Lester H. Brune

During the Second Gulf War of 1990-1991, President George Bush and
many media commentators compared the conflict to Vietnam, World War
II, and Hitler's blitzkrieg during the 1930s. Actually, however, the events
during and after Desert Shield-Desert Storm resembled the war many
Americans have preferred to forget: the Korean War. The United States'
little-publicized involvement with Iraq before August 1990 matched the
nation's even deeper and less recognized role in dividing Korea and pro-
tecting the South Korean regime before June 1950. Before August 1990,
inadequate U.S. intelligence and diplomatic data on Iraq were much like
the intelligence failure in Korea during early 1950. President Harry Tru-
man's surprise about North Korea's June 25 attack duplicated President
Bush's surprise about learning of Iraq's aggression on August 2, 1990, and
just as Truman obtained control of an international force to expel North
Korea from South Korea, the Bush administration quickly sought and
gained United Nations resolutions condemning Iraq's aggression and ap-
proving a U.S.-led international UN force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.
Finally, both the intensive U.S. air warfare against North Korea beginning
in 1951 and the UN truce that left Kim Il-sung in power corresponded to
the intensive aerial bombing of Iraq and the UN cease-fire, which left
Saddam Hussein in power.

These startlingly similar elements contrast completely with the Vietnam
War and World War II, despite some differences between Korea in 1950
and Iraq in 1990. The three-year war in Korea was not like the 100-day
war against Iraq. But the most notable difference is that the Truman ad-
ministration attempted to overthrow Kim Il-sung, an effort leading to the
massive Chinese communist entry into the conflict. These events had no
counterpart in Iraq, where Bush called for a cease-fire after liberating
Kuwait, and Iraq had no powerful neighbor willing to help because its

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