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12/30/2002 Archived Entry: "iraq"

U.S. had key role in Iraq buildup
In the 1980s, Saddam was a strategic partner of U.S.

National Security Decision Directive 114 of Nov. 26, 1983,
one of the few important Reagan era foreign policy decisions
that still remains classified. According to former U.S.
officials, the directive stated that the United States would
do whatever was necessary and legal to prevent Iraq from losing
the war with Iran.

Donald H. Rumsfeld, now defense secretary, whose December 1983
meeting with Hussein as a special presidential envoy paved the
way for normalization of U.S.-Iraqi relations.