Media Coverage of the Persian Gulf War

The Persian Gulf War was the first major conflict involving the United States since Vietnam, and though its duration was brief its legacy continues to effect American war reporting to this day. Media coverage of the Gulf War has been criticized as an extended arm of the Bush Administration, plagued with censorship and unwarranted patriotism. At the time, the Gulf War seemed to be a catharsis for the American military and public, with its ostensibly effortless victory lifting the United States out of an embarrassed, post-Vietnam malaise. But historical analysis shows the corruption and duplicity of the government’s media campaign in support of the war, and the dismissal of the actual human and fiscal costs of the conflict.

Saddam Hussein ordered an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, and his forces quickly seized control of the small nation. Almost immediately the Bush Administration launched “a hundred and sixty-six day campaign of coercive diplomacy” (Atkinson 1995) to gain international support. Soon over five hundred thousand Allied troops were deployed to Saudi Arabia. Bush then gave Saddam an ultimatum: withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, 1991. When this deadline was ignored a massive air campaign was launched against Iraq, devastating their military. By the time the ground war began on February 23rd, the Iraqis were nearly defeated, and Bush called for a ceasefire on February 27, 1991. The war officially ended on March 3rd with an apparently resounding victory for the United States and the United Nations coalition.