The Persian Gulf War: Explained & Deconstructed

In 1990, Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded its neighbor, Kuwait. Several months later an American-led military coalition waged a brief war to reverse the invasion. Though greatly overshadowed by subsequent events, especially the 2003 Iraq War, the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War remains a pivot point of recent world history. In this video, we'll go very deep to explain the context, background, causes, political issues, and aftermath of this highly important conflict, and why it still matters.

Major sources for this video:
The Gulf War Reader by Micah L. Sifry & Christopher Cirf (New York: Times Books, 1991)
Gulf War: The Complete History by Thomas Houlahan (New London, NH: Schrenker Military Pub., 1999)
The Gulf War: Overreaction & Excessiveness by Hassan A. El-Najjar (Dalton, GA: Amazone Press, 2001)
Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush (New York: Random House, 2015)
House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger (New York: Scribner, 2004)
Third Graders at War by Felix G. (Dog Ear Publishing, LLC, 2011)

Extensive bibliography of sources on the Persian Gulf War, compiled by a noted historian:

Chapters:
00:00-11:17: The Invasion (& Introduction)
11:17-26:28: Background I - The Middle East
26:28-40:27: Background II - Saddam
40:27-52:13: Background III - Bush
52:13-1:00:01: The Big Picture
1:00:01-1:06:47: The Occupation of Kuwait
1:06:47-1:15:08: The Diplomatic Game
1:15:08-1:27:19: Politics
1:27:19-1:39:14: The War
1:39:14-1:45:40: The Spin
1:45:40-1:57:00: Aftermath I - Saddam on the Ropes
1:57:00-2:08:26: Aftermath II - The Environment
2:08:26-2:15:56: Aftermath III - The Political Tail
2:15:56-2:21:32: An Ominous Follow-Up
2:21:32-2:28:25: What Happened to Everyone
2:28:25-2:31:59: Conclusion

[bigbill]

Criminally underrated channel. Easily some of the most informative historical information on YouTube.

[Legitpenguins]

Saddam couldn't have picked a worse time to invade Kuwait. With the Soviet union failing, the US military had a massive army ready to fight the Soviets standing around with nothing to do. Great job Sodom

[Jerrycourtney]

My father was a soldier in the late Soviet-Afghan War (Mujahideen). My uncle was in the coalition in the Gulf War. I was deployed in Iraq from 2005-9. I am a first generation Afghan-American Kurd. History is far more nuanced than what the average textbook or what the _”History Channel”_ would have you believe.

[Bopnan]

Here's my little contribution to this bit of history. It was obviously not mentioned because the list itself is very extensive, but as an Argentine myself I'd like to mention a the participation of Argentina in the Gulf War which sticks like a sore thumb as one of two Latin American countries to take part of the Coalition (the other one being Honduras).

It was a bold, controversial and very unpopular political move by our then president Carlos Menem and our country's first (and to this day, most recent) military involvement since the Falklands/Malvinas War. It was all part of his plan to reignite and improve diplomatic relationships with the US and Europe (and pretty much everyone in NATO), the beginning of what is popularly referred to as the "carnal relationships" with the United States.

Around 500 troops, a destroyer, 2 frigates, 1 cargo ship, 2 helicopters (one destroyed) and 2 cargo planes were deployed to aid on the effort, under the name of Operation Bishop. The move had enough positive reaction by the big wigs at Washington that it led to the designation of Argentina as a Major Non-NATO Ally country.

More importantly, however, and more tragically as well, Argentina's involvement on the Gulf War is often considered to be one of the main reasons behind the 1992 terrorist attack on the Embassy of Israel in Buenos Aires and the 1994 attack to the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA in Spanish) which left 22 and 85 dead respectively. To date, the only terrorist attacks carried out in our soil by a foreign actor. Carlos Memem was son of Syrian immigrants and a Sunni Muslim-turned-Catholic, so there was a cultural aspect to it as well. To this day, no one has faced justice for these attacks.

It really amazes me how such a minuscule and overall irrelevant aspect of such a conflict can actually have so many repercussions that most people aren't even aware of.

[TheREALJosephTurner]

As a Persian Gulf War Veteran, I'd like to thank you for your deep dive into this subject. As you mentioned, there are plenty of "war map" and "timeline" coverage of the war, but there was pretty much no in-depth source covering all of the mechanics that brought us to the war, through the war, and the aftermath (at least not in one collection, such as your video). For me, you've been able to answer a lot of questions, confirm some suspicions, and add a lot of clarity. I'm especially grateful that you included mention of Gulf War Syndrome and it's likely connection with burn pits, depleted uranium, pesticides, and those (supposedly voluntary) PB pills. Thank you for this video. And for those watching and reading along, it's easy to criticize service members in hindsight. But you have to remember- a lot of us were 18-22 year old kids who joined the military in peacetime, mostly as an escape from declining wages once the excess of the 80s was winding down. I was told I was heading to the middle east directly after my MOS school, shortly after boot camp- and STILL couldn't find places like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or Kuwait on a map. Everything was propaganda- we were going to protect the people of Saudi Arabia, and then to "free the innocent people of Kuwait." Before all this, we were all in high school- we were cool 80s kids. We didn't pay much attention to the news. Had we, we might have questioned why we were suddenly going to war with a country that we had recently supported. We didn't have the Internet to inform us of these things like kids have now. It does little good to judge young people of that era with the lens of today.

[rokkitserjun]

I'm a veteran of Desert Shield/Storm. I'm one of the 250, 000 Gulf War Syndrome vets, and have struggled my entire adult life with it. It would be nice if you did a deep delve into it. If you read the book Gassed in the Gulf you would have a really good foundation to build on. If you consider us 250, 000 Gulf War vets, then the Gulf War produced more casualties than any other conflict since WWII, significantly exceeding Korea & Afghanistan and slightly edging out Vietnam. Obviously, not in deaths, just total casualties. Taking care of all these poisoned vets has been a huge financial burden for taxpayers - so I hope the cheap oil was worth it.

[_SoCalDude_]

I've always wanted to go back to college to study history in particular, but my work schedule and lengthy commute to work prevent me from doing so. Listening to videos like this and others, where one doesnt necessarily need to be watching the sceeen to understand the subject matter being presented, are the next best thing in my opinion. I am grateful to content creators like you and others for sharing your knowledge via this platform.

[fortunatelymichael]

As a European born in the 2000s, I have never heard much about the Gulf War from either the media or people who lived during the time due to the subsequent 2003 Iraq War far overshadowing it in terms of public discourse. I am an aspiring foreign relations student and the in depth look into both the domestic as well as international situation of all the nations entangled in this conflict helps paint a more enlightening picture of the whole affair, and provides extremely valuable for the past, present and future of everyone involved. Your channel is a true hidden gem and you provide a true treasure cove of masterfully explained historical topics.

Bit of a sidenote, but I'd love to see deconstruction like this done about the US/NATO intervention in the Yugoslav wars, as that is another 90s era conflict which has largely faded from the public consciousness outside of Eastern Europe. It had extreme effects on the overall politics and stability of European continent with many of it's effects being felt even now, as well as being an important talking point in the later years of the Clinton administration.

[Qduck]

Recently found you through your Iran-Contra video and now you post this! Really enjoying your videos, especially the more modern day ones. Keep up the amazing work!

[jtimes]

Jesus Christ this was long but probably the most well informed in depth historical video of the Gulf War I've ever seen on youtube.

Bravo Sir! This was well done.

[woodenturnip]

I’m convinced this guy’s a robot. There’s just no way he just keeps churning out quality this quickly!

[mikeLisle]

My uncle who was a part of the force deployed for the liberation of Kuwait, he was shocked at the brutality and carnage he found as the road leading into Kuwait was lined with Kuwaiti citizens hanging from poles, and as the Iraqi army was fleeing the city with vehicles filled with Gold, Electronics, stacks of cash, were carpet bombed from above with no way to escape the US Aircraft sent to mow down the fleeing Larsenists. He said seeing the level of burning bodies and the smell forever changed him. His PTSD was off the charts, and he was a Gunnery Sargent and one of the toughest guys I ever knew. When he cane back he really struggled and never really recovered. God protect our veterans and current military and give them peace.

[MrTylerStricker]

Sean is absolutely spot on when he says that this is an often over-looked war in terms of its cumulative effects on recent, modern & future geo political events / history. Nice to see it being given the attention & deep dive that it certainly deserves!

[justinsullivan]

Wow, this one of the best in-depth analysis of the first Iraq/Gulf war anywhere.

This type of coverage puts network and cable news coverage to shame.

Kudos to you professor Sean Munger.

[jada]

I’m 11 minutes in and when you said you’re going centuries back in context, I got so excited! Your videos are fantastic and really help to fill in a major gap in my history knowledge, as I loved history throughout school but they jumped past post-WWII pretty quickly and I was never able to pursue a history degree for my bachelor’s. Your deep dives are absolutely fantastic — your channel is my recent favorite

[josephparisi]

The issue with the "no blood for oil" protests is that it ignores the fact that the Kuwaitis were bleeding regardless of US involvement. What they were really saying is "No American blood for oil".

[justingallagher]

No idea if you'll ever read this - but this video and your channel are unbelievably brilliant. You deserve every shout out and credit you get

[Dodoorknob]

I find your videos very helpful and informative. Iran-contra and the Gulf War were subjects I knew were important but struggled to wrap my head around until I watched your videos on the subjects. The top down perspective with historical context really helped me to understand not just the conflict, but also the wider landscape of the Middle East during and before the Gulf War. As the say, keep up the good work. I think videos like this have a hugely positive impact on a lot of people who may otherwise never understand how and more importantly why these conflicts happen.

[yartenstoben]

i listen to these podcast style at work, and have run through most of the long form content. I love what you’re doing man, and really appreciate the work you put into each and every one of these to make them as detailed and comprehensive as possible

[mojojanji]

Absolutely incredible video! It’s rare to see such in-depth and non-biased analysis on this site
As a fellow history graduate from Brazil, I congratulate the undoubtedly weeks long research you had to go through for a quality video like this
Just stumbled upon your channel, yet the first impression has been fantastic! Looking forward to future works from you