After the Ba'ath Party overthrew Qassim in 1963, Ba'athists leaders were appointed to the cabinet and Abdule Salam Arif then became president. Arif had both dismissed and arrested the Ba'athist leaders later on the same year, so Saddam had returned to Iraq but that turned out to be a bad idea. His was imprisoned shortly after in 1964, but even during his time being incarcerated, he still held the title of Ba'ath party secretary and did so until 1968. Saddam had managed to get out of prison in 1967 and quickly became a leading party member. After he got some of his power with the party, he was directly involved with the vicious overthrow of Abdul Rahman Arif. Al-Bakr then became president and Saddam was his right hand man, official title was dupy chairman of the Ba'athist Revolutionary Command Council. Saddam never did forget the tensions that had occurred during the first Ba'ath government and formed measures to promote Ba'ath party unity as well as maintain power and social program stability.

In the late 60's and early 70's, Saddam was proving to be a reputable and progressive politician, as he was moving up the ranks in the new government by aiding and taking a lead role in addressing the major domestic problems that had plagued Iraq in the past. Hussein was actively helping modernizing the Iraqi economy with the creation of strong security apparatus to prevent coups within the power structure and insurrections apart from it. In June, 1972 Saddam had begin to shift his agenda over to oil interests, because at the time it was internationally controlled. A year later happened to be the year of the world's 1973 major energy crisis, causing oil prices among other things to skyrocket.

In just a few short years, Iraq was providing social services that were not usually seen in middle-eastern countries. There was a program called the "National Campaign for the Eradication of Illiteracy" and it helped thousands of people learn to read. The government also supported the families of soldiers, people received free hospitalization, farmers got subsidies and Iraq also had one of the most modernized public healthcare systems in the Middle East .

In 1976, Saddam rose to the position of general in the Iraqi armed forces, and rapidly became the strongman of the government. As the weak, elderly al-Bakr became unable to execute his duties, Saddam took on an increasingly prominent role as the face of the government both internally and externally. He soon became the architect of Iraq 's foreign policy and represented the nation in all diplomatic situations.