Gulf War: A Visual History

The Gulf War (1990-1991) began when Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait on 2 August 1990 over debts and oil disputes. The UN demanded withdrawal and imposed sanctions; the United States under George H. W. Bush assembled a coalition of 35 nations and 700,000 troops in Saudi Arabia (Desert Shield). When the 15 January deadline passed, Operation Desert Storm began with 42 days of air attacks that destroyed Iraq's command, air defences and infrastructure; Iraq fired Scud missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia. The ground offensive of 24-28 February swept round the Iraqi flank, liberated Kuwait and destroyed much of the Republican Guard; Bush halted it after 100 hours, leaving Saddam in power to crush Shia and Kurdish uprisings. Kuwait's oil wells burned for months.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

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Coalition forces by country

Timeline of the Gulf War

1. 1990
   Iraq invades Kuwait2 August.
2. 1990
   Desert Shield; UN Resolution 678August to November.
3. 1991
   Desert Storm air campaign begins17 January.
4. 1991
   Khafji; Amiriyah; Dhahran ScudJanuary to February.
5. 1991
   Ground war; Kuwait liberated; ceasefire24 to 28 February.
6. 1991
   Shia and Kurdish uprisings crushed; no-fly zonesMarch to April.

Invasion and Desert Shield

Iraq, 80 billion dollars in debt from the war with Iran, accused Kuwait of overproducing oil and slant-drilling the Rumaila field; the US ambassador April Glaspie's ambiguous remarks were read as a green light. Iraqi armour overran Kuwait in a day; the emir fled and Iraq declared it the 19th province. Bush declared 'this will not stand'; the UN passed 12 resolutions culminating in 678 authorising force after 15 January 1991; Saudi Arabia accepted US troops, and Syria and Egypt joined the coalition while the Soviet Union acquiesced.

Desert Storm

The air campaign from 17 January used stealth F-117s, cruise missiles and precision bombs to blind Iraq's defences and cut Baghdad's power and bridges, then pounded the army in Kuwait; the Amiriyah shelter bombing killed 400 civilians. Iraq's Scuds hit Tel Aviv and Riyadh (28 US soldiers died at Dhahran) and Israel was persuaded not to retaliate; Iraq dumped oil into the Gulf and set 600 Kuwaiti wells alight. Iraqi troops seized the Saudi town of Khafji and were driven out.

The 100 hours

Schwarzkopf's 'left hook' sent VII and XVIII Corps through the desert west of the Iraqi line while Marines and Arab forces attacked into Kuwait on 24 February; Iraqi conscripts surrendered by the tens of thousands, the Republican Guard was caught at 73 Easting and Medina Ridge, and the retreat from Kuwait City was strafed on the Highway of Death. Bush ordered a ceasefire at 8am on 28 February. At Safwan Schwarzkopf let Iraq keep its helicopters, which Saddam used to crush the uprisings the coalition had encouraged; Kurds fled to the mountains and no-fly zones and Operation Provide Comfort followed. Sanctions and inspections lasted until 2003.

The war restored Kuwait, showed the power of precision weapons and left a US military presence in Saudi Arabia that bin Laden cited as a grievance.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• United States (1776 to present)
• British Empire (1583 to 1997)
• Second French colonial empire (1830 to 1980)

Wars of the same era and region

• Iran-Iraq War (1980 to 1988)
• Iraqi conflict (2003 to present)
• Cold War (1947 to 1991)
• Kurdish-Turkish conflict (1978 to present)
• Arab-Israeli conflict (1948 to present)
• War in Afghanistan (2001-2021) (2001 to 2021)

8 surprising things about the Gulf War

1. It was the first war broadcast live around the clock; CNN's Baghdad reporters made the network's name.
2. The 'left hook' moved two corps hundreds of kilometres west in secret across trackless desert.
3. About 86,000 Iraqi soldiers were taken prisoner, some surrendering to journalists and to a drone.
4. The 600 burning oil wells took nine months to extinguish and are the largest oil spill in history on land.
5. Iraq's Scud attacks on Israel killed two people directly but 'Gulf War syndrome' and sealed rooms became fixtures of the memory.
6. Bush chose not to march on Baghdad; Cheney explained in 1994 that it would have been a quagmire.
7. Saudi Arabia hosting non-Muslim troops was cited by Osama bin Laden as a reason for al-Qaeda's war on America.
8. The Highway of Death images helped prompt the early ceasefire.

Sources

• Persian Gulf War Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Gulf War Wikipedia
• Gulf War World History Encyclopedia
• Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh, The Gulf Conflict 1990-1991 (1993) Faber

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