Forgotten History - Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006
"Little known facts and overlooked history"

The Baath Party
By Denis Mueller

The Baath party was founded in the early 1940's by two
Syrian students, Michel Aflaq and Salah ad Din ql Bitar.
Its stated goals of socialism, freedom and unity reflected
the hope of many Iraqis who had suffered under the
monarchy, from the lack of freedom, and an unequal economic
distribution of the Iraq's resources. By the early 1950's,
under the leadership of Fuad Rikabi, the party grew rapidly
and by the late 1950's the party had made inroads within
the military. Its main competitor during this period was
the western dominated IPC. The party was able to consolidate
power under the leadership of Ali Salih and assume power.

The party was small, fewer than 1,000 members, and its
ideology was vague. This had served them well, previous to
assuming power, but this ambiguity made ruling difficult
once the Baath party had power. This lack of purpose would
haunt the party for it led to a one-party state that
refused to allow opposing views to exist. Its other problem
was that because of its lack of ideology it became, in many
ways, a party of tribes and cliques.

It was unable to suppress Kurdish rebellions in the north
and fell out of favor with Nasserite elements within Iraq.
When unity talks failed, Nasser launched attacks on the
party. His attacks were a blow to the credibility of the
party in that they professed to be pan-Arabism party.
This, when coupled with lack of support by the military,
created problems for the Baath.

In 1963, they were overthrown by the military, which
would then run the country. The military, which had some
supporters of the Baath party but who were in a minority,
ruled the country for the next couple of years. They
adopted the Nasserite socialist programs but talks of unity
between Egypt and Syria broke down and left the military
regime isolated from the nationalists. The supporters of
Nasser tried to stage a coup in 1965 but were unsuccessful
and a civilian government was formed to try to end the
instability, which had characterized Iraq since 1958.

One of the pressing issues that faced the new government
was the continuing Kurdish unrest. The shah of Iran was
helping the Kurds, which caused the government to seek a
solution to the Kurdish problem, and out of this came a
proposal that gave the Kurds certain autonomy. Along with
this a crises developed over oil with the government of
Syria. This caused Syria to cut off the flow of Iraqi oil,
which then led to a financial crisis in Iraq.

The military then began to assume more power and the
government's lack of support for the other Arab governments
in the 1967 war with Israel caused problems. The western
dominated government lost its credibility because of this
and the stage was set for yet another coup. The coup was
unsuccessful but it set the stage for a return of the Baath
party who quickly capitalized on the situation and returned
to power. This time they were determined not to lose power.

Sources: Library of Congress