Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Dark tubes of water peeled back from the battleship's prow, curling along her hull before fanning symmetrically east and west toward the horizons..." (more)
Key Phrases: corps operations officer, allied ground attack, kill sack, Saudi Arabia, Republican Guard, White House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Atkinson ( The Long Gray Line ) here writes an engrossing account of the actions and utterances of those who directed and fought in the Persian Gulf War. He also provides a thorough analysis of diplomatic and political aspects of the conflict. Rich in pertinent details, the powerful narrative leaps nimbly from Washington to Riyadh, from Baghdad to Kuwait City, and to various battle sites across the sands. Expectedly, the book's dominant personality is General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, whose operatic rages are here shown to be an integral element of his command style. Atkinson defends the much-maligned VII Corps commander, Gen. Fred Franks, against Schwarzkopf's "unfair and unwarranted" criticism. The basic tactical decisions are all here, but the author also addresses the broader issues such as the true effectiveness of the air war, what role the Vietnam War played in Desert Shield/Desert Storm ("For Norman Schwarzkopf and his lieutenants, this war lasted not six weeks but twenty years"), and passes judgment on the reality-testing of the U.S. Army AirLand Battle doctrine. Photos. 75,000 first printing; first serial to the Washington Post; History Book Club main selection; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This interesting account of the 1991 Persian Gulf War by a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter features a number of original observations about the conduct of the war. For example, Atkinson discloses that the Bush administration allowed navy warships to fire cruise missiles covertly over Iran against Iraqi targets. Among his other disclosures are the use of napalm and fuel air explosives on Iraqi infantry positions and the suggestion by Air Force Brig. Gen. Buster Glosson to use small nuclear weapons against Iraqi targets. Atkinson is extremely critical of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf's behavior. Although Schwarzkopf is credited with being an accomplished military strategist, he is portrayed as someone who abused and publicly denigrated his subordinates and who appeared to be in a near-constant state of rage. Recommended for general readers. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/93.
- Nader Entessar, Spring Hill Coll. , Mobile, Ala.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (October 19, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395710839
• ISBN-13: 978-0395710838
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #93,776 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #14 in	Books > History > Military > United States > Operation Desert Storm

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still the definitive account of Desert Storm & Desert Shield, July 26, 2002

By	Cesar Cruz (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Atkinson's account of the Gulf War has managed to outdo every participant who has written about it. He does this by exposing every significant detail of the conflict. The aspects that most fascinated me include the negotiations with Saudi Arabia and Israel, the coverage of the military campaign (in the air, land, and sea), and the allied military personalities. Atkinson covers all of these angles - and more - as well as any other journalist/author. His style and professionalism is on a level with Bob Woodward (both are both Pulitzer Prize winners).

On all counts Atkinson is fair and thorough. Probably the best example of this is his portrayal of Schwarzkopf. More critical of his methods than the man himself, Atkinson summarizes, "Even for men who had seen horrific bloodletting in Vietnam, no Asian jungle was more stressful than the endless weeks they spent in Norman Schwarzkopf's Riyadh basement."

Still, this is not a book about Schwarzkopf. Everyone and everything gets their due coverage - cruise missiles of all kinds, scuds, Colin Powell and Dick Cheney, British special forces, the Israeli Defense Minister, Iraq's Republican Guard, and others. Again, the scope is impressive.

Except for any secrets that may be declassified in the future, "Crusade" is still the most comprehensive account of Desert Storm and Desert Shield. If you think you know everything there is to know about the Gulf War, you are guaranteed to learn something new from "Crusade."

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent history of Gulf War I reads like a novel......, December 15, 2003

By	Alex Diaz-Granados "fardreaming writer" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Crusade : The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War (Hardcover)

13 years and two Administrations ago, the entire world watched as the first President Bush marshaled a global coalition to confront Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and gave him an ultimatum: leave Kuwait by Jan. 15, 1991, or we'll force you out. Three months had passed since Iraq had invaded its tiny but rich neighbor, claiming the Kuwaitis were slant-drilling into Iraqi oil fields just across the border.

In reality, as Rick Atkinson points out in Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War, Saddam was strong-arming his way out of repaying loans made to Iraq by Kuwait and other moderate Arab countries during his disastrous war with Iran. He may have also been angered by OPEC's lowering of the price of crude oil, which reduced badly-needed hard currency for his moribund economy. In a classic case of what novelist Tom Clancy calls "armed robbery writ large," Saddam followed Hitler's example of trumping up claims on a neighboring country, massing a huge army on its borders, then invading.

While Atkinson (The Thin Gray Line, An Army At Dawn) focuses on the events of the war itself, he carefully explains the almost Byzantine turns of American foreign policy toward Iraq. In the mid-1980s, Washington, worried that Iran would defeat Iraq, provided Baghdad with limited intelligence assistance and looked the other way when other countries (such as France, Brazil, and the USSR) sold Saddam sophisticated weapons. Only after the 1987 USS Stark incident, when an Iraqi Mirage "accidentally" fired an Exocet missile at a U.S. frigate in the Gulf and killed and injured several sailors, did U.S. policymakers start looking at Saddam as a potential adversary. But until 1990, official policy in Washington was to try to coax Baghdad into joining the fold of civilized nations in the so-called post-Cold War "new order."

In fact, as Atkinson points out, Washington's desire to establish better trade and diplomatic relations may have given Saddam the "green light" to invade Kuwait. The White House, for instance, censured the Voice of America for airing reports about Iraq's repressive government, and Ambassador April Glaspie's comment in July 1990 that the U.S. had no intentions to intervene in "Arab-Arab" disputes further reinforced the Iraqi dictator's view that America was a post-Vietnam "paper tiger" and would not lift a finger to help the Sheik of Kuwait.

Crusade is intensely fascinating and detailed. It is incredibly well-written, enabling the reader to get both the Big Picture and see the war through the combatants' point of view. It's no exaggeration to say that it reads like a Clancy novel; we get not only personality sketches of H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the "CINC" of Central Command and overall commander of Desert Storm and his chief lieutenants (Charles Horner, "Buster" Glosson, Cal Waller, Fred Franks), but we also get vivid descriptions of the intense aerial and ground battles that became known as Operation Desert Storm.

Atkinson also deals with the unexpected aftermath of the Persian Gulf War -- the short period of national high-fiving after the liberation of Kuwait that gave way to disillusion. In a matter of months, President George Herbert Walker Bush went from being a popular wartime leader to being booted out of the Oval Office in the 1992 election. Saddam Hussein, meanwhile, crushed not one but two post-war revolts (encouraged but not supported by President Bush) and withstood nearly 12 years of sanctions and sporadic air and missile attacks as he defiantly thumbed his nose at three American Presidents. (Now that he's in U.S. custody, maybe he isn't feeling so cocky, but that's another story.)

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Golden, April 23, 2002

By	Aaron M "aaronsfriends" (Maine) - See all my reviews

I ordered this book shortly after the 9/11 attack, anticipating another land battle in the Middle East. I wanted to know what to expect if our forces were moved in in any great numbers. Crusade provided exactly that information by providing me with a clear documentation of the Gulf War. Despite the differences between the two wars, I still found the book helpful. Rick Atkinson's style is a lot like Sebastian Junger's (The Perfect Storm). It's almost like reading a very long newspaper article, except that Atkinson keeps it interesting.

My only complaint is that he relies too heavily on what appears to be a list of crutch words. These should fairly pop out at you, but they do not really take away from the quality of his writing. Unless of course, you are looking for creative merit.

Creativity is not a part of the book. It is a complete record of the facts, as well as Atkinson's opinion's as they relate.

I give this book full marks.