View source for American History Lecture Thirteen

== Gulf War ==

Recall that President Lyndon Johnson is known for two things, the Great Society and the Vietnam War.  President George H.W. Bush (the father of President George W. Bush) is known for three things:  breaking his pledge of "no new taxes," winning the Persian Gulf War, and nominating Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.  We discuss the first two here, and discuss Clarence Thomas in the next section.

In 1988 the economy was doing well based on eight years of conservative policies under President Reagan.  President George H.W. Bush, Reagan's Vice President, won the Republican nomination for president and rode on Reagan's successes to win the presidential election in 1988.  But in order to win the presidential election, George H.W. Bush made a famous campaign promise of "Read my lips, no new taxes," which he later broke as president when he signed a tax increase passed by the Democratic Congress.  The tax increase was to deal with a massive budget deficit, but breaking that promise caused enormous political damage to Bush.

In 1990, Saddam Hussein thought that America would do nothing when he invaded and easily conquered nearby Kuwait, where there are lucrative oil fields.  President George H.W. Bush, alarmed by the consequences of Saddam Hussein controlling so much oil and by the injustice of the invasion, struck back with American troops.  We quickly defeated (and destroyed) Hussein's army and drove the few survivors back to Baghdad.  American casualties were extremely low, and President Bush was a hero.  This combat was code-named Operation Desert Storm.  The Operation never intended to overthrow or capture Saddam Hussein himself, but President George H.W. Bush was later criticized for not "finishing the job," and some say that his son (the future President George W. Bush) wanted to take care of that.

The high point in the war came when Saddam Hussein began launching missiles at the troops, missiles thought to contain chemical warheads that could cause horrific death.  But the American troops secretly had Patriot missiles, the design of which was based on President Reagan's "Star Wars" program, and these American missiles intercepted and shot down the Iraqi missiles in mid-flight.  It was spectacular to watch a fast-moving enemy missile be tracked and then explode in mid-air due to a collision by another fast-moving defense missile.  This was something that liberals, including many scientists, claimed was impossible to do.  Hussein launched missile after missile, while an American soldier sitting in front a computer screen in a trailer fired Patriot missiles to shoot down the enemy missiles that he could watch on his screen.

Angry and frustrated, Hussein then fired his missiles at civilian populations in Israel.  It had been developing its own missile defense program, but it was not ready for this.  Quickly the American troops rushed their missile defense to Israel, which enabled it to protect its population also.