One overnight order sent tanks rolling across a border and changed the price of oil within hours.
Invasion Begins
At approximately 2:00 a.m. local time on August 2, 1990, the border between Iraq & Kuwait was no longer quiet. Iraqi forces and elite Republican Guard units moved southward into Kuwaiti territory with tanks, artillery and armored vehicles. By midmorning those soldiers occupied major locations in Kuwait City and the city was under the control of Iraq within hours.
As the situation developed, there were disagreements for multiple weeks, although few individuals outside of high level diplomatic groups expected Saddam Hussein to take this action. Iraq's economy was in a weakened state after a war with Iran that lasted for eight years. Kuwait provided loans to help pay for that conflict. Due to the large amount of money owed, Hussein stated that Kuwait must cancel the debts. He also claimed that Kuwait was responsible for low oil prices and that it was using slanted drills to take oil from the Rumaila field. And when Kuwait did not agree to those demands, the conflict began.
To the surprise of international observers, the invasion was fast. Iraqi forces moved quickly past the defensive positions of Kuwait and took control of important facilities. For his safety the emir, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, traveled to Saudi Arabia. On August 8, 1990, the government of Iraq said that Kuwait was its nineteenth province.
Life Under Occupation
On the morning of the invasion, people who lived in the area experienced a lack of order when they woke up. Kuwaiti families sat together and used radios that were out of sight so they could hear reports. In those locations, residents plus students and volunteers organized secret groups - those groups moved information but also distributed supplies while Iraqi soldiers controlled the area. To prevent their capture and keep the military active, some Kuwaiti pilots flew their planes to Saudi Arabia.
International Response and Liberation
By the next day the political relationships between many countries changed. At the United Nations Security Council, the United States as well as the Soviet Union both stated that the entry of the Iraqi military was wrong - this council started economic penalties and told Iraq that it must leave. In Saudi Arabia, many soldiers or machines gathered because a group of countries worked together. They intended to protect the kingdom and later force the Iraqi military to leave Kuwait. There were 35 nations in this group.
When the countries could not reach an agreement through talk, Operation Desert Storm started on January 17, 1991. For five weeks planes attacked from the air before a short period of fighting on land occurred. In a period of approximately 100 hours of movement on the ground, the international forces freed Kuwait and ended the occupation of the country.
On that morning in August, those results were still far from certain. As Iraqi tanks traveled on streets that had no people, Kuwaitis did not know if other countries were looking at the events. It is true that the world was looking and the actions that followed changed the way that nations conduct war plus manage safety.