Persian Gulf War

On August 2, 1990, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) led his country in an invasion of its southern neighbor, Kuwait, beginning an Iraqi occupation of the small, oil-rich nation. Six months later, Operation Desert Storm—a U.S.-led and United Nations–approved coalition of thirty nations—was launched to defend Kuwait from Iraqi aggression.

Iraq-Kuwait conflict

Iraq had recently emerged from the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) as the dominant military power in the Persian Gulf region. At the conclusion of the conflict, Iraq's military consisted of more than one million men. During the war, Iraq had invested heavily in defense industries, particularly in the development of missiles—rockets that can carry nuclear or nonnuclear bombs—and in chemical weapons production. Chemical weapons are toxic substances, such as nerve gas or mustard gas, specifically designed to cause death or other harm; usually only small amounts are required to kill large numbers of people. By 1990, Iraq's military

power and its defense industries placed Hussein in a strong position in the Persian Gulf, and he had growing ambitions to be the leader of the Arab world.

To pursue his goals, Hussein needed money. Iraq had emerged from the war with an enormous debt and needed billions of dollars to repair the damage inflicted by Iran. A significant portion of the Iraqi national debt was owed to Kuwait, and the Iraqis felt that the Kuwaitis should erase the debt because Iraq had, in essence, protected Kuwait from Iran.

But Kuwait would not forgive the debt. Hussein knew that if he could combine the lucrative oil fields of Kuwait with Iraq's own substantial oil reserves, he would control more than 20 percent of the world's oil. Ownership of the Rumaila oil field was especially disputed because it stretches across both Iraqi and Kuwaiti territories. Iraq accused Kuwait of pumping from the Rumaila oil field and selling the oil at considerable profit during the Iran-Iraq War. Hussein demanded that the border between the nations be revised to give Iraq the entire Rumaila field, and that Kuwait pay Iraq $2 billion for the oil it had already pumped from the field. Kuwait rejected these claims.

The invasion

In mid-July 1990, Hussein threatened action against Kuwait as Iraqi forces gathered along the Kuwaiti border. Nonetheless, the invasion on August 2, 1990, was sudden and unexpected. Within hours, Kuwait was overrun. Most of its ruling family escaped to Saudi Arabia. Initially, the Iraqis claimed that the Kuwaiti opposition had invited Iraq into Kuwait, but no credible Kuwaitis were willing to verify this story. Thus, the Iraqi authorities simply asserted their claim to Kuwait and prepared to annex the entire country.

Following the invasion, the Iraqis looted the entire country of furniture, cars, Kuwait's gold reserves, industrial equipment, and even treasures

from the Kuwaiti museum. Approximately half of Kuwait's citizenry, along with substantial numbers of Asian and Palestinian workers employed in Kuwait, fled the country. The Iraqis ruthlessly crushed resistance by any who remained. A great number of arrests, tortures, and executions followed, and a large portion of Kuwait's male population between the ages of eighteen and forty-five was taken back to Iraq as hostages.

The world responds

Meanwhile, the international community reacted swiftly. The United States had had friendly relations with Iraq for many years, and had provided it with arms and intelligence during the Iran-Iraq War. But after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, President George H. W. Bush (1924–; served 1989–93) feared Iraqi control of the world's oil and decided to take action. After ordering a U.S. economic embargo (prohibition of trade with a country) of Iraq, Bush organized an international coalition (alliance) of forty-three nations, thirty of which sent military or medical units to help liberate Kuwait. Western European states and Japan also embargoed Iraq. Bush worked to convince the United Nations to support his actions, and on August 6, 1990, the United Nations Security Council ordered a global economic embargo against Hussein's regime.

Continuing his forceful actions, Bush sent U.S. military forces to nearby Saudi Arabia, commencing Operation Desert Shield. Forces of several Arab powers and other members of the international community soon joined U.S. forces. On August 25, the United Nations authorized the use of military force to impose the embargo against Iraq. The crisis mounted through the fall, as the United States and its Desert Shield partners poured troops and military equipment into Saudi Arabia. Bush sent nearly one-half million U.S. troops to the region. By November 1990, a massive military presence had been established in the Persian Gulf region. Hussein threatened to use chemical and biological weapons against his enemies if his country was attacked.

Operation Desert Storm

U.N. and American diplomats set a deadline in January 1991 for Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait. The date passed unheeded, and on January 16, 1991, the U.S.-led coalition unleashed an air attack on Baghdad and other military installations inside Iraq.

Operation Desert Storm began with a spectacular aerial bombardment of Iraq and Kuwait. For five weeks, satellite television coverage via Cable News Network (CNN) enabled Americans at home to watch “smart” bombs (self-guiding weapons) hitting Iraqi targets and U.S. Patriot missiles intercepting Iraqi Scud missiles (a type of missile designed in the Soviet Union) aimed at Israel. On February 24, after five weeks of bombardment, the commander of the Coalition Forces, General Norman Schwarzkopf (1934–), sent hundreds of thousands of allied troops into Kuwait and eastern Iraq. Hussein had warned that Americans would sustain thousands of casualties in the “mother of all battles” if they attacked on the ground, but Iraq's army put up little resistance, and its threat to use biological and chemical weapons was never realized. By February 26, Iraqi forces were retreating from Kuwait.

End of the battle

After only one hundred hours of fighting on the ground, Iraq accepted a U.N.-imposed cease-fire. Iraq's military casualties numbered more than 25,000 dead and 300,000 wounded; U.S. forces suffered only 148 battle deaths and 467 wounded. Exactly six weeks into the war, the residents of Kuwait City welcomed the multinational liberating army as it paraded through the streets. A few weeks later, Desert Storm troops began returning to the United States, receiving a hero's welcome. General Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell (1937–), the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, became instant celebrities; George Bush earned the highest approval rating ever accorded an American president.

All was not well in Kuwait and Iraq, though. Kuwait sustained severe environmental damage as retreating Iraqi troops set fire to its oil fields, which burned uncontrollably for several days, sending noxious plumes of black smoke into the atmosphere and polluting the fragile desert environment.

Bush chose not to send U.S. forces to Baghdad to capture Saddam Hussein. Leaving Hussein in power meant that rival sects in Iraq, the Kurds and the Shi'tes, would face continuing oppression at the dictator's hands. But foreseeing the possibility of a prolonged civil, and perhaps regional, war, Bush ruled out further military action. Instead, he brought about international economic sanctions against Iraq, many of which remained in effect until the Iraq invasion in 2003. Saddam Hussein remained in power in Iraq, proud and defiant even with his military power severely reduced.

Under the terms of the United Nations' Security Council Resolution 687, Iraq had to accept the boundary with Kuwait assigned by an international commission. Iraq was also required to accept the presence of U.N. peacekeepers on its borders and to reveal and cooperate in the destruction of all its chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, including missiles. U.N. inspectors found that Hussein's scientists and engineers had built more than twenty nuclear facilities. They found more than 100 Scud missiles, 70 tons of nerve gas, and 400 tons of mustard gas, and they destroyed everything they found.