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I RAQ ’ S H ISTORY TO 1990 57

border between the two countries should lie in the center of the waterway. This change would give Iran more control over the Shatt al Arab. The problem of dissident Kurds fighting for their freedom also continued. In 1969 Kurds had attacked the government’s oil refinery at Kirkuk. After this the government of Iran, seeing an opportunity to harass Iraq, began to supply Kurdish guerrillas with weapons. By 1974 a full-scale war existed between the Iraqi gov- ernment and the Kurds, who controlled the mountainous areas in the north. In March of 1975, Iraq and Iran settled the Shatt al Arab issue. Iran received the border it wanted; in return, the shah agreed to stop supporting the Kurds. Without weapons and an escape route into Iran, Kurdish resistance evaporated. To prevent further rebel- lions, the Iraqi government literally yanked more than 50,000 Kurds from their homes and moved them into empty areas, giving them tents to live in. They were threatened with death if they tried to return to the Kurdistan region. Al-Bakr’s government then encouraged Arab Iraqis to move into the former homes of the Kurds in order to dilute the influence of the Kurdish population. By the end of 1975, Saddam Hussein had clearly become one of the most powerful men in Iraq. While al-Bakr was considered the more respectable face of the government, he had become little more than a figurehead. Saddam was the regime’s strongman, intimidating Iraqis to ensure that no one opposed the Baath Party. Political activity among civilians or within the army, aside from that connected to the Baath Party, was outlawed and could be punished by death. S ADDAM H USSEIN T AKES P OWER In July 1979 Saddam Hussein, then vice president of Iraq, announced that he had discovered a plot to take over the govern- ment. Among the plotters, he claimed, were high-ranking members of Iraq’s government; not only were they “traitors” to their friends,