War and Peace: Bush's Foreign Relations
President H.W. Bush promised the American people that his platform was a “Force for Good.” He would use America to perpetuate good. He was elected President during a crucial time period: between the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Soviet Union. His emphasis was on maintaining the stability of peace and not trying to provoke any newly independent countries by taking them over. However, the President was faced with a crisis when President Noriega declared war on the United States.
Operation Just Cause
Manuel Noriega became the leader of Panama in 1985, when he instantly became a threat. Ronald Reagan first realized that he was a threat while working with him during the Iran-Contra scandal. He was most noted for the fact he held and passed on secretive information and he was a big trafficker. In 1989, as soon as President H.W. Bush was elected, Noriega saw him as a giant threat. At the same time, Bush saw Noriega as big threat. Bush enacted the “Blue Spoon” plan, a plan created by his Joint Chiefs of Staff in order to overthrow Noriega. Therefore, Busch immediately ordered several troops into Panama. However, it took a turn for the worst when Noriega’s troops started killing American troops, leaving 23 Americans dead and nearly 400 wounded. After this, the American justice system found Noriega guilty and he was later sent to prison. Many people did not agree with “Operation Just Cause,” yet they found it was necessary in order to restore peace in democracy. From here out, they had great trust in terms of foreign policy for this new president.
The Persian Gulf War
President Bush faced his greatest obstacle in office in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Previous presidents, such as Carter and Reagan, had supported Iraq. They believed that Iraq was always the lesser of the two evils. However, in this case, Bush felt that he had to step in. Iraq thought that they could invade Kuwait without meeting any American resistance and they then hoped to gain money from the oil-abundant country to pay for war reparations. The Bush Administration realized that the only way that they could force Iraq out of Kuwait was by military force, and not merely economic reasoning. “Operation Desert Storm” in 1991 is when over 80,000 troops were deployed to Saudi Arabia. Bush stressed that Iraqi forces should be immediately removed from Kuwait, they should restore the stability of the gulf, and ultimately the American Citizens should be protected. 100 hours after the invasion, the aggression halted. Bush’s actions quickly restored hope for American people, even though they were left worried about Saddam Hussein left in power. Even though Bush provided hope for many Americans for the time being, he did not address the problem of Hussein being in office. This overlook will eventually affect the relationship between Iraq and the US in the near future and shape the course of America forever.
