in the Middle East and how Bush rallied support
for the war.
Michael HaasSee also Baker, James; Bush, George H. W.; Che-
ney, Dick; CNN coverage of the Gulf War; Foreign
policy of Canada; Foreign policy of the United States;
Gulf War syndrome; Middle East and North Amer-
ica; Patriot missile; Powell, Colin; Schwarzkopf,
Norman; Speicher, Michael Scott; United Nations;
Wolfowitz, Paul.
Gulf War syndrome
Definition A cluster of illnesses associated with
military service in the Gulf War of 1991
A group of physical and mental disorders among Gulf War
veterans created a political furor in the 1990’s. Despite nu-
merous studies, no common cause has been identified, and
a majority of experts deny that Gulf War syndrome is a dis-
tinct illness.
The Gulf War of 1991 was unusual among wars in its
short duration and the small percentage of the
660,000 deployed American military personnel who
experienced actual combat. About a year after the
war ended, veterans’ clinics began reporting demo-
bilized soldiers with a cluster of chronic debilitating
physical symptoms including fatigue, headache,
muscle and joint pain, skin rashes, chest pain, and
diarrhea, plus psychological symptoms including
sleeplessness and depression. There were also re-
ports of elevated birth defects among demobilized
military and their spouses. A series of articles inThe
Washington Postin July, 1994, called public attention
to the problem and spurred Congress to pass a law
providing special compensation for Gulf War veter-
ans disabled by unexplained illnesses.
Various causes have been postulated for Gulf War
syndrome, including Iraqi biological warfare agents,
pesticides, American depleted-uranium weapons,
chemical agents released when Iraqi stores were
bombed, endemic infectious diseases, pollution from
oil well fires, exposure to petroleum products, vac-
cines for anthrax and botulism, and pyrostigmine
bromide, used to counteract nerve gas. Numerous
studies by government and independent investiga-
tors have concluded that none of these can alone ac-
count for more than a small fraction of the reported
health problems. However, pyro-
stigmine and pesticides have syner-
gistic effects, and multiple simulta-
neously administered vaccines, some
experimental, could well cause prob-
lems. Actual exposures to pesticides,
chemical weapons, and depleted-
uranium residues may have been
higher than the levels the studies
found harmless. Since effects of car-
cinogens can take decades to mani-
fest themselves, the true scope of
Gulf War-associated illnesses may
still be unknown.
Some of the reported symptoms
resemble stress-related combat fa-
tigue or post-traumatic stress disor-
der (PTSD), but this is an unlikely
primary cause in view of the short
duration of the war and the small
percentage of soldiers directly ex-
posed to combat.Impact Comparison of deployed
American soldiers with those who392 Gulf War syndrome The Nineties in America
Gulf War veteran Brian Martin suffered from a number of maladies that he attributed
to exposure to toxic substances during the war. (AP/Wide World Photos)