The
17 July Revolution was a bloodless coup in
Iraq in 1968, led by General
Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, which brought the
Iraqi Regional Branch of the
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to power. Both
Saddam Hussein, later
President of Iraq, and
Salah Omar al-Ali, later a Ba'athist dissident, were major participants in the coup. According to historian
Charles R. H. Tripp, the coup upset the "US-sponsored security system established as part of the
Cold War in the Middle East. It appeared that any enemy of the Baghdad regime was a potential ally of the United States." The Ba'ath Party ruled from the 17 July Revolution until 2003, when it was removed from power by an
invasion led by American and British forces. Iraq then came under a military occupation by a
multinational coalition. (The 17 July Revolution is not to be confused with the
14 July Revolution, a coup on 14 July 1958, when
King Faisal II was overthrown, ending the
Hashemite dynasty in Iraq and establishing the
Republic of Iraq.)