The 1963 Iraqi Coup: Exploring tensions in Ba’thism

Today's voicemail is taken from page 176 of "Pride and Power: A Modern History of Iraq" by Johan Franzén

In 1963, 'Aref and the Ba'thists instigated the Ramadan Revolution which toppled Karim Qasim from power, a mere 5 years after the first revolution. What followed after was a brief period in which different factions across the Ba'athist and nationalist factions fought for control in Iraq. Eventually, the Ba'this secured their rise to power and would remain as Iraq's single party until Saddam Hussein's downfall in 2003. In this episode, I delve a bit deeper into the end of Qasim's rule by looking at competing Arab political groups and how eventually, the rise of the 'Aref brothers and then al-Bakr and Saddam Hussein, shifted Iraq's political history forever. I spend some time in the middle discussing tensions between defining Ba'thism and how it is different to earlier pan-Arab thinking.

Episode cover: Soldier in the ruins of the Ministry of Defence, where Qasim made his last stand References:
Johan Franzén's book "Pride and Power: A Modern History of Iraq". Achim Rohde's "State-Society Relations in Ba'thist Iraq: Facing Dictatorship"

Ofra Bengio's "Kurds of Iraq: Building a State within a State"

Ralph Coury's article titled "The demonisation of pan-Arab nationalism"

Isaac, Steven. "The Ba ‘th of Syria and Iraq." The International Encyclopedia of Protest and Revolution 2009