(no subject)

[dotinthesky]

Saddam Hussein must have shed a few tears this weekend for the death of his old friend Reagan.

It was Reagan, after all, who helped him secure power in Iraq.

Comments

[wardytron.livejournal.com]

Sorry for barging in uninvited - terrible manners, I know, but some basic chronology here is urgently needed.

Saddam's Ba'ath Party seized power in a coup in 1963, Saddam himself took over in 1968, and until the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, Iran and the USA had been allies. So it can't possibly be true to say that Saddam was put in power "in order to attack Iran".

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

But wasn't the whole deal in the 80s to strengthen Saddam's hold on his power, to supply him with the weapons so he could "technically" keep Iran in check (but, meanwhile, America sold weapons too to Iran?)

Was there any reaction from America when Saddam's Ba'ath Party seized power?

[wardytron.livejournal.com]

I found this (http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/walden/sad_about2.shtml) on a BBC site, which says the CIA were involved in the original coup in 1963 because the previous regime was pro-Soviet.

What you said about the 80s is essentially true, although the people who sold Iraq the most weapons were the Russians & the French (a total of $41 billion, against $5m by the US, according to page 22 of this (http://www.csis.org/mideast/reports/mbmeXiraq122898.pdf) report for the Center for Strategic & International Studies).

[wardytron.livejournal.com]

PS I now realise my original chronology was wrong - mea culpa - and it was in 1968 that the Ba'athists returned to power, but not until 1979 that Saddam assumed total control.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

no worries... :)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

You know, I've been wanting to read a good book that details the history of Iraq's connection to America. You wouldn't happen to know any?

:)

[wardytron.livejournal.com]

The only book I've read at all on the subject of Iraq is Regime Change by Christopher Hitchens, but like everything written about Iraq recently it's very one-sided; it's a series of essays arguing the case for the war. Oh, I also read Allies by William Shawcross, which was mostly dull apart from some interesting stuff about Saddam's personal closeness to Jacques Chirac. But other than that I am pig-ignorant.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I think a couple of books came out when the war was 1 month old... but, like you said, they seemed to be mostly one-sided. Perhaps it's just like everything else in history - we have to be slightly removed in years before we can look back objectively.