> >So was the U.S. right to support Saddam from 1959-1990?
> >
> >Doug
>
> Remember the cold war? U.S. proxy Iran vs. Soviet proxy Iraq? U.S.
> fear of Arab socialism? The U.S. viewed Ba'ath regimes as enemies.
> After the Iranian Revolution, the Brzezinskis and the Haigs and the
> Clarks and the Shultzes viewed Iran as a bigger enemy--and were happy
> when they fought and hoped that Iraq would win.
>
> But "support"? In more than a
> the-enemy-of-my-big-enemy-has-a-few-friendlike-qualities?
>
> Brad DeLong
>
Saddam Hussein was both anti-Shiite and anti-Communist, so the American tilt to Iraq was boith pronounced and overdetermined.
The National Security Archive posted in late February a compendium of documents from 1980 to 1984 on the United States and Iraq.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/index.htm
--tim francis-wright
Check out: Document 9 (Al Haig expresses hopes for improved relations and increased trade, and pushes for an American contract for the Baghdad Metro);
Document 17 (George Schultz points out that American neutrality during the Iran-Iraq war did not preclude American help for Iraq);
Documents 24 and 25 (Formulation of what to say about Iraq's use of chemical weapons);
Documents 28 and 31 (Rumsfeld meets with Saddam Hussein);
Documents 35-37 (State Department wionders how to increase trade with Iraq);
Document 43 (Draft State Department press statement critizes use of chemical weapons but still criticizes Iran for its attack on the legitimate government of Iraq);
Document 47 (George Schulz tries to get Europoan support for scuttling an Iranian UN resolution condemning use of chemical weapons);
Document 53 (NSDD 139 makes it United States policy to keep Iran from winning the Iran-Iraq war);
Document 57--my favorite (Richard Nixon writes to letter to Nicolae Ceausescu to support an effort by Col. John Brennan, his former chief of staff, and John Mitchell, to buy Romanian-manufactured military uniforms for export to Iraq-- note the personal inscriptions);
Document 59 (American diplomatic efforts stopped Iraqi use of chemical weapons for three solid months);