Iraq, 1978 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 8 June 1978, during Saddam Hussein's anti-communist crackdown as he consolidated power within Baathist Iraq ahead of formally assuming the presidency in 1979. With President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr in declining health, Saddam had become the effective leader of the Iraqi Baath Party by the late 1970s. In 1978 he initiated an anti-communist campaign, partly to test where the loyalties of leftists lay, whether with Baathism or with socialism, and moved against the Iraqi Communist Party, whose officials were increasingly imprisoned, executed, or driven abroad.
One account records that on 31 May 1978 more than twenty communists were executed. The Baathist regime, which had also faced unsuccessful attempts by military officers to overthrow it during the 1970s, treated Communist organizing within the armed forces as a capital offense. The June 1978 coding sits in this 1978 crackdown on communists and suspected disloyal officers, close to the late-May executions.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
64506081978
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Saddam consolidated power through the crackdown and formally took the presidency in July 1979.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
The Christian Science Monitor
The Globe and Mail
The Jerusalem Post
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →