In 1990, a storm was brewing in the deserts of Southwest Asia. Just two years earlier, Iran had accepted the terms of a United Nations brokered ceasefire that ended the eight-year Iran-Iraq War which had devastated Iraq's economy. In the west, a "new world order" was being established with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
New York City Homecoming by Combat Artist SFC Peter Varisano
In the summer of 1990, the world watched as Iraq, un-fazed by crushing economic sanctions, looking to fill its drained coffers and rebuild its economy, challenged this new world order. On August 2, 1990 after diplomacy had failed and United Nations resolutions were ignored, Saddam Hussein and his massive battle-tested army invaded Kuwait.
President George H.W. Bush told the world that this act of naked aggression would not stand, and prepared the United States Armed Forces for war. With the promise of swift and decisive action, President Bush secured the help of U.S. allies and built a coalition of thirty-eight countries to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. It would be the most concentrated and complex projection of American military power since World War II.
The story of the Persian Gulf War is the story of an Army ready to fight, a new world order being tested, the creation and deployment of one of the largest coalitions the world had seen and a swift and decisive victory that has been studied and analyzed for almost three decades.
The US Army Heritage and Education Center located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania engages, inspires, and informs the Army, the American people, and global partners with a unique and enduring source of knowledge and thought. It serves as an investment in the future and a steward of Army Heritage. The rich robust holdings of knowledge, memory, and connections afford patrons and visitors an unparalleled perspective and ability to draw upon past lessons and apply them towards future challenges.