President George H. W. Bush waves above a crowd of First Marine Division desert-command-post marines on active duty in the Persian Gulf.
The First Gulf War, which included Operation Desert Storm, was a military response to Iraq’s invasion and subsequent annexation of Kuwait, a small neighboring country with the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves.
Led by the United States, Coalition forces began a massive aerial campaign on January 17, 1991, followed by a ground offensive, and liberated Kuwait from the army of Saddam Hussein.
147 Americans and an estimated 22,000 Iraqis were killed in combat.
President Bush’s approval rating rose to 89%.