Weldon C. Matthews is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Oakland University

‘Decades after the US toppled Saddam Hussein, Matthews illuminates the 1960s origins of Ba‘thist rule. Using new Arabic and Central Intelligence Agency sources, he shows how para-state militias intensified a Ba‘thist–Communist struggle to mobilise Iraqis and define postcolonial liberation. This long-awaited study confronts Iraq’s experience with American imperialism, anticolonialism and political violence.’

• AcknowledgementsNote on Transliteration and TranslationList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Violence and Decolonization1. The Emergence of the Iraqi Ba‘th Party2. Rebuilding the Iraqi Ba‘th Party3. A Coup and Counterinsurgency Doctrine4. Extirpating the Iraqi Communist Party5. Ba‘thists and the American State-Private Network6. Paramilitarism and Mass PoliticsEpilogue: A New Ba‘th PartyBibliography

Weldon C. Matthews is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Oakland University

‘Decades after the US toppled Saddam Hussein, Matthews illuminates the 1960s origins of Ba‘thist rule. Using new Arabic and Central Intelligence Agency sources, he shows how para-state militias intensified a Ba‘thist–Communist struggle to mobilise Iraqis and define postcolonial liberation. This long-awaited study confronts Iraq’s experience with American imperialism, anticolonialism and political violence.’

• AcknowledgementsNote on Transliteration and TranslationList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Violence and Decolonization1. The Emergence of the Iraqi Ba‘th Party2. Rebuilding the Iraqi Ba‘th Party3. A Coup and Counterinsurgency Doctrine4. Extirpating the Iraqi Communist Party5. Ba‘thists and the American State-Private Network6. Paramilitarism and Mass PoliticsEpilogue: A New Ba‘th PartyBibliography

Weldon C. Matthews is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Oakland University

‘Decades after the US toppled Saddam Hussein, Matthews illuminates the 1960s origins of Ba‘thist rule. Using new Arabic and Central Intelligence Agency sources, he shows how para-state militias intensified a Ba‘thist–Communist struggle to mobilise Iraqis and define postcolonial liberation. This long-awaited study confronts Iraq’s experience with American imperialism, anticolonialism and political violence.’

• AcknowledgementsNote on Transliteration and TranslationList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Violence and Decolonization1. The Emergence of the Iraqi Ba‘th Party2. Rebuilding the Iraqi Ba‘th Party3. A Coup and Counterinsurgency Doctrine4. Extirpating the Iraqi Communist Party5. Ba‘thists and the American State-Private Network6. Paramilitarism and Mass PoliticsEpilogue: A New Ba‘th PartyBibliography