History UsefulNotes / TheGulfWar

* The remake of ''TheManchurianCandidate'' changes the Korean War backstory to Gulf War.

* ''The First of God'' by FrederickForsyth is before and during the war.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: Justified; the US Military did almost all of the work, and 75 % of the Coalition forces were American.

* BatmanGambit: The Coalition massed naval assets in the Gulf, and pounded Iraqi defenses along the coast, implying an impending [[SemperFi massed amphibious assault]]. Once the Iraqis had committed to defending against that, in came the infamous "[[CurbStompBattle Left Hook]]" land invasion via Saudi Arabia.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The war was extremely destructive to Saddam's military, so anything that would put a stop to the fighting would be in his best interests. However, whenever a ray of hope seemed to glow, Hussein always unintentionally found a way to snuff it out:
** Saddam fired SCUD missiles at Israel in the hopes that Isreal would join the war, which he hoped would shatter the Coalition. The United States responded by deploying Patriot Missiles in Israel, and sending choppers to hunt SCUD launchers. To protect his launchers, Saddam hid them for a while, which made the Americans think they had destroyed them. When they planned to remove the Patriots from Israel, the Israeli government threatened to declare war on Iraq. Before the Patriots could be removed, Hussein redeployed the launchers and began firing at Israel again. Had he waited a few days, Hussein may have got what he wanted.
** Before the ground assault into Kuwait, the Russian ambassador to the U. N. hoped to bring an end to the conflict by negotiations, which would save Saddam's army. If Saddam would leave Kuwait, the Soviet Union would try to get him a few favors in return. The ambassador's plan involved sympathy for Saddam. The CurbStompBattle was so one-sided that he hoped to tell the world, "Hasn't Saddam suffered enough?" Unfortunately, just before the U.N. session, photographs showed massive oil slick in the Persian Gulf, and multiple oil fields burning in Kuwait. This act of brazen and pointless environmental vandalism enraged the world and all sympathy for Saddam evaporated.

* {{Prequel}} / {{Foreshadowing}}: To the [[TheWarOnTerror The War in Iraq]]
* {{Qurac}}

Note: This article is about the 1990-1991 war in the Persian Gulf and Kuwait, also known as Operation Desert Storm. If you are looking for what some refer to as "Gulf War II", then please see TheWarOnTerror. In fact, that is the third Gulf War and this is the second: The {{Iran-Iraq War}} of the 1980s was originally called the Persian Gulf War because of its impact on shipping.

* {{Sequel}}: To the {{Iran-Iraq War}}

Abridged, SaddamHussein launched an invasion of Kuwait to acquire control of its oil and was ejected by a United Nations coalition led by the United States.

A fuller history can be found in HistoryOfTheColdWar, as it was the final "ColdWar" conflict.

* AussiesWithArtillery

* BritsWithBattleships: They were present - the British naval ship ''Gloucester'' scored the [[ImprobableAimingSkills first ever missile-on-missile kill]], destroying an Iraqi Silkworm missile aimed at the USS ''Missouri'' with a Sea Dart.
* CanucksWithChinooks: Yes, they were there too.

* EgyptiansWithEagleFighters: The Egyptians were at 20,000 troops the fourth-largest contributors of manpower to the Coalition (after the US, Saudi Arabia, and UK) and second-largest Arab contributors (after the Saudis who, you know, were right there) and fought well. In return, foreign states agreed to relieve much of Egypt's (substantial) debt.

* GaulsWithGrenades: The French would be glad to know that they're no longer CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys, considering they took part in the war. Not to mention the fact that the bulk of the Iraqi forces choose to surrender than fight at all, which would make them worthy of the title instead.

* HeroBall[=/=]WhatAnIdiot: If GeorgeHWBush, or the United Nations, just went the whole way and just overthrown Saddam Hussein, it would had saved his son as well the Kurds, everyone else in Iraq and the whole world a lot of troubles.

* YanksWithTanks [[YanksWithTanks and Stealth Fighters]]

* One of the final chapters of ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' is set in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War. Given [[WorldWarOne an earlier chapter's setting]], the game seems to like less depicted conflicts...

%%* ''Film/ThreeKings''

* The ''Battlefield 1942'' mod ''Desert Combat''.
* One of the final chapters of ''EternalDarkness'' is set in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War. Given [[WorldWarOne an earlier chapter's setting]], the game seems to like less depicted conflicts...

->"''We have just started a war, it isn't a one day affair. It is not going to be over before the next commercial break.''"\\
--'''[[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/powell/3.html Colin Powell]]''', then serving as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

* ''ThreeKings''
* ''{{Jarhead}}''
* ''TheBigLebowski'' takes place during the Gulf War. The Dude says "this aggression will not stand, man," echoing George HW Bush's televised speech, while Saddam Hussein (played by Jerry Haleva, who repeatedly portrayed Hussein in movies) appears in The Dude's infamous dream sequence.
* The remake of ''TheManchurianCandidate''
* ''CourageUnderFire''
* ''Live from Baghdad''
* ''DrillbitTaylor'' the title character was a soldier who served in the gulf war but didn't see any real combat, and AWOL from the army.

* ComicBook/ThePunisher has recently had the Gulf War retconned into his past, replacing his longstanding status as a Vietnam Vet. The logic given by [[GregRucka the writer]] is that if he was a Vietnam Vet he would be approaching his seventies, while he wanted to portray Frank as a man in his early forties.

* BritsWithBattleships: They were present - the British naval ship ''Gloucester'' scored the first ever missile-on-missile kill, destroying an Iraqi Silkworm missile aimed at the USS ''Missouri'' with a Sea Dart.

->"''We have just started a war, it isn't a one day affair. It is not going to be over before the next commercial break.''"
-->--'''[[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/powell/3.html Colin Powell]]''', then serving as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

* BritsWithBattleships: They were present - the British naval ship ''Glouscester'' scored the first ever missile-on-missile kill, destroying an Iraqi Silkworm missile aimed at the USS ''Missouri'' with a Sea Dart.

Basically put, SaddamHussein launched an invasion of Kuwait to acquire control of its oil and was ejected by a United Nations coalition led by the United States.

* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: This was the final time battleships fired their guns in anger. The USS ''Wisconsin'' and USS ''Missouri'' fired Tomahawk cruise missiles as well as 16" and 5" artillery at Iraqi positions in the Shatt al-Arab delta, totaling over [[MoreDakka 500 tons of ordinance fired, by each ship.]] Also an example of SchizoTech, because the battleships launched remotely-piloted aircraft (the first in the US Navy to do so) to scout targets and assess damage. The incoming fire was [[StuffBlowingUp so devastating]] that some Iraqi positions actually [[CrowningMomentOfFunny surrendered to the UAV]], rather than get blown to smithereens from a ship they couldn't even see.

** The Iraqi Army was relying on a trackless, near-impossible to navigate stretch of desert to protect their right flank. A decade prior it might have worked, but thanks to a new piece of technology called GPS...
*** It should be noted that this tactic wouldn't have worked even against 1940s British Army, which was quite adept in navingating desert by using naval navigating procedures (compass, sextant etc.)

* WhatTheHellHero: Poor intel and planning led to a bombing in Baghdad that killed three hundred civilians in a bunker.
** The refusal to help the Iraqi insurgents after the end of the War has been considered this as well.

* {{Glee}}'s Finn Hudson's dad died while fighting in the Gulf War. [[spoiler: Except he didn't. He was dishonorably discharged and died of an overdose while back in America.]]

* GreyAndBlackMorality: From the point of view of most Muslims at least: Genocidal, imperiaist dictator seeking more oil revenue to exploit versus Americans fighting to maintain their own stranglehold on Gulf oil and their corrupt and repressive monarchist cronies.

* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': Several references to the conflict are made throughout the series. In the fourth season episode "Mr. Rabb Goes to Washington", rumors are spread on a cable news network (ZNN) that Sarin nerve gas was used by U.S. Navy SEALs during the invasion of Kuwait in 1991.

* AmericaWinsTheWar: Justified; the US Military did almost all of the work, and 75 % of the Coalition forces were American.