August 7, the United States dispatched two aircraft
carriers and two battleship groups to the Persian
Gulf and, on the pretext that Iraq might also invade
Saudi Arabia, airlifted troops to the latter country.
With American backing, the Security Council on
November 29 demanded that Iraq withdraw from Ku-
wait by January 15, 1991. To enforce the resolution,
the Security Council authorized the use of force. U.S.
president George H. W. Bush and Secretary of State
James Baker then persuaded thirty-four other coun-
tries to form a coalition to drive Iraqi forces from Ku-
wait. Although all were aware that Iraq had violated
the U.N. Charter by waging aggressive war, some
countries were attracted to join the coalition by
American promises of aid or debt forgiveness.
Differing peace proposals were offered. Whereas
the United States demanded that Iraq uncondition-
ally withdraw from Kuwait, Baghdad offered to pull
out of Kuwait only if Syrian troops pulled out of Leb-
anon and Israeli troops abandoned the Gaza Strip,
the Golan Heights, and the Palestinian West Bank.
Iraq’s terms were rejected. On January 12, 1991,
Congress authorized Bush to wage war on Iraq de-
spite sizeable votes against the operation.
The War Code-named Operation Desert Storm,
some 660,000 troops were ultimately mobilized to at-
tack Iraq on January 17, 1991; the American portion
was about 74 percent. The initial offensive consisted
of aerial attacks on Iraq’s border with Saudi Arabia
and in western Iraq, followed by a bombardment of
Baghdad. The initial aim was to destroy the Iraqi air
force; next, bombing sought to disrupt command
communications. Later, the remaining military tar-
gets and relevant infrastructure were bombed.
Iraq responded with ineffective antiaircraft fire,
attempted to send airplanes and naval forces to Iran,
dumped oil into the Persian Gulf, attacked a town in-
side Saudi Arabia and was easily repelled, and
launched missiles at Israel, which shot them down
but otherwise refrained from involvement in the
war. Thanks to American air supremacy, coalition
ground forces decisively entered Kuwait in late Janu-
ary. The war was extensively covered around the
clock on the Cable News Network (CNN), including
live reporting of flashes of light from bombardments
and the launching of artillery.
On February 2, Iraq accepted a cease-fire agree-
ment proposed by Russia. The terms involved a with-
drawal of Iraqi troops to preinvasion positions
within three weeks, followed by a total cease-fire and
U.N. Security Council monitoring of the cease-fire
and withdrawal. The United States rejected the pro-
posal, demanding that Iraq exit from Kuwait within
twenty-four hours, during which time the coalition
would not attack Iraqi troops.
Since negotiations were deadlocked, American,
British, and French forces attacked inside Iraq, ex-
posing the vulnerability of Hussein’s military de-
fenses. On February 26, Iraqi troops began to leave
Kuwait, setting fire to oil fields as they exited, but co-
alition forces bombed the retreating columns up to
150 miles south of Baghdad. On February 27, Presi-
dent Bush declared that the war was over, that Ku-
wait had been liberated.
After Iraq surrendered, Baghdad was allowed to
use armed helicopters to assist in rebuilding dam-
aged transportation infrastructure that was being
used by retreating forces. From March 10, coalition
troops began to withdraw from Iraq, some staying in
Kuwait and in Saudi Arabia to ensure security
against future Iraq aggression.Aftermath On February 2, a radio station in Saudi
Arabia operated by the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) called on Shiites to rebel inside Iraq. Similar
statements encouraged Kurds in the north to try to
topple Hussein. However, when the rebellions oc-
curred after Hussein surrendered, Iraq’s helicop-
ters gunned down the rebels, and American forces
did nothing in support.
The Security Council responded to massacres of
Kurds and Shiites by establishing no-fly zones over
northern and southern Iraq, respectively, to be en-
forced by American, British, and French military air-
craft. Nevertheless, Hussein’s antiaircraft and sur-
face-to-air missiles challenged the enforcement,
resulting in frequent sorties thereafter to bomb both
types of installations. In a sense, the Gulf War did not
end in 1991 but continued right up to 2003.
Iraq’s remaining air force was also used to sup-
press rebellions between the two no-fly zones. Al-
though some Saudi officials urged that the no-fly
zone be extended over the entire country in order to
facilitate those seeking to overthrow Hussein, their
suggestion was ignored during the rest of the 1990’s.
A U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) was as-
signed to inspect Iraq’s compliance with a Security
Council order to dismantle all weapons of mass de-
struction. In 1999, UNSCOM left Iraq, which claimedThe Nineties in America Gulf War 389