The Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) was one of the longest conflicts of the twentieth century and the longest in which one nation sought to invade another. During the war, UNESCO received countless appeals from both sides to intervene and ensure the conditions of the Hague Convention were being met. However, several rich case studies demonstrate how the Iraqi state actively militarised and propagandised cultural heritage during the war. In 1982, a UNESCO mission concluded that allegations of Iran destroying their own heritage (originating from within Iraq) were false. Then, in 1985, Iraq aggressively bombed the historic centre of Isfahan in Iran, destroying cultural heritage in a region with no military or strategic targets. Two weeks later and without evidence, Iraq accused Iran of a ‘Hitlerite’ raid in Basra which allegedly destroyed the historic centre and killed 70 children at a nearby school. This chapter examines whether the leveraging of cultural heritage destruction impacted Iraqi state legitimacy on the international stage and the degree to which this leveraging was intentional, based on a close reading of documented meetings of Saddam Hussein and his inner circle and the Iraq and Iran country folders of UNESCO.