AMERICAN DIPLOMACY TO THE THREATS OF IRAQ’S ATTACK ON KUWAIT, 25 JULY — 1 AUGUST 1990

Abstract

This article attempts to answer the question of how much US politicians, in the wake of the Iraqi aggression on Kuwait, were aware of the upcoming events and whether they were able to influence Baghdad politics and create new peaceful solutions. The content of this article is also to convince that it is hard to blame the American ambassador April Glaspie that during a conversation with the Iraqi dictator on July 25 1990, she gave Saddam a ‘green light’ to attack his neighbor. Same position as her, presented a bit later in his letter to Saddam, US president George W. Bush or undersecretary J. Kelly — speaking in the US Congress. To sum up, this article wants to convince the reader that the United States did not have a thought-out, effective and forward-looking policy, not just for Iraq but for the whole Middle East, but seemed to wait for what the course of events would bring while being deeply involved in Europe, where the dismantling of the Soviet Bloc and reunification of Germany took place.