Urban Legend: The United States Armed Saddam Hussein and Iraq.
Reality: 1968, July 17. A group of Ba'athists and military elements overthrow the Arif regime. Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr re-emerges as the President of Iraq and Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). Ba'ath party seeks U.S. help in re-arming Iraqi military but is turned down.
In 1972, Saddam (Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, Deputy to the President, and Deputy Secretary General of the Regional Command of the Ba'ath, then knowing that the Soviet Union will re-equip the Iraqi Army, travels to Moscow. Iraq and the Soviet Union sign a treaty of “Friendship and Cooperation.” Another reason Saddam signs the treaty is because it obligated the local communist party, which is very strong, to co-operate with the Ba'ath Party, which is not so strong at that time.
At the time of Operation Desert Storm, 80% of Iraq military equipment was of Soviet manufacture. The bulk of the remainder is manufactured in France.
Urban Legend:The United States "Gave" chemical weapons to Saddam.
Reality: On November 25, 1969 Nixon renounced U.S. use of chemical weapons and promulgated the first international bans on chemical weapons.
In 1971 Iraq begins chemical warfare research at Rashad to the north east of Baghdad. Research is conducted on a number of chemical agents including Mustard gas, CS (tear gas) and Tabun. Iraq starts biological warfare research in the mid-1970s. After small-scale research, a purpose-built research and development facility was authorized at al-Salman, also known as Salman Pak. This is an indigenous program assisted by the Soviet union. A chemical weapons programs requires no more than a group of competent chemists and the money to operate.
Urban Legend: The united States gave Saddam his biological weapons.
Reality: Saddam received no help from the United States to develope Biological weapons. In the 80's the Iraqi government made two purchases of seed germs from the American Type Culture Institute which provides them for legitimate medical research. The cultures were ordered by the University of Bahgdad, but later used for their bio-weapons program which was developed with the help of the Soviets. When it was confirmed during the course of the Iran/Iraq war that Iraq was engaged in the development and use of chemical and biological weapons, their access to the Type Culture Institute was cut off, as was access by several other contries.
Urban Legend: The United States enabled Iraqi nuclear programs>
Reality: In 1959 Iraq's nuclear program was established under the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission. Under a nuclear co-operation agreement signed with the Soviet Union in 1959, a nuclear research center, equipped with a research reactor, was built at Tuwaitha, the main Iraqi nuclear research center. In 1981, a French built nuclear reactor was destroyed by the Isrealis before going online. The United States played no part in Iraq obtaining nuclear capability.
BUT BUT...Don Rumsfeld shook Saddams hand and was smiling!
Doesn't that mean we were allies?
(I've actully had someone say that to me.)