A Tug of War for Iraq's Memory

Disagreement about the fate of Baath Party records has set 2 scholars on a collision course

By JOHN GRAVOIS

This past November, the director of Iraq's National Library and Archive — a slim, intense, clean-shaven Iraqi Kurd named Saad Bashir Eskander — made a rare trip across the Atlantic.

In a two-week tour, Mr. Eskander...