they were deploying. With Thatcher there, Bush had the fig-leaf of an instant
international coalition to use as a bludgeon against domestic critics.
The breast-beating about the enforcement of the sanctions signalled that the Anglo-
Americans were going on a diplomatic offensive against countries like Germany, Japan,
and many in the third world who might have assumed a neutral or pacifist position in the
crisis. Baker had been travelling in Siberia with Shevardnadze when Iraq had entered
Kuwait, and Soviet condemnation of Iraq had been immediate. Many countries,
especially in the third world, now found that with the Soviets closing ranks with the
Anglo-Americans, the margin of maneuver they had enjoyed during the cold war was
now totally gone. Countries like Jordan, the Sudan, Yemen, the PLO, and others who
expressed understanding for Iraqi motives went to the top of the Anglo-American hit list.
Bush assumed the role of top cop himself, with gusto: according to Fitzwater, the "speed
dialing mode" had produced 20 calls to 12 different world leaders over slightly more than
three days.
When Cheney arrived in Saudi Arabia, the essence of his mission was to convey to King
Fahd and his retinue that the first elements of the 82nd Airborne Division would be
landing within an hour or two, and that the Saudi monarchy would be well advised to
welcome them. In effect, Cheney was there to tell the Saudis that they were an occupied
country, and that the United States would assume physical possession of most of the
Arabian peninsula, with all of its fabulous oil wealth. Did King Fahd think of protesting
the arrogance of Cheney's ultimatum? If he did, he had only to think of the fate of his
predecessor, King Feisal, who had been murdered by the CIA in 1975. By the time King
Fahd acquiesced, the first US units were already on the ground. Cheney went through the
charade of calling Bush to tell him that the dispatch of a US contingent for the defense of
Saudi Arabia had been approved by His Majesty, and then formally to ask Bush's
approval for the transfer of the troops. "You got it. Go," Bush is supposed to have replied.
Bahrein, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, all the members of the Gulf
Cooperation Council would soon be subject to the same process of military occupation.
The US expeditionary force in Saudi Arabia became widely known in Washington on
Tuesday, August 7, as White House officials hastened to share the news with journalists.
Bush personally wanted to stay out of the spotlight. At a Cabinet meeting, Bush told his
advisers that his regime had warned the Saudi government that the threat posed by the
Iraqi military to Saudi Arabia was also a threat to the national security of the United
States. According to Fitzwater, Saddam Hussein met with the US charge d'affaires in
Baghdad, Joseph Wilson, to tell him that "he had no intention of leaving Kuwait and
every intention of staying and claiming it as his own."
On Wednesday morning, Bush delivered a televised address to the American people from
the Oval Office. This was still a format that he disliked very much, since it made him
seem maladroit. Bush grinned incongruously as he read his prepared text. He told the
public that his troop deployments were "to take up defensive positions in Saudi Arabia."
These US forces would "work together with those of Saudi Arabia and other nations to
preserve the integrity of Saudi Arabia and to deter further Iraqi aggression." He