Man of the year TIME, wasn't Saddam time's "man of the year" once?

Question

my memory fades but wan't he practically an american bigwig military puppet they tried to use to beat up iran for them?

before he protested them skimming local oil.

Answer 1

This is true. American foreign policy supported the Iraqi regime at the time of the 1979 Iranian islamic revolution in order to try and prevent the spread of theocratic regimes in the region. Saddam was a useful, although fairly covert, ally in the Middle East and was supported by the US during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980's. Relations between the USA and Iraq only turned violent after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

Answer 2

I truly don't know if he was Time's Man of the Year once, but it wouldn't be surprising; Time magazine has always been a strict adherer of US foreign policy. The reason Henry Luce founded the magazine was to hunt communists, just like the American government was doing at the time. Today, since them reds ain't fashionable no more, the US (and by extension Time magazine) be huntin' Arabs.

And, concerning your fading memory, part of the syndrome called "The United States of Amnesia" (Gore Vidal), Saddam was propped up from the beginning by the CIA and was put into power in '79 by the Agency. From that moment on he received tacit American and British support. He started the war against Iran at the behest of the US and received all sorts of WMD-technology from the US and the UK. The nuclear power plants that Israel later bombed and Saddam's bomb project were all funded and encouraged by the US and the UK. He gassed the Kurds and Iranians using American weapons and received many complements and thumbs-up salutes from his American and British counterparts.

Then, one day, he discovered the Kuwaitis were slant-drilling oil from Iraq and, pissed, he decided to invade his neighbor. Well, you win some and you lose some. Of course, one should always remember that slant-drilling in Texas will get you shot and the shooter will be instantly acquitted.

But yes, he was a purely Anglo-Saxon product and whatever blood he has on his hands is also on the hands of every American and Briton who knew/knows about it and remained/remains silent.

Answer 3

I thought he'd been 'man of the year', too, but it doesn't seem so.

Answer 4

yes but that was a long time away,

Answer 5

ithink so