Interesting Saddam Read: The Secrets of his life and leadership

[kirovman]

A long but interesting interview, involving his Alliance of Convienience with America, and the Arab Nationalism movement.

It also details how he was inspired by Stalin.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saddam/interviews/aburish.html

[CptStern]

I have documented over 700 people who were eliminated, mostly on an individual basis, after the 1963 coup. And they were eliminated based on lists supplied by the CIA to the Ba'ath Party. So the CIA and the Ba'ath were in the business of eliminating communists and leftists who were dangerous to the Ba'ath's takeover.

a lot of this is supported by declassified US government files (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/special/iraq/)

interesting read (still reading)