Saddam Hussein At-Tikriti was an Iraqi socialist politician. He was born in 1937 at Tikrit and died in 2006. In 1957 he joined the Ba'th Socialist party. He entered the Iraqi parliament when the Ba'thists took control in a coup in 1968 and in 1972 was responsible for the nationalisation of Iraq's oil industry. In 1979 he became President of Iraq, a position he held until Iraq was invaded by the USA supported by Britain in 2003. Following the American-led invasion he was arrested, put through a show trial and executed. Research Saddam Hussein