Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (April 28, 1937 – December 30, 2006) is the fifth President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until April 9, 2003.

A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization the Iraqi Ba'ath Party—which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and socialism—Saddam plays a key role in the 1968 coup (later referred to as the 17 July Revolution) that brings the party to power in Iraq.

As vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and at a time when many groups are considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam creates security forces through which he tightly contros conflicts between the government and the armed forces.

In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalizes oil and foreign banks, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanctions.

Through the 1970s, Saddam cements his authority over the apparatus of government as oil money helps Iraq's economy to grow at a rapid pace.

Positions of power in the country are mostly filled with Sunni Arabs, a minority that makes up only a fifth of the population.

Saddam formally rises to power in 1979, although he has already been the de facto head of Iraq for several years.

He suppresses several movements, particularly Shi'a and Kurdish movements that seek to overthrow the government or gain independence, respectively, and maintains power during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War.

Hussein's rule is a repressive dictatorship.

The total number of Iraqis killed by the security services of Saddam's government in various purges and genocides is conservatively estimated to be two hundred and fifty thousand.

Saddam's invasions of Iran and Kuwait also result in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

In 2003, a coalition led by the United States invades Iraq to depose Saddam, in which U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair erroneously accuse him of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having ties to al-Qaeda.

Saddam's Ba'ath party is disbanded and the country's first ever set of democratic elections are held.

Following his capture on December 13, 2003, the trial of Saddam takes place under the Iraqi Interim Government.

On November 5, 2006, Saddam is convicted by an Iraqi court of crimes against humanity related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'a, and sentenced to death by hanging.

He is executed on December 30, 2006.