World Bad Guys Iraq Saddam Hussein Coin & Currency Set 2 Coins & 7 Banknotes Folder

This set of Iraq money contains 2 coins and 7 banknotes in a presentation folder, as pictured.

Saddam Hussein was the fifth president of Iraq, serving from July 16, 1979, until April 9, 2003. He was widely condemned for the brutality of his dictatorship. Saddam was notable for terror against his own people. The Economist described Saddam as one of the last of the 20th century’s great dictators, but not the least in terms of egotism, or cruelty, or morbid will to power. Saddam was a leading member of the Baath Party, which espoused a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism. He played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to long-term power of Iraq. In 1976, Saddam rose to the position of general in the Iraqi armed forces and rapidly became the strongman of the government. As the ailing, elderly president al-Bakr became unable to execute his duties, Saddam became the de facto leader of Iraq some years before he formally came to power in 1979. Saddam created security forces through which he tightly controlled the armed forces. He nationalized the oil and other industries. The state-owned banks were put under his control. Positions of power within his country were filled with his Sunnis, a minority that made up only one-fifth of the population. He soon accumulated a powerful circle of support within the party. On July 16, 1979, Saddam forced the president to resign and formally assumed the presidency. By August 1, 1979, hundreds of high-ranking Baath party members of questionable loyalty had been executed. Beginning in 1986, Saddam began his genocidal campaigns against the ethnic populations of Northern Iraq, including Kurds, Shabaks, Yazidis, Assyrians, Turkomans and Mandeans, people living in Iraqi Kurdistan. Later insurrections in the South were met with similar tactics. The New York Times described in his obituary how Saddam murdered as many as a million of his people, many with poison gas. He tortured, maimed and imprisoned countless more. His unprovoked invasion of Iran is estimated to have left another million people dead. His seizure of Kuwait threw the Middle east into crisis. More insidious, arguably, was the psychological damage he inflicted on his own land. Hussein created a nation of informants. Saddam Hussein was executed for his crimes on December 30th, 2006.