Beschreibung:

BUSH, George H. W. Typed document signed ("George Bush"), The White House, 16 January 1991. Statement by the President announcing the beginning of the 1991 war against Iraq. 3 pages, folio, signed on first page . "JUST TWO HOURS AGO, ALLIED AIR FORCES BEGAN AN ATTACK ON MILITARY TARGETS IN IRAQ AND KUWAIT." PRESIDENT BUSH ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCH OF OPERATION DESERT STORM: "Saddam has arrogantly rejected all warnings. Instead he tried to make this a dispute between Iraq and the United States of America. Well, he failed." Within hours of Saddam Hussein's 2 August 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Bush resolved that "this will not stand." Here he announces the initiation of the air war, which commenced after five-months of diplomacy. "Arab leaders sought what became known as an Arab solution," Bush points out, "only to conclude that Saddam Hussein was unwilling to leave Kuwait." In early January U. S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III met with top Iraqi government officials in Geneva to try and arrive at a peaceful resolution to the crisis, to no avail. "While the world waited, Saddam sought to add to the chemical weapons arsenal he now possesses an infinitely more dangerous weapon of mass destruction - a nuclear weapon...We have before us," Bush says in the conclusion of this speech, "the opportunity to forge...a new world order - a world where the rule of law, not the law of the jungle, governs the conduct of nations." The air strikes begun that night of 17 January 1991 continued for five weeks. Bush gave Hussein still one more chance to withdraw his forces by 23 February. The dictator refused, and American and allied ground forces went into action on the following day, routing Iraqi defenses in just 100 hours of fighting.