The United States reportedly provided critical intelligence to Iraq during the last days of its war with Iran, which allowed Saddam Hussein’s military to use chemical weapons against its adversary.
Recently declassified CIA documents claim that the Reagan administration knew that the Iraqis would use nerve gas but didn’t stop them from doing so because it wanted Iraq to win the war. The U.S. had satellite imagery that showed Iran building up forces to exploit a hole in Iraq’s defenses and reported the location of Iranian troops to the Hussein regime.
The CIA documents also showed that agency officials debated the repercussions of Iraq using chemical weapons and ultimately felt that international reaction would be muted.