Iraqi Ba‘thists in America’s Cold War : Covert Action, Paramilitarism and Violence

Explores the US government's covert relations with the Iraqi Ba‘th Party as it brutalised Iraqi communists.

This book reveals the covert relationship of the United States with the Iraqi Ba‘th Party in the 1960s. The book traces this relationship from the party’s underground activities, through its first seizure of power, to the party’s return to clandestine organising after its overthrow by a military coup. The administration of President John F. Kennedy armed the Ba‘thist regime, provided content for its media, and trained its personnel. A state-private network sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency supported Ba‘th Party labour and student organizations. Simultaneously, the regime detained, tortured, and murdered thousands of Iraqi communists. It also waged a genocidal war against Iraqi Kurds. Bringing Iraqi women into the story, the book explores how both Americans and Ba‘thists imagined a democratic future for Iraq and rationalized their resort to insurgent and counterinsurgent violence.