspaper=[[The Economist]]}}</ref>

Saddam focused on fostering loyalty to the Ba'athists in the rural areas. After nationalizing foreign oil interests, Saddam supervised the modernization of the countryside, mechanizing agriculture on a large scale, and distributing land to peasant farmers.<ref>Khadduri, Majid. ''Socialist Iraq''. The Middle East Institute, Washington, D.C., 1978.</ref> The Ba'athists established farm cooperatives and the government also doubled expenditures for agricultural development in 1974–1975.  

By the late 1970s, Iraq had experienced significant economic growth, with a [[Bank reserves|budget reserve]] surpassing US$35 billion. The value of 1 Iraqi dinar was worth more than 3 dollars, making it one of the most notable economic expansions in the region. Saddam Hussein's regime aimed to diversify the Iraqi economy beyond oil. The government invested in various industries, including petrochemicals, fertilizer production, and textile manufacturing, to reduce dependence on oil revenues and promote economic self-sufficiency.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Iraq's economy: Old obstacles and new challenges |url=https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/iraqs-economy-old-obstacles-and-new-challenges-121426 |access-date=16 February 2024 |website=ISPI |language=en-US}}</ref>

The oil revenue benefited Saddam politically.<ref name="economist2007">{{cite news |date=4 January 2007 |title=Saddam Hussein&nbsp;– The blundering dictator |url=http://www.economist.com/node/8492668 |newspaper=[[The Economist]]}}</ref> According to ''[[The Economist]]'', "Much as [[Adolf Hitler]] won early praise for galvanizing German industry, ending mass unemployment and building autobahns, Saddam earned admiration abroad for his deeds. He had a good instinct for what the "[[Arab street]]" demanded, following the decline in Egyptian leadership brought about by the trauma of Israel's six-day victory in the 1967 war, the death of the pan-Arabist hero, [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]], in 1970, and the "traitorous" drive by his successor, Anwar Sadat, to sue for peace with the Jewish state. Saddam's self-aggrandizing propaganda, with himself posing as the defender of Arabism against Zionist or [[Iran|Persian]] intruders, was heavy-handed, but consistent as a drumbeat. It helped, of course, that his [[Iraqi Intelligence Service|mukhabarat]] (secret police) put dozens of Arab news editors, writers and artists on the payroll."<ref name="economist2007" />

=== Foreign relations ===
{{See also|Foreign relations of Iraq|List of international trips made by Saddam Hussein}}

Saddam sought to have Iraq play a leading role in the Middle East.<ref name="Healy">Healy, Jack. "[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/world/middleeast/27iraq.html?ref=world Iraq Court Sentences Tariq Aziz to Death]." ''[[The New York Times]]''. 26 October 2010. Retrieved 26 October 2010.</ref> In 1972, Saddam signed a 15-year Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the [[Soviet Union]]. Arms were sent along with several thousand advisers. According to historian [[Charles R. H. Tripp]], the treaty upset "the US-sponsored security system established as part of the [[Cold War]] in the Middle East. It appeared that any enemy of the Baghdad regime was a potential ally of the United States."<ref name="Tripp">{{cite book |last=Tripp |first=Charles |author-link=Charles R. H. Tripp |title=A History of Iraq |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-521-87823-4 |pages=xii, 211–214}}</ref> In response, the US covertly financed Kurdish rebels led by [[Mustafa Barzani]] during the [[Second Iraqi–Kurdish War]]; the Kurds were defeated in 1975, leading to the forcible relocation of hundreds of thousands of Kurdish civilians.<ref name="Tripp" /> A 1978 crackdown on [[Iraqi Communist Party|Iraqi Communists]] and a shift of trade toward the West strained Iraqi relations with the Soviet Union; Iraq then took on a more Western orientation until the [[Gulf War]] in 1991.<ref>Helen Chapin Metz (ed) ''[http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/iqtoc.html Iraq: A Country Study:]'' "[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+iq0083) The West"], [[Library of Congress Country Studies]], 1988</ref>

After the [[1973 oil crisis|oil crisis]] of 1973, France had changed to a more pro-Arab policy and was accordingly rewarded by Saddam with closer ties. Saddam's rare trips abroad included many Western countries. His visit to Spain took place in December 1974, when the [[Caudillo]] of Spain, [[Francisco Franco]], invited him to [[Madrid]] and he visited [[Granada]], [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]] and [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2 March 2003 |title=Reportaje &#124; El obsequio de Sadam a Franco |url=https://elpais.com/diario/2003/03/02/domingo/1046580756_850215.html |newspaper=El País}}</ref> In September 1975 he met with Prime Minister [[Jacques Chirac]] in [[Paris]], France.<ref name="The Chirac Doctrine">{{cite journal |last1=Guitta |first1=Olivier |date=Fall 2005 |title=The Chirac Doctrine |url=http://www.meforum.org/772/the-chirac-doctrine |journal=The Middle East Quarterly}}</ref> Saddam's 1975 visit further cemented close ties with French business and ruling political circles.[[File:Arab Summit 1978.jpg|thumb|upright=1.20|left|Saddam and [[Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr|al-Bakr]], [[de jure]] president of Iraq alongside [[Hafez al-Assad]] of Syria at an [[1978 Arab League summit|Arab League summit]] in Baghdad in November 1978]]Iraq's relations with the Arab world have been extremely varied. Relations between Iraq and Egypt violently ruptured in 1977, when the two nations broke relations with each other following Iraq's criticism of Egyptian President [[Anwar Sadat]]'s peace initiatives with [[Israel]]. In 1978, Baghdad hosted an [[1978 Arab League summit|Arab League summit]] that condemned and ostracized Egypt for accepting the [[Camp David Accords]]. Saddam led Arab opposition to the Camp David Accords.

==== Peace treaty with Iran ====
{{Main|1975 Algiers Agreement}}

[[File:Saddam_&_Shah_(1975).png|thumb|Saddam and Reza Shah during the Algiers agreement]]
Iran and Iraq had been engaged in a long-standing territorial dispute over the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which serves as the border between the two countries.<ref name="aljazeera.com-2" /> Iran had backed Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq.<ref name="aljazeera.com-2" /> A peace treaty, which aimed to address the Shatt al-Arab dispute, was signed in 1975.<ref name="aljazeera.com-2">{{Cite web |title=Timeline: Iran-Arab relations |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2009/4/13/timeline-iran-arab-relations |access-date=21 March 2024 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> The 1975 Algiers Agreement, also known as the Algiers Accord, was a significant diplomatic agreement signed between Iran and Iraq on 6 March 1975, to settle border disputes and improve bilateral relations.<ref name="aljazeera.com-2" /> It was mediated by the then president of [[Algeria]], [[Houari Boumediene]].<ref name="aljazeera.com-2" /> Under the accord, Iraq was granted sovereignty over the eastern bank of the waterway, while Iran retained control over the western bank.<ref name="aljazeera.com-2" /> Following the agreement, Iraq and Iran restored full diplomatic relations and exchanged ambassadors, representing a significant diplomatic breakthrough.<ref name="aljazeera.com-2" /> The Shah withdrew support of the Kurds, who were promptly defeated by the Iraqis during the [[Second Iraqi–Kurdish War|Second Iraqi-Kurdish War]].

=== Succession ===
In 1976, Saddam rose to the position of general in the Iraqi armed forces, and rapidly became the [[Strongman (politics)|strongman]] of the government.<ref name=":4">https://www.ichistory.com/uploads/1/0/2/9/10290322/saddam_rise_timeline_and_purge_2021.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=May 2025}}</ref> As the ailing, elderly al-Bakr became unable to execute his duties, Saddam took on an increasingly prominent role as the face of the government both internally and externally.<ref name=":4" /> He was the ''de facto'' leader of Iraq some years before he formally came to power in 1979.<ref name=":4" />

In 1979, al-Bakr started to make treaties with Syria, also under Ba'athist leadership, that would lead to unification between the two countries.<ref name=":4" /> Syrian President [[Hafez al-Assad]] would become deputy leader in a union, and this would drive Saddam to obscurity.<ref name=":4" /> Saddam acted to secure his grip on power by forcing the ailing al-Bakr to resign on 16 July 1979, and formally assumed the presidency.<ref name=":4" />