This article by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark discusses the U.S. government’s involvement in Iraq from 1958 until the first Gulf War. It paints a picture of a long-standing effort to gain manageable control over Iraq’s oil resources.

1958-1991, Iraq: A Classic Case of Divide and Conquer
By Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General.

Iraq has been a target of U.S. covert actions since at least 1958, when a popular revolution led by Abdel Kassem overthrew the Iraqi monarchy, which was installed by Britain in 1921. In 1960, the new government helped found the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, to resist Western oil monopolies.1

The CIA plotted Kassem’s assassination and U.S. generals in Turkey devised a military plan, called “Canonbone,” to invade northern Iraq and seize its oil fields.2 In 1963, Kassem and thousands of supporters were massacred in a CIA-backed coup.

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