Saddam Hussein died in 1937.
Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr ( أحمد حسن البكر ; 1 July 1914 -- 4 October 1982 ) was the fourth President of Iraq , serving in this capacity from 17 July 1968 until 16 July 1979 . Saddam Hussein . As vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr , and at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government , Saddam created security forces through which he tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces . Saddam formally rose to power in 1979 , although he had been the de facto head of Iraq for several years prior . In 2003 , a coalition led by the U.S. invaded Iraq to depose Saddam , in which U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused him of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having ties to al-Qaeda .