It was the first major foreign policy crisis for the U.S. since the end of the Cold War. Iraq, which had built up the fourth-largest army in the world with U.S. assistance, was heavily in debt after its costly eight-year war with Iran. It pressured Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to forgive its debts, but they refused. Iraq had claimed, since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1932, that Kuwait was rightfully Iraqi territory, and accused Kuwait of exceeding its OPEC quotas for oil production. This all came to a head in August 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait, a major supplier of oil to the United States, and also threatened Saudi Arabia. In the last months of 1990, the United States participated in the defense of Saudi Arabia in a deployment known as Operation Desert Shield. Over 500,000 American troops were placed in Saudi Arabia in case of an Iraqi attack on the Saudis. The U.S. further sought multilateral support in the UN Security Council. After Iraq refused to withdraw its troops from Kuwait, a U.S.-led coalition began a massive air attack on January 17, 1991. This was followed by a ground assault on February 24, which led to the end of the war on February 28.
Chas Freeman was U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm. In this segment, he discusses the “woolly mammoths” that reappeared in the region after the Cold War ended, his briefing King Fahd on the invasion, and advising General Schwarzkopf on the conduct of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. He was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy starting in 1995. You can read Part II here.
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