Frontline: The Gulf War (1990-1991)
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FRONTLINE's "
The Gulf War" is a comprehensive and critical analysis of the 1990-1991 war in which more than one million troops faced off against each other in the deserts of the
Gulf states. From the
Allied coalition's air war, to the ground assault, to the liberation of
Kuwait, and the fallout of
Saddam Hussein's retaining power, "The Gulf War" deconstructs what really happened, how it happened and why.
This program and companion web site (both first broadcast/published on January 9,
1996 on the five-year anniversary of the Gulf War) draws on in-depth, remarkably candid interviews with those who planned
Operation Desert Storm and those who fought its battles. These include key decisionmakers such as
Colin Powell,
Norman Schwarzkopf, former
Secretary of State James Baker, former
Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney,
Margaret Thatcher and
Mikhail Gorbachev. It also includes vivid commentary by
U.S and
British commanders on the ground and, interviews with
Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and a top Iraqi intelligence official.
"The Gulf War" chronicles how the war began with miscalculations in
Washington and
Baghdad, and was fought with mistakes, disgreements and infighting among both the decisionmakers in Washington and
American generals in the field.
In addition to first-hand accounts of top-level participants, this special report presents the harrowing war stories of
U.S. and British pilots who became POWS; examines the unprecedented technology and weaponry used in the war; and offers detailed analysis by two experts on the war,
Rick Atkinson and
Bernard Trainor. This web site also offers a chronology, maps and a special
BBC RADIO series on the war.
The seven-month long
Persian Gulf crisis may seem now a distant memory. However, this unique recapitulation of the war - through the eyes and in the words of major political and military participants - offers an authoritative, fresh look at some of the major assumptions and events, ranging from the performance of certain weapons, to the inconclusive victory, to the ghost of
Vietnam which continuously shrouded the
US military's decision making."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/