Saddam Hussein, (1937–)

President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. Saddam Hussein was born April 28, 1937, to a poor family near Tikrit, Iraq. He joined the Ba'ath Party at the age of 20 and participated in the party's coup on July 17, 1968. Saddam rose to the top of the party, assuming the Iraqi presidency in 1979. From 1980 to 1988, he oversaw the Iran-Iraq War, a protracted conflict remembered for the indiscriminate use of chemical weapons by both sides. In 1991, Saddam invaded Kuwait, setting off the first Gulf War.

Under his repressive dictatorship, the economic and human rights conditions deteriorated for average Iraqi citizens. Saddam used chemical weapons against the Kurdish populations in northern Iraq and brutally squelched an uprising by the Shia Iraqis in the southern part of the country. Throughout the 1990s, Saddam refused to fully cooperate with the international community and its inspectors to eliminate the threat of chemical weapons under his control. The resulting sanctions only exacerbated the plight of most Iraqis.

In 2003, acting on the belief that Saddam still possessed chemical and biological weapons, was attempting to develop nuclear weapons, and had friendly relations with the international terrorist group al-Qaeda, a U.S. led coalition invaded Iraq to liberate its citizens. Saddam was captured by U.S. forces on December 13, 2003. Currently, the former dictator is awaiting trial in an Iraqi court.