When Saddam Hussein became Iraq's president during the summer of 1979, Jimmy Carter was America's president. Carter, however, was far less focused on Hussein than he was on the man ruling Iran next door.

The Shah of Iran was a key American ally in the Middle East, but that didn't stop President Carter from publicly pressuring him to reform his repressive regime. And that, along with rising religious fervor and an economic crisis, helped lead to the shah's downfall and the subsequent takeover of Iran by Islamic fundamentalists led by the Ayatollah Khomeini.

When the deposed and ill shah was permitted to enter the United States, the ayatollah's supporters responded by taking 66 Americans hostage in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. They would be held under guard for 444 days before being released. It was one of America's worst foreign policy humiliations, one that helped ensure that Jimmy Carter would be only a one-term president.

It would also lead to a shift in U.S. policy. To American leaders, Saddam Hussein would start looking better.