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

For almost 20 years, Iraqi schoolchildren lived in fear over the birthday of Saddam Hussein.

From Los Angeles Times

The election this week was the sixth in two decades, after the U.S. invasion toppled the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and sent Iraq spiraling into civil war.

From The Wall Street Journal

He was 10 years old when his father was executed by Saddam Hussein’s regime for membership in an Iran-aligned political party.

From The Wall Street Journal

This shifting argument is reminiscent of the evolving excuses to invade Iraq: first, it was to stop Saddam Hussein from having weapons of mass destruction.

From Salon

Although Russia has good relations with Iraq and long supplied Saddam Hussein with weapons and military training, it has few religious and historical ties with the country's Shiite majority.

From Barron's