Saddam Hussein served as the President of Iraq from 1979-2003. He was born on April 28, 1937, in Tikrit. He became active in the Baath Party in 1956. In 1959, Hussein left Iraq after he took part in an attempt to kill Iraqi dictator Abdul Karim Kassem. He was imprisoned in 1964, after he returned to Iraq. He had been elected to the Regional Command of the Baath in 1963. In 1965, while in prison, he was elected to the National Command. Hussein escaped from jail in 1966. The Baath Party took control of Iraq in 1968. During his rise to power, Hussein held important party and government posts.
Hussein was chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council of the Baath Party, which set government policies. Using Iraq's huge petroleum resources, Hussein supervised a successful development program in the 1970's. This was halted by a war between Iraq and Iran from 1980 until 1988, when a cease-fire was declared. Hussein became known for his ruthless actions. For example, in the 1980's, he used chemical weapons against Kurdish people of Iraq, who were seeking self-government.
In August 1990, Hussein ordered Iraqi forces to invade and occupy Kuwait. He accused Kuwait of violating oil production limits set by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), thus lowering the price of oil. Hussein announced that his country had annexed Kuwait.
Many countries, including the United States, Canada, and several Arab and Western European nations, opposed the invasion and sent forces to the region. These nations formed an allied military coalition. The United Nations Security Council approved the use of military force to remove the Iraqi troops from Kuwait if they did not leave Kuwait by Jan. 15, 1991. Hussein refused to withdraw his troops, and war broke out on January 17 (January 16 U.S. time). The allies bombed military targets in Iraq and Kuwait, and Iraq launched missiles against Saudi Arabia and Israel. In February, allied land forces moved into Kuwait. They quickly defeated the occupying Iraqi forces. For more details, see PERSIAN GULF WAR OF 1991. Hussein's government failed to fulfill the terms of a United Nations cease-fire agreement. The United Nations maintained a trade embargo on Iraq, seriously harming the country's economy.
In May 2003, the UN lifted its trade embargo against Iraq. In July, Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, who had held high-ranking positions in their father's regime, were killed in a firefight with U.S. troops. On Dec. 13, 2003, U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein after he was found hiding near his hometown of Tikrit.