Are you saying that the U.S. never had a friendly relationship with Saddam?
I’d say that. I’d say we had a pragmatic relationship with them, when it looked like the Iranians were going to overrun them. “Friendly”? I don’t think so.
We had a relationship the same way we had one with the ex-Soviet Union. Not a friendly one, not even very cordial. Remember what DeGaulle said: “countries don’t have friends, they have interests.” We judged Hussein to be less of a threat at the time than Iran. Nobody had any illusions about Hussein.