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• Saddam Hussein
  Saddam Hussein

  noun

  See Hussein
• Hussein, Saddam
  Hussein, Saddam

  Dictator of Iraq who seized power in 1979. With the intent of making Iraq the dominant power in the oil-rich Persian Gulf, Hussein invaded Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990. The latter invasion provoked a military response from the United Nations, led by the United States, which drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991. (See Persian Gulf War.)

Saddam Hussein

British  

/ sæˈdæm /

noun

1. See Hussein

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Hussein, Saddam Cultural  

1. Dictator of Iraq who seized power in 1979. With the intent of making Iraq the dominant power in the oil-rich Persian Gulf, Hussein invaded Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990. The latter invasion provoked a military response from the United Nations, led by the United States, which drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991. (See Persian Gulf War.)

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Although widely loathed outside the Arab world and feared by most Arab governments, Hussein retains some of his appeal to the Arab masses because of his resolute defiance of the United States and western Europe.

Hussein's cruelty and deviousness have become legendary. He has ruthlessly suppressed both Shi'ite Muslims and Kurds within Iraq; in 1987 and 1988 he authorized poison gas attacks on Kurdish villages.

Example Sentences

In Iraq, Saddam Hussein built dozens of palaces for top-level Bath party officials, Republican Guard leadership, and members of his family and inner circle.

From Salon • Mar. 24, 2026

In a couple of quick paragraphs, he said Iraq's ruler Saddam Hussein should comply with the United Nations resolutions to pull out of Kuwait.

From BBC • Mar. 11, 2026

Khomeini, then 76, needed a new bolthole after being expelled from his exiled base in the Iraqi city of Najaf by the country's dictator Saddam Hussein.

From Barron's • Mar. 3, 2026

Iran kept hostile forces away from its soil for decades after the 1980-1988 war with Iraq—which killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians, including from chemical weapons deployed by Saddam Hussein.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 1, 2026

In Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the United States had routed the forces of Saddam Hussein in Kuwait.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell