Siege: Crisis Leadership & the Survival of U.S. Embassy Kuwait [Paperback]

W. Nathaniel Howell (Author), Roberta Culbertson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2001

On August 2, 1990, Iraqi soldiers surged into Kuwait City, surrounding the American Embassy and trapping Ambassador Nathaniel Howell, the embasssy staff, and a frightened contingent of American citizens inside the gates. By mid-December they were all safely home. "Siege" is the inspiring story of how they survived.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Helps us understand better an often neglected aspec of dilomatic skills and the foreign service credo of protecting U.S. citizens." -- David L. Mack, Vice President, Middle East Institute

“The high water mark of Iraqi expansion was reached on August 2 [1990]. -- Lawrence Eagleburger, Acting Secretary of State, June 1991

About the Author

Roberta Culbertson is an anthropologist on staff at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

W. Nathaniel Howell was U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait from 1987 to 1991. He now directs the Institute for Global Policy Research at the University of Virginia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 172 pages
• Publisher: Howell Press Inc. (February 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966891929
• ISBN-13: 978-0966891928
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,811,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inside "Kamp Kuwait", March 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Siege: Crisis Leadership & the Survival of U.S. Embassy Kuwait (Paperback)

"Siege" is the story, as told by the American ambassador to Kuwait, of the four-month ordeal that he and his colleagues faced in staying at their posts despite Saddam Hussein's order that they leave. They were effectively isolated from the rest of the world save for the tenuous radio link they maintained with Washington, and the sporadic visits of unofficial emissaries (e.g. Jesse Jackson, as seen on the cover) and Iraqi officials. Also housed on this compound was a hastily-collected group of American and other western civilians, who were NOT free to leave--for which reason the Embassy refused to close: these civilians had been gathered in as opportunity allowed, to save their being used as human shields in Iraq's defense of the occupation of Kuwait.

"Siege" is also an anthropological analysis of the interactions within this de facto community, an examination of how people come together and cooperate in the face of external threat. The physical discomforts they endured were manifold: heat, insects, montonous diet, finite supplies. But the worst danger was the psychological toll that their uncertain situation COULD have exacted, had the Embassy staff's leadership faltered.

The Ambassador is modest in his self-appraisal & generous in that of his fellows (both Embassy staff and civilian); he certainly did not ask to be besieged, but when the situation was thrust upon him he accepted on-site responsibility for all. The story, as he recounts it, makes me hope that were I ever to find myself in similar straits, that my companions and my leadership would be cut from the same cloth. Besides learning what actually happened in the Embassy compound during Desert Shield (the media afforded only short glimpses & that story was soon eclipsed by Desert Storm), I was left with a new appreciation of human versatility & spirit.

My only complaint about the book is the small number of pictures; then again, they were under SIEGE, for crying out loud!