Saddām Hussein ʻAbd al-Majīd al-Tikrīti, sometimes spelled Husayn or Hussain; (Arabic صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي; born April 28, 1937 1)
was President of Iraq from 1979 until his removal and capture during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
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Army officers, including some aligned with the Ba'ath party, came to power in Iraq in a military coup in 1963. However, torn by rife factionalism,
the new government was ousted within seven to eight months. Saddam returned to Iraq, but was imprisoned in 1964 when an anti-Ba'ath group led by Abdul Rahman Arif took power. He escaped from jail in 1967 and became one of the leading members of the party. According to many biographers, Saddam never forgot the tensions within the first Ba'athist government, which prompted his measures to promote party unity as well as his ruthless resolve to maintain power and programs to ensure social stability.
In July 1968 a second coup brought the Ba'athists back to power under General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, a Tikriti and a relative of Saddam. The Ba'ath's ruling clique
named Saddam vice-chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council and vice president of Iraq.
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