The Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America

14 July 1958 Revolution Medal- Obverse 14 July 1958 Revolution Medal- Reverse

14th Ramadan Revolution Medal- Obverse 14th Ramadan Revolution Medal- Reverse

29 Volume 51 Number 1

raised, gilt-bronze script is the Arabic inscription 14 a ribbon ring, is 32 mm in width and has a left, to right Hatul (14 July). The reverse is blank except for the color pattern of red (8mm), white (16mm), and black Arabic inscription Tanu 14Namur 1958 (Revolution 14 (8mm). July 1958) in raised gilt-bronze. On the arm that connects the upper point of the badge to the horizontal Lying prominently behind the change of loop is the maker’s mark HUGUENIN/SWlSS MADE. government was the Ba’ath Party, a secular pan-Arab The mark appears in two vertical lines in raised letters. nationalist party that has played an ongoing and active The suspension ribbon is 35 mm in width and has a color role in the recent history of both and . The pattern of black (2mm), blue (4mm), yellow-orange small size of the Ba’ath Party in 1963, combined with its (23mm), blue (4mm), and black (2mm). The suspension factionalism, its ambiguity between Iraqi and device is an integral horizontal loop. , and its inability to crush the Kurdish rebellion, led Arif to push the party aside in November The new republican government redesigned some of the 1963 and to focus power on the armed forces under his monarchist awards, such as the Wisam al-Rafidian leadership and that of his brother Abd al-Rahman and (Order of the Two Rivers), abolished others, such as the Colonel Said Slaibi. In effect, this represented the Wisarn al-Hashemi (Order of the Hasmemites), and expulsion of the Ba’ath Party from the uneasy coalition introduced a range of new medals to commemorate that had overthrown General Qasim nine months earlier. important events in the recent including medals for the 1941 revolt and the 1948 war with Israel. The formation of the new government under Arif was commemorated with the issue of the Medal for 18 Despite an attempted coup in 1959 and the simmering November 1963. The badge of this medal is a gilt growth of Kurdish opposition in the north, for which the equilateral triangle with sides 4 lmm in length. Radiating 1960 Crushing the Northern Rebellion Medal was fi’om the center of the obverse is a sunburst composed of awarded, Qasim held onto power until 8 February 1963 a gilt sun and alternating rays in gilt and yellow enamel. when he was overthrown and executed by the Ba’ath In the middle of the sun is the Iraqi national symbol in red Party under Ali Salih al-Saadi and Colonel Ahmad Hasan enamel, and below the sun is the Arabic inscription 18 al-Bakr, but with the non-political Brigadier Abd al- Teshrin A1-Shani 63 (18 November 1963) with the Salaam Arif as governmental figurehead. In large part, numbers in red enamel and the name of the month in this coup came about as a result of Qasim’s lack of green enamel. The reverse is plain except for the mark success in the struggles to regain power in Kurdish HUGUENIN/SWISS MADE in small letters near the top. regions in the north. At the top of the badge is an integral horizontal loop for the suspension ribbon. The suspension ribbon is 35mm The 14th Ramadan Revolution Medal was created to in width and is yellow with red edge stripes (5rmn). commemorate this governmental change.2 The medal has a c, ircular badge, 40mm in diameter, with a gilt-bronze Arif led the Iraqi govermnent unambiguously into the finish. In center of the obverse is the Iraqi flag (i 958-91) pan-Arab, pro-Nasser camp, and unity with Egypt and in red, white, black, and green enamel. Above the flag Syria was actively considered. When Abd al-Salaam Arif and outlined by a blue enamel background is the Arabic was killed in a helicopter crash in 1966, his brother Abd inscripfionAl-Jamhuriya al-Iraqiyya (The Iraqi Republic). al-Rahman assumed leadership. However, Abd al- The blue enamel background also outlines a stylized Rahman’s lack of effective charisma and the renewal of rising sun motif behind the flag, and at the base of the conflict with the shifted increasing power to sun is the Arabic inscription 14 Ramadan in blue enamel. various Army factions and away from any centralized The reverse of the badge is plain except for the Arabic government. inscription 8Mabat1963 (8 February 1963) in high relief near the bottom. Below the inscription in small raised On 17 July 1968, a military coup against Arif placed letters is the maker’s mark, HUGUENIN SWISS Colonel Abd al-Razzaq al-Nayif and Ibrahim al-Daud in The snspension ribbon, which is attached to the badge by power, but they were quickly out-maneuvered by a now more politically nimble Ba’ath Party, which under the leadership ofAhmad Hasan al-Bakr coopted al-Nayif and 2 al-Daud and their coup within a few weeks. The weaken- In the Muslim calendar, which is lunar rather than solar, "14th ing of pan-Arabism of the old Nasserite model after the Ramadan" was the equivalent of 8 February for the year 1963.

3O The Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America

disastrous 1967 war with Israel had allowed the Iraqi Ba’ath to find its own path and shape its own Iraqi agenda with few links to the sibling Syrian Ba’ath.

For this revolution, the 17 July 1968 Revolution Medal was awarded. It has a circular gilt and enameled badge, 40mm in diameter. On the obverse is an eight-pointed star in yellow enamel on a black enamel background. Slightly above the center of the star is a gilt triangle with the Iraqi national symbol in red enamel, and emanating from the syrnbol are rays in yellow enamel. The triangle is encircled by a wreath of two gilt palm fronds that as tied at the bottom by a bow. Below the base of the triangle is the Arabic inscription Nut/l 7 Tamuz (17 July) in gilt, and below the bow of the wreath is "1968" in gilt Arabic script. The reverse is plain but with a patterned surface and the maker’s mark, HUGUENIN/SWISS MADE, in small raised letters near the bottom. The ribbon is 36mm in width and is white with black edge stripes (4ram). Suspension is by an integral, trapezoidal- shaped loop.

Behind al-Bakr, and increasingly moving to supplant him, was, of course, , who within a year of the Medalfor 18 November 1963 - Obverse revolution had become the most important Ba’ath Party official. On 16 July 1979, faced with personal illness and a set of family tragedies, al-Bakr stepped down and Saddam Hussein moved into the public exercise of the power that he had held from behind the scenes for at least a decade.

The rest of the story is, as they say, "history."

The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Marty Vaughan and to Dan Farek for the photographs of the 14 July 1958 Revolution Medal, the 14th Ramadan Revolution Medal, and the 17 July 1968 Revolution Medal.

Selected Bibliography:

AI-Muderis, Layth, "Iraqi Awards," The Journal of the Orders and Medals Soeie(y of America, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Mar-Apt 1999): 20-23. Haynes, Edward S. and Vaughan, Martin J., "Republic of Iraq/Jamhu- riuyah al-Iraq," International Electronic Phalertstic Encyclo- pedia, 1998 et seq. http://haynese.wmthrop.edu/medals/Iraq/ iraq.html. "Iraq," Almanach de Bruxelles, http://www.almanach.be/seareh/i/ iraq.html. Mart, Phebe, The Modern History ofIraq, Westview Press, Boulder, 17 July 1968 Revolution Medal - Obverse 1985.

31