Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.

The president of the Republic of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq. Since the mid-2000s, the presidency is primarily a symbolic office, as the position does not possess significant power within the country according to the constitution adopted in October 2005.

Field Marshal Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr was an Iraqi military officer and politician who served as the fourth president of Iraq from 1968 to 1979. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and later the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organisation Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region, which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism.

Saddam Hussein was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until he was overthrown in 2003 during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He previously served as the vice president from 1968 to 1979 and also as the prime minister from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. A leading member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, he espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism. The policies and political ideas he championed are collectively known as Saddamism.