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Military History

How US Special Operations Forces Helped Win the Gulf War

by SOFREP News Feb 25, 2021
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How US Special Operations Forces Helped Win the Gulf War

Soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, the U.S. military shifted its focus from Russia to the Middle East.

In August 1990, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait, starting an international crisis that would end with Iraq’s defeat by a U.S.-led coalition six months later.

Although Operation Desert Storm is considered a textbook conventional war, it was full of special operations missions.

Let Us Into the Fight!

Army Delta Force Norman Schwarzkopf Gulf War
Delta Force personnel in civilian clothes guarding Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf during the first Gulf War in 1991. (Staff Sgt. Dean W. Wagner)

The first and biggest hurdle U.S. special operations units faced was getting into the battle.

Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, the four-star commander of U.S. Central Command and the war’s military leader, viewed unconventional-warfare units with skepticism.

Initially, Schwarzkopf was adamantly against special operations units having any significant role in the conflict — though he did accept some Delta Force operators as personal bodyguards.

Conversely, his second-in-command, British Gen. Sir Peter de la Billière, immediately called in the Special Air Service (SAS), which he had served in and commanded, and Special Boat Service (SBS). The SAS and SBS, the British equivalents of Delta Force and SEAL Team Six, respectively, offered unconventional-warfare options to the war effort.

Meanwhile, after some persuasion from the White House and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Schwarzkopf relaxed his no-commandos policy.

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