The 17 July Revolution, a pivotal event in Iraqi history, occurred on 17 July 1968. This bloodless coup was orchestrated by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Abd ar-Razzaq an-Naif, and Abd ar-Rahman al-Dawud. It resulted in the overthrow of President Abdul Rahman Arif and Prime Minister Tahir Yahya, paving the way for the Iraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to assume power.

Key Ba'athist figures in the coup and the subsequent political purges included Hardan al-Tikriti, Salih Mahdi Ammash, and Saddam Hussein, who later became the President of Iraq. The coup mainly targeted Prime Minister Yahya, a Nasserist who had capitalized on the political crisis following the June 1967 Six-Day War. Yahya had pushed for the nationalization of the Western-owned Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) to use Iraq's oil as leverage against Israel. However, the full nationalization of the IPC was only realized in 1972 under the Ba'athist regime.

In the aftermath of the coup, the new Ba'athist government in Iraq focused on consolidating its power. It denounced perceived American and Israeli interference, executed 14 people, including 9 Iraqi Jews on false espionage charges, and pursued a purge of political opponents. The regime also sought to strengthen Iraq's traditional ties with the Soviet Union.

The Ba'ath Party maintained its rule from the 17 July Revolution until 2003 when it was ousted by an invasion led by American and British forces. It is essential to distinguish the 17 July Revolution from the 14 July Revolution of 1958, which ended the Hashemite dynasty and established the Republic of Iraq, and the 8 February 1963 Ramadan Revolution, which first brought the Iraqi Ba'ath Party to power as part of a short-lived coalition government.