Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein, also known mononymously as Saddam, was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party—which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism, Iraqi nationalism and Arab socialism—Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to power in Iraq.