The End of the Cold War, Desert

Storm, and the New World Order

Theme: The US emerges as the worlds
only superpower
Lesson 24

President Reagan
During the1980s, Cold
War tensions increased
as Ronald Reagan
pursued a vigorous antiSoviet policy
Characterized the Soviet
Union as the evil empire
Dedicated massive
amounts of money to
military spending to include
the Strategic Defense
Initiative or Star Wars
Successfully confronted
communist challenges in
Grenada and Nicaragua

Reagan delivers his Mr.

Gorbachev, Tear Down This
Wall! speech in 1987

The Soviet Union

While the US was
spending at levels the
USSR was finding difficult
to match, the Soviets
were having their own
internal problems
The Soviets withdrew from
Afghanistan in 1989 after
ten years of a failed war
many likened to the US
experience in Vietnam
The Soviet economy and
those of its eastern and
central European satellites
were in serious trouble

US-supplied Stinger missiles

helped the mujahedeen
defeat Soviet forces in
Afghanistan

Gorbachev

With economic and political reforms

obviously needed, Soviet premier
Mikhail Gorbachev initiated
perestroika (the restructuring or
decentralizing of the economy) and
glasnost (an opening of the Soviet
society to public scrutiny)
Gorbachevs reforms proved
difficult to implement and
unleashed hostility from the old
order it threatened, long
suppressed criticism, and ethnic
and nationalist separatism
By the summer of 1990,
Gorbachevs reforms had spent
themselves

Collapse of the Soviet Empire

Revolutions broke out
throughout eastern
Europe as people
overthrow communist
dictators in places like
Poland, Bulgaria, and
Romania and countries
such as
Czechoslovakia and
Yugoslavia broke apart
The Berlin Wall came
down on November 9,
1989 and East and
West Germany united
in 1990

The 1989 Romanian Revolution

was a violent overthrow of the
communist regime of Nicolae
Ceauescu

Collapse of the Soviet Empire

Beginning in August 1991,

Soviet republics began
declaring their independence
from the USSR
Also in August, a group of
conspirators representing
dissatisfied elements of the
Communist Party, the KGB,
and the military attempted to
seize power while Gorbachev
was on vacation
Boris Yelstin crushed the coup,
but himself replaced
Gorbachev
By the end of 1991, the USSR
had ceased to exist

AP photo of Boris Yelstin

atop an armored personnel
carrier encouraging
resistance to the coup

End of the Bipolar World

The demise of the Soviet Union left the US as
the worlds sole superpower
Without the danger of a superpower
confrontation, the US was now more free to use
its military power
Additionally, new opportunities for cooperative
international efforts would become possible
without the bipolar competition
This new dynamic would be tested when Iraq
invaded Kuwait in 1990

Desert Storm
Theme: The end of the Vietnam
Syndrome

The Middle East

Background
Majority of region administered by Britain until post-World War II.
Long-standing disputes between Iraq and Kuwait.
Iraq argues Kuwait is an Iraqi province.
Iraq mobilized and prepared for invasion in 1961
immediately after Kuwait was granted independence by
Britain.
Iraq wants Kuwait to forgive debts Iraq owes from Iran-Iraq
War.
Claims Kuwait actually owes Iraq for defending it against
Iran.
Iraq accuses Kuwait of overproduction of oil/theft of Iraqi oil.
On Aug 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait

Coalition Operations

The end of the Cold War and Russias willingness

to join the US in opposing Iraq created an
unprecedented level of international cooperation
The United Nations adopted resolutions
condemning Iraq and authorizing the use of force
Thirty-six countries (as well as Kuwait) contributed
forces

Combat Operations
17 Jan 1991 - Air war
begins
23 Feb - Ground war
begins
28 Feb Cease fire takes
effect
2 March 24th Infantry
Division fights last
engagement of the war
3 March Norman
Schwarzkopf accepts Iraqi
surrender at Safwan

Shaping Operations
Create and preserve
conditions for the success
of the operation
FM 3-0, p. 4-23

Air operation
Cut supplies bound for Iraqi
forces in Kuwait from 20k
tons per week to 2k tons
per week and eliminated
Iraqi air threat

Deception operation
Highly visible Marine
rehearsals persuaded
Saddam to commit an
estimated four divisions to
protect his flank against an
amphibious assault

Leaflets such as these

deceived the Iraqis into
thinking the main attack would
be amphibious

The Shift Westward

The Ground Offensive Plan

ri
Tig
s

As Samawah

Iraq

An Nasiriyah
Euph
rates
Al
Busayyah

Iran

Al
Basrah

Republican
Guards
Persian
Gulf

XVIII
Airborne
Corps

Iraqi Defenses

xxx
x

Khafji

al Batin

Saudi Arabia

The ground war begins Feb 23

xxx

Third Army

JFC
Hafir North MARCENT
xxx

xx
x

VII
Corps

Kuwait
City

JFC
East

Highway of Death

Situation, February 28, 1991

gr
Ti

Iraq

As Samawah

is

Iran

An Nasiriyah

XX

101
XX

XX

82

FR

XVIII
Airborne
Corps
Al
Busayyah

XX

Al
Basrah

AL

24
III

AD

3
XX

VII
Corps

XX

1
XX

3
2
XX

xx
x

JFN

III

Hafir
al Batin

Saudi Arabia

Persian
Gulf

XX

1
XX

UK

2
Marine
XX

2 1
Marine

XX

JFE

Kuwait
City

xxx

JFC
North
MARCENT
xxx

US Third Army

XX

xxx
x

JFC
East

Iraq

The objective of Desert Storm

was to liberate Kuwait, not to
destroy the Iraqi army or
remove Saddam
Even though the coalition
experienced amazing military
success, Saddam remained in
power and crushed short-lived
uprisings by the Kurds in the
north and the Shia in the south
Iraqi Freedom would have the
objective of changing the
regime in Iraq

Legacy of Desert Storm

Won with an operational concept that sought
in a single climatic operation to destroy the
enemys center of gravity
In 100 hours of combat, American forces
destroyed or captured more than 3,000 tanks,
1,400 armored carriers, and 2,200 artillery
pieces
The Great Wheel swept over and captured
almost 20,000 square miles of territory
Only about 140 soldiers died in direct combat
Erased the Vietnam Syndrome
Scales, Certain Victory, p. 382-383

The New World Order

Theme: International cooperation and
military intervention in the post-Cold War
era

New World Order

We stand today at a unique and extraordinary
moment. The crisis in the Persian Gulf, as grave
as it is, also offers a rare opportunity to move
toward an historic period of cooperation. Out of
these troubled times, our fifth objective -- a new
world order -- can emerge: a new era -- freer
from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of
justice, and more secure in the quest for peace.
An era in which the nations of the world, East
and West, North and South, can prosper and live
in harmony.

New World Order

.A hundred generations have searched for this
elusive path to peace, while a thousand wars
raged across the span of human endeavor.
Today that new world is struggling to be born, a
world quite different from the one weve known.
A world where the rule of law supplants the rule
of the jungle. A world in which nations recognize
the shared responsibility for freedom and justice.
A world where the strong respect the rights of
the weak.
President George H. W. Bush Sept 11, 1990

Post-Cold War Environment

Cold War threats were

potentially catastrophic but
they were also measurable
and somewhat predictable
The bipolar structure and
the desire to avoid
superpower confrontation
had provided a certain
degree of order and
stability
The post Cold War period
was much more
ambiguous and uncertain
and many new threats
emerged

CIA Director James Woolsey

described the post-Cold War
environment by saying, We have
slain a large dragon (the U.S.S.R.)
but we now live in a jungle filled with a
bewildering variety of poisonous
snakes. In many ways, the dragon
was easier to keep track of.

International Economic Challenges

The Post Cold War era included an everwidening gap between rich industrialized nations
(mostly in the Northern Hemisphere) and poor
agricultural ones (mostly in the Southern
Hemisphere)
The goal of all poor nations is economic growth,
but most lack the requirements for industrial
development
Trapped in a cycle of poverty: lack of capital resulting
from low production leads to low savings which in turn
means little or no available capital for future
development projects

International Economic
Opportunities
The collapse of communism in
the USSR and Eastern Europe
opened up huge economic
markets
On the other hand West
Germanys previously booming
economy struggled as it tried to
integrate the much poorer former
East Germany

In 2004, the EU swelled to 25

members including the former
Soviet republics of Latvia,
Lithuania, and Estonia

As Germany moved its

capital from Bonn to
Berlin, construction
projects were rampant

Ethnic Conflict and Humanitarian

Crisis in the 1990s
The Cold War structure had kept in check ethnic
divisions in many countries and limited military
interventions
The end of the Cold War changed all that
UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali
advocated the legitimate involvement of the UN in
peace enforcement and peacemaking operations
President Clinton proclaimed a National Security
Strategy of Engagement and Enlargement

After the Cold War, the United Nations went from

an average of three or four peacekeeping
operations a year to 13 in December 1992

Ethnic Conflict and Humanitarian

Crisis in the 1990s
In a globalized war, bad things that happen in
other countries spread more quickly to our
shores. Genocides spawn refugees, who
destabilize their neighbors. Corruption sparks
financial meltdowns, which rock the world
economy. Pandemics hopscotch across the
globe.
Peter Beinart in explaining why the US intervened in
Kosovo where there was no direct threat to the US
(Time, 23 Apr 2007, 28)

Ethnic Conflict and Humanitarian

Crisis in the 1990s
In Somalia, various clan
leaders struggled for power
and plunged the country into
a humanitarian crisis
When Yugoslavian republics
began to seek
independence, terrible
ethnic conflicts ensued
Bosnian Serbs initiated an
ethnic cleansing campaign
against Bosnian Muslims
Yugoslav Serbs did the same
against Kosovar Albanians

Warlord Mohammed Farah

Aidid emerged as the
dominant clan leader in
Somalia

Ethnic Conflict and Humanitarian

Crisis in the 1990s
A military coup in Haiti
ousted the democratically
elected president and
motivated thousands of
Haitians to flee to the US
in fragile boats
Ethnic violence erupted
between Hutu and Tutsis
in Rwanda which resulted
in up to a million deaths,
mostly from the Tutsi
minority

Deep gashes in the skulls of

victims of the Rwanda
genocide evidence the
violence of their deaths

Ethnic Conflict and Humanitarian

Crisis in the 1990s
East Timor declared
independence after
a 27-year
occupation by
Indonesia but antiindependence militia
forces unleashed a
campaign of
violence and
destruction

International Efforts
The United Nations Charter proclaims one of the
UNs principle purposes as being to maintain
international peace and security
Sometimes the UN effectively intervened in
these crises, sometimes it didnt
Same for the United States

The US found that its status as world economic

and military superpower would not necessarily
equate to unchallenged world leadership
The US would meet a host of challenges within the
UN and from non-governmental organizations
(remember Lesson 23) as well as from new enemies

Next Lesson
Post Cold War Challenges: September 11
and Terrorism