Abdul-Karim Qasim: Difference between revisions

| caption = Qasim in 1958

| nationality = [[Iraq]]i

| term_start = 14 July 1958

| term_end = 8 February 1963

| vicepresident =

| rank = [[File:Iraq_Army_Ranks_.16.jpg|20px]] [[Major General]]

| honorific_prefix = Al-Za'im ("The Leader")

| battles = * [[1935–1936 Iraqi Shia revolts]]

* [[1943 Barzani revolt]]

* [[First Arab-Israeli War]]

}}

 

During his rule, Qasim was popularly known as ''al-zaʿīm'' (الزعيم), or "The Leader".<ref>{{harvp|Dawisha|2009|p=174}}</ref>

==Early life and career==

[[File:Qasim 1937.jpg|left|thumb|alt=Photograph of Qasim in 1937 looking to his left |Qasim in 1937]]

 

 

 

== 14 July Revolution ==

On 14 July 1958, Qasim used troop movements planned by the government as an opportunity to seize military control of Baghdad and overthrow the monarchy. [[Faisal II of Iraq|The king]], several members of the royal family, and their close associates, including Prime Minister [[Nuri as-Said]], were executed.

 

 

The coup was triggered when [[King Hussein]] of [[Jordan]], fearing that an [[1958 Lebanon crisis|anti-Western revolt in Lebanon]] might spread to Jordan, requested Iraqi assistance. Instead of moving towards Jordan, however, Colonel Arif led a battalion into Baghdad and immediately proclaimed a new republic and the end of the old regime.

 

 

In the wake of the brutal coup, the new Iraqi Republic was proclaimed and headed by a Revolutionary Council.<ref name="shorthistory" /> At its head was a three-man Sovereignty Council, composed of members of Iraq's three main communal/ethnic groups. [[Muhammad Mahdi Kubbah]] represented the [[Shia Islam|Arab Shia]] population; Khalid al-Naqshabandi the [[Kurds]]; and [[Muhammad Najib ar-Ruba'i]] the [[Sunni Islam|Arab Sunni]] population.<ref name="Marr 158">{{harvp|Marr|2004|p=158}}</ref> This tripartite Council was to assume the role of the Presidency. A cabinet was created, composed of a broad spectrum of Iraqi political movements, including two National Democratic Party representatives, one member of al-Istiqlal, one [[Ba'ath Party]] representative and one [[Marxist]].<ref name="shorthistory" />

 

==Prime minister==

[[File:Flag of Iraq 1959-1963.svg|200px|thumb|right|alt=Illustration of the Iraqi flag from 1959 to 1963 which consisted of a black-white-green vertical tricolour, with a red eight-pointed star with a yellow circle at its center.|The flag of Iraq from 1959 to 1963, whose symbolism was associated with Qasim's government]]

Qasim assumed office after being elected as Prime Minister shortly after the coup in July 1958. He held this position until he was overthrown in February 1963.

Qasim's change of policy aggravated his relationship with Arif who, despite being subordinate to Qasim, had gained great prestige as the perpetrator of the coup. Arif capitalised upon his new-found position by engaging in a series of widely publicised public orations, during which he strongly advocated union with the UAR and making numerous positive references to Nasser, while remaining noticeably less full of praise for Qasim. Arif's criticism of Qasim became gradually more pronounced. This led Qasim to take steps to counter his potential rival. He began to foster relations with the Iraqi Communist Party, which attempted to mobilise support in favour of his policies. He also moved to counter Arif's power base by removing him from his position as deputy commander of the armed forces.

 

 

 

===Relations with Iran===

{{Main|1959 Mosul uprising}}

[[File:Military parades in Baghdad and Cairo.ogv|thumb|alt= Film clip of a military parade in Baghdad on 14 July 1959 | Tumultuous military parade in Baghdad, 14 July 1959|261x261px]]

 

Qasim's growing ties with the communists served to provoke rebellion in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul led by Arab nationalists in charge of military units. In an attempt to reduce the likelihood of a potential coup, Qasim had encouraged a communist backed Peace Partisans rally to be held in Mosul on 6 March 1959. Some 250,000 Peace Partisans and communists thronged through Mosul's streets that day,<ref>{{harvp|Marr|2004|p=163}}</ref> and although the rally passed peacefully, on 7 March, skirmishes broke out between communists and nationalists. This degenerated into a major civil disturbance over the following days. Although the rebellion was crushed by the military, it had a number of adverse effects that impacted Qasim's position. First, it increased the power of the communists. Second, it increased the strength of the [[Baath Party|Ba’ath Party]], which had been growing steadily since the 14 July coup. The Ba'ath Party believed that the only way of halting the engulfing tide of communism was to assassinate Qasim.

 

===Foreign policy===

 

Qasim further undermined his rapidly deteriorating domestic position with a series of foreign policy blunders. In 1959 Qasim antagonised [[Iran]] with a series of territory disputes, most notably over the [[Khuzestan]] region of Iran, which was home to an Arabic-speaking minority,<ref name="Marr 164" /> and the division of the [[Shatt al-Arab]] waterway between south eastern Iraq and western Iran.<ref>{{harvp|Marr|2004|p=180}}</ref> On 18 December 1959, Abd al-Karim Qasim declared:

{{Main|Ramadan Revolution}}

In 1962, both the Ba'ath Party and the United States [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) began plotting to overthrow Qasim,<ref>{{cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |location= |pages=86–87, 93–102}}</ref>{{sfnp|Gibson|2015|pp=35–45}} with U.S. government officials cultivating supportive relationships with Ba'athist leaders and others opposed to Qasim.<ref name="Matthews 2011">{{cite journal |last=Matthews |first=Weldon C. |date=9 November 2011 |title=The Kennedy Administration, Counterinsurgency, and Iraq's First Ba'thist Regime |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0020743811000882/type/journal_article |journal=[[International Journal of Middle East Studies]] |language=en |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=635–653 |doi=10.1017/S0020743811000882 |s2cid=159490612 |issn=0020-7438 |quote=[Kennedy] Administration officials viewed the Iraqi Ba'th Party in 1963 as an agent of counterinsurgency directed against Iraqi communists, and they cultivated supportive relationships with Ba'thist officials, police commanders, and members of the Ba'th Party militia. The American relationship with militia members and senior police commanders had begun even before the February coup, and Ba'thist police commanders involved in the coup had been trained in the United States.}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=B. |date=2015-01-01 |title=Embracing Regime Change in Iraq: American Foreign Policy and the 1963 Coup d'etat in Baghdad |url=https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/dh/dht121 |journal=Diplomatic History |language=en |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=98–125 |doi=10.1093/dh/dht121 |issn=0145-2096}}</ref> On 8 February 1963, Qasim was overthrown by the Ba'athists in the [[Ramadan Revolution]]; long suspected to be supported by the CIA.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=B. |date=2015-01-01 |title=Embracing Regime Change in Iraq: American Foreign Policy and the 1963 Coup d'etat in Baghdad |url=https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/dh/dht121 |journal=Diplomatic History |language=en |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=98–125 |doi=10.1093/dh/dht121 |issn=0145-2096 |quote=While scholars and journalists have long suspected that the CIA was involved in the 1963 coup, as yet, there is very little archival analysis of the question. The most comprehensive study put forward thus far finds "mounting evidence of U.S. involvement" but ultimately runs up against the problem of available documentation.}}</ref> Pertinent contemporary documents relating to the CIA's operations in Iraq have remained classified<ref>{{cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |location= |page=117 |quote=What really happened in Iraq in February 1963 remains shrouded behind a veil of official secrecy. Many of the most relevant documents remain classified. Others were destroyed. And still others were never created in the first place.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Matthews |first=Weldon C. |date=9 November 2011 |title=The Kennedy Administration, Counterinsurgency, and Iraq's First Ba'thist Regime |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/abs/kennedy-administration-counterinsurgency-and-iraqs-first-bathist-regime/B4DA680E1CD37E8293DCEE8788C7C826 |journal=[[International Journal of Middle East Studies]] |language=en |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=635–653 |doi=10.1017/S0020743811000882 |s2cid=159490612 |issn=1471-6380 |quote=Archival sources on the U.S. relationship with this regime are highly restricted. Many records of the Central Intelligence Agency's operations and the Department of Defense from this period remain classified, and some declassified records have not been transferred to the National Archives or cataloged.}}</ref><ref name="Osgood p. 16">{{cite book|last=Osgood|first=Kenneth|title=America and Iraq: Policy-making, Intervention and Regional Politics|chapter=Eisenhower and regime change in Iraq: the United States and the Iraqi Revolution of 1958|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2009|isbn=9781134036721|pages=16|quote=The documentary record is filled with holes. A remarkable volume of material remains classified, and those records that are available are obscured by redactions – large blacked-out sections that allow for plausible deniability. While it is difficult to know exactly what actions were taken to destabilize or overthrow Qasim's regime, we can discern fairly clearly what was on the planning table. We also can see clues as to what was authorized.}}</ref> and as of 2021, "[s]cholars are only beginning to uncover the extent to which the United States was involved in organizing the coup",<ref>{{cite book |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |title=The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5036-1382-9 |location= |page=110}}</ref> but are "divided in their interpretations of American foreign policy".<ref name="Wolfe-Hunnicutt 2017">{{cite journal |last=Wolfe-Hunnicutt |first=Brandon |year=2017 |title=Oil Sovereignty, American Foreign Policy, and the 1968 Coups in Iraq |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/09592296.2017.1309882 |journal=Diplomacy & Statecraft |publisher=[[Routledge]] |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=235–253 |doi=10.1080/09592296.2017.1309882 |s2cid=157328042}}</ref><ref>For additional sources that agree or sympathize with assertions of U.S. involvement, see:

 

[[File:Abd al-Karim death.jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph of Qasim's body after his execution | Qasim was executed by the Ba'athists inside the Iraqi Ministry of Defence building; the Ba'athists desecrated his corpse on Iraqi television.]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qasim, Abd Al-Karim}}

[[Category:Prime ministers of Iraq]]

[[Category:20th century in Iraq]]

[[Category:1914 births]]