ABSTRACT
Operation Desert Storm, or the Persian Gulf (or simply Gulf) War, was the first major employment of American military force after the Vietnam War. In important ways, it was a transitional military experience for the United States. The war served as the culminating point of the period of national adjustment to what was generally considered to have been the American failure in southeast Asia. Desert Storm was the debut of the new professional American military based in the all-volunteer concept on the world stage, and it marked the return of the United States to geopolitical assertiveness after a decade and a half of introspection and readjustment of America’s place in the international order. American leadership in the international effort to reverse Saddam Hussein’s invasion, conquest, and annexation of tiny, oil-rich Kuwait served as a launching pad for the emergence of the country to the role of the world’s sole remaining superpower in the 1990s.
