Editing Saddam Hussein (section)

=== Gulf War: 1990–1991 ===
{{Main|Gulf War}}

==== Tensions with Kuwait: 1988–1990 ====
The end of the war with Iran served to deepen latent tensions between Iraq and its wealthy neighbor Kuwait. Saddam urged the Kuwaitis to waive the Iraqi debt accumulated in the war, some $30 billion, but they refused.<ref name="Humphreys, 105">Humphreys, 105</ref> Saddam pushed oil-exporting countries to raise oil prices by cutting back production; Kuwait refused, then led the opposition in [[OPEC]] to the cuts that Saddam had requested. Kuwait was pumping large amounts of oil, and thus keeping prices low, when Iraq needed to sell high-priced oil from its wells to pay off its huge debt.<ref name="Humphreys, 105" />

Saddam had consistently argued that Kuwait had historically been an integral part of Iraq, and had only come into being as a result of interference from the [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]]; echoing a belief that Iraqi nationalists had supported for the past fifty years. This belief was one of the few articles of faith uniting the political scene in a nation rife with sharp social, ethnic, religious, and ideological divides.<ref name="Humphreys, 105" /> The extent of Kuwaiti oil reserves also intensified tensions in the region. The oil reserves of Kuwait (with a population of 2&nbsp;million next to Iraq's 25) were roughly equal to those of Iraq. Taken together, Iraq and Kuwait sat on top of some 20 percent of the world's known oil reserves; [[Saudi Arabia]] held another 25 percent. Saddam still had an experienced and well-equipped army, which he used to influence regional affairs. He later ordered troops to the Iraq–Kuwait border.<ref name="Humphreys, 105" />

As Iraq–Kuwait relations rapidly deteriorated, Saddam was receiving conflicting information about how the US would respond to the prospects of an invasion. For one, Washington had been taking measures to cultivate a constructive relationship with Iraq for roughly a decade. The [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]] gave Iraq roughly $4&nbsp;billion in agricultural credits to bolster it against Iran.<ref>A free-access on-line archive relating to U.S.–Iraq relations in the 1980s is offered by ''The National Security Archive'' of the [[George Washington University]]. It can be read on line at [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/]. The Mount Holyoke International Relations Program also provides a free-access document briefing on U.S.–Iraq relations (1904–present); this can be accessed on line at [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/iraq.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208105755/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/iraq.htm|date=8 February 2019}}.</ref> Saddam's Iraq became "the third-largest recipient of US assistance."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/08/31/the_true_iraq_appeasers/ |title=The true Iraq appeasers |work=The Boston Globe |access-date =16 July 2008 |date=31 August 2006 |first=Peter W. |last=Galbraith}}</ref> Reacting to Western criticism in April 1990, Saddam threatened to destroy half of Israel with chemical weapons if it moved against Iraq.<ref>Alan Cowell, [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/03/world/iraq-chief-boasting-of-poison-gas-warns-of-disaster-if-israelis-strike.html? "Iraq Chief, Boasting of Poison Gas, Warns of Disaster if Israelis Strike"], ''The New York Times'', 3 April 1990</ref> In May 1990, he criticized US support for Israel warning that "the US cannot maintain such a policy while professing friendship towards the Arabs."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/29/world/iraqi-takes-harsh-line-at-meeting.html |last=Cowell |first=Alan |title=Iraqi Takes Harsh Line at Meeting |work=The New York Times |date=29 May 1990 |access-date=20 September 2013}}</ref> In July 1990 he threatened force against Kuwait and the UAE saying "The policies of some Arab rulers are American ... They are inspired by America to undermine Arab interests and security."<ref>Youssef M. Ibrahim, [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/18/business/iraq-threatens-emirates-and-kuwait-on-oil-glut.html? "Iraq Threatens Emirates And Kuwait on Oil Glut"], ''The New York Times'', 18 July 1990</ref> The US sent warplanes and combat ships to the Persian Gulf in response to these threats.<ref>Michael R. Gordon, [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/25/world/us-deploys-air-and-sea-forces-after-iraq-threatens-2-neighbors.html? "U.S. Deploys Air and Sea Forces After Iraq Threatens 2 Neighbors"], ''The New York Times'', 25 July 1990</ref>

[[File:April Glaspie, Sadoun al-Zubaydi and Saddam Hussein.jpg|thumb|[[United States Ambassador to Iraq|U.S. Ambassador to Iraq]] [[April Glaspie]] calls upon Saddam for an emergency meeting.]]
On 25 July 1990, Saddam summoned the US ambassador to Iraq, [[April Glaspie]], for an emergency meeting where the Iraqi leader attacked American policy with regards to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. During the meeting, Glaspie stated that "we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait," which was interpreted as tacit approval for the invasion of Kuwait.<ref name="nytimes1990">[https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/23/world/confrontation-in-the-gulf-excerpts-from-iraqi-document-on-meeting-with-us-envoy.html? "CONFRONTATION IN THE GULF; Excerpts From Iraqi Document on Meeting With U.S. Envoy"], ''The New York Times'', 23 September 1990</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Walt |first=Stephen M. |date=2025-05-06 |title=WikiLeaks, April Glaspie, and Saddam Hussein |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/01/09/wikileaks-april-glaspie-and-saddam-hussein/ |access-date=2025-05-03 |website=Foreign Policy |language=en-US}}</ref>

Saddam stated that he would attempt last-ditch negotiations with the Kuwaitis but Iraq "would not accept death."<ref name="nytimes1990" /> U.S officials attempted to maintain a conciliatory line with Iraq, indicating that while [[George H. W. Bush]] and [[James Baker]] did not want force used, they would not take any position on the Iraq–Kuwait boundary dispute and did not want to become involved.<ref>Greg Palast: ''Armed Madhouse'' Chapter 2, "Plume".</ref> Later, Iraq and Kuwait met for a final negotiation session, which failed. Saddam then sent his troops into Kuwait.<ref name=":39" /> As tensions between Washington and Saddam began to escalate, the Soviet Union, under Mikhail Gorbachev, strengthened its military relationship with the Iraqi leader, providing him military advisers, arms and aid.<ref name=":39">{{Cite web|url=http://www.heritage.org/dataconvert/pdf/em0280.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923224607/http://www.heritage.org/dataconvert/pdf/em0280.pdf|url-status=unfit|title="Bush to Gorbachev: Choose Between Saddam and the West," by Jay P. Kosminsky and Michael Johns, Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum #280, 30 August 1990.|archive-date=23 September 2013}}</ref>

==== Invasion of Kuwait ====
{{Main|Invasion of Kuwait}}
[[File:Kuwaiti_Prime_Minister_Alaa_Hussein_Ali_1990_with_Iraqi_President_Saddam_Hussein.jpg|left|thumb|Saddam welcomes [[Alaa Hussein Ali|Colonel Alaa Hussein Ali]], Prime Minister of Kuwait [[Republic of Kuwait|Provisional Free Government]] for unification talks in Baghdad, 1990]]
On 2 August 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait, initially claiming assistance to "Kuwaiti revolutionaries", thus sparking an international crisis.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kreitner |first=Richard |date=2015-08-02 |title=August 2, 1990: Iraq Invades Kuwait |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/august-2-1990-iraq-invades-kuwait/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378}}</ref> On 4 August an Iraqi-backed "[[Republic of Kuwait|Provisional Government of Free Kuwait]]" was proclaimed, but a total lack of legitimacy and support for it led to an 8 August announcement of a "merger" of the two countries.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Security Council Meeting, August 4, 1990 |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/24309-national-security-council-meeting-august-4-1990 |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=National Security Archive}}</ref> On 28 August Kuwait formally became the [[Kuwait Governorate|19th Governorate of Iraq]]. Just two years after the 1988 Iraq and Iran truce, "Saddam did what his Gulf patrons had earlier paid him to prevent." Having removed the threat of Iranian fundamentalism he "overran Kuwait and confronted his Gulf neighbors in the name of Arab nationalism and Islam."<ref name="PIRRR" /> Saddam justified the [[Iraqi invasion of Kuwait|invasion of Kuwait]] in 1990 by claiming that [[Kuwait]] had always been an integral part of Iraq and only became an independent nation due to the interference of the [[British Empire]].<ref>R. Stephen Humphreys, ''Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age'', University of California Press, 1999, p. 105.</ref>

When later asked why he invaded Kuwait, Saddam first claimed that it was because Kuwait was rightfully Iraq's 19th [[Governorates of Iraq|province]] and then said "When I get something into my head I act. That's just the way I am."<ref name="economist2007" /> As per observers, Saddam could pursue such military aggression with a "military machine paid for in large part by the tens of billions of dollars Kuwait and the Gulf states had poured into Iraq and the weapons and technology provided by the Soviet Union, Germany, and France."<ref name="PIRRR" /> It was revealed during his 2003–2004 interrogation that in addition to economic disputes, an insulting exchange between the Kuwaiti [[emir]] [[Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah|Jaber al-Ahmd Al Sabah]] and Iraq's foreign minister – during which Saddam claimed that the emir stated his intention to turn "every Iraqi woman into a $10 prostitute" by ruining Iraq financially – was a decisive factor in triggering the invasion.<ref name="cbsnews.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/interrogator-shares-saddams-confessions/4/|title=Interrogator Shares Saddam's Confessions |website=CBS News |date=24 January 2008}}</ref> Shortly before he invaded Kuwait, Saddam shipped 100 new [[Mercedes-Benz|Mercedes cars]] 200 Series cars to top editors in Egypt and Jordan. Two days before the first attacks, Saddam reportedly offered Egypt's [[Hosni Mubarak]] $50 million in cash, "ostensibly for grain."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/605fgcob.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030429005735/http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/605fgcob.asp |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 April 2003 |title=Saddam's Cash |date=5 May 2003 |work=The Weekly Standard |last=Hayes |first=Stephen F.}}</ref>

[[George H. W. Bush]] responded cautiously for the first several days.<ref name=":27" /> On one hand, Kuwait, prior to this point, had been a virulent enemy of Israel and was the Persian Gulf monarchy that had the most friendly relations with the Soviets.<ref name=":27">Walter LaFeber, ''Russia, America, and the Cold War'', McGraw-Hill, 2002, p. 358.</ref> On the other hand, Washington foreign policymakers, along with Middle East experts, military critics, and firms heavily invested in the region, were extremely concerned with stability in this region.<ref>For a statement asserting the overriding importance of oil to U.S. national security and the U.S. economy, see, e.g., the declassified document, "Responding to Iraqi Aggression in the Gulf", The White House, National Security Directive (NSD 54), top secret, 15 January 1991. This document can be read on line in [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB21/ George Washington University's National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 21] at [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB21/06-01.htm].</ref> The invasion immediately triggered fears that the world's [[Crude oil#Pricing|price of oil]], and therefore control of the world economy, was at stake.<ref name=":28" /> The United Kingdom profited heavily from billions of dollars of Kuwaiti investments and bank deposits.<ref name=":28" /> Bush was perhaps swayed while meeting with British prime minister [[Margaret Thatcher]], who happened to be in the U.S. at the time.<ref name=":28">See Margaret Thatcher, ''The Downing Street Years'' (1979–1990), 817.</ref>

[[Yasser Arafat]] supported Saddam during the war.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2023-07-02 |title=Saddam and the Palestinian cause, facts and myths |url=https://task-totts.org/en/uncategorized-en/2023/07/02/6393/ |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=Task - Totts |language=en-US}}</ref> During the period of negotiations and threats following the invasion, Saddam focused renewed attention on the [[State of Palestine|Palestinian]] problem by promising to withdraw his forces from Kuwait if Israel would relinquish the occupied territories in the [[West Bank]], the [[Golan Heights]], and the [[Gaza Strip]].<ref name=":0" /> Saddam's proposal further split the Arab world, pitting US- and Western-supported Arab states against the Palestinians.<ref name=":0" /> The allies ultimately rejected any linkage between the Kuwait crisis and Palestinian issues.<ref name=":0" />

==== Operation Desert Storm ====
{{Main|Gulf War air campaign|Liberation of Kuwait campaign}}
[[File:Sadoun Al-Zubaydi with Saddam Hussein.jpeg|thumb|[[Willy Brandt]] and [[Sadoun al-Zubaydi]] with Saddam in 1990. ]]
Cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union made possible the passage of resolutions in the United Nations Security Council giving Iraq a deadline to leave Kuwait and approving the use of force if Saddam did not comply with the timetable.<ref name="economist2004" /> The United States officials feared that the Iraqi retaliation against oil-rich Saudi Arabia, since the 1940s a close ally of Washington, for the Saudis' opposition to the invasion of Kuwait.<ref name="economist2004" /> Accordingly, the United States and a group of allies, including countries as diverse as Egypt, Syria and [[Czechoslovakia]], deployed a massive number of troops along the Saudi border with Kuwait and Iraq in order to encircle the Iraqi army, which was the largest in the Middle East.

Saddam's officers looted Kuwait, stripping even the marble from its palaces to move it to Saddam's own palace.<ref name="economist2004" /> Saddam ignored the Security Council deadline.<ref name="Pierson 2011" /> Backed by the Security Council, a U.S-led coalition launched round-the-clock missile and aerial attacks on Iraq, beginning 16 January 1991.<ref name="Pierson 2011" /> Israel, though [[Iraqi rocket attacks on Israel|subjected to attack by Iraqi missiles]], refrained from retaliating in order not to provoke Arab states into leaving the coalition.<ref name="Pierson 2011" /> A ground force consisting largely of U.S. and British armored and infantry divisions ejected Saddam's army from Kuwait in February 1991 and occupied the southern portion of Iraq as far as the [[Euphrates]].<ref name="Pierson 2011">{{cite web |url=http://milmag.com/2011/02/battle-at-rumaila/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811182711/http://milmag.com/2011/02/battle-at-rumaila/ |archive-date=11 August 2011 |title=Battle at Rumalia |work=Military Magazine |last=Pierson |first=David S. |access-date=9 January 2017}}</ref>

On 6 March 1991, Bush announced "What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea—a [[New world order (politics)|new world order]], where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law."<ref name="Bush 2017">{{Cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=19253 |title=Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union |last=Bush |first=George |work=The American Presidency Project |publisher=University of California |access-date=9 January 2017 |archive-date=29 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129133253/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=19253 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In the end, the Iraqi army proved unable to compete on the battlefield with the highly mobile coalition land forces and their overpowering air support.<ref name="Bush 2017" /> Some 175,000 Iraqis were taken prisoner and casualties were estimated at over 85,000.<ref name="Bush 2017" /> As part of the cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to scrap all poison gas and [[biological warfare|germ weapons]] and allow UN observers to inspect the sites.<ref name="Bush 2017" /> UN trade sanctions would remain in effect until Iraq complied with all terms.<ref name="Bush 2017" /> Saddam publicly claimed victory at the end of the war.<ref name="Bush 2017" />