“While the United States could rightly criticize the violation of the sovereignty of one nation by another, the wholly undemocratic nature of the Kuwaiti regime made it difficult to moralize the conflict. Oil, not evil, drove the Bush administration response.” P.412

When Iraq occupied Kuwait, it meant they had control of a huge share of the world oil production.The Bush administration feared that Iraq would target Saudi Arabia will threat the global oil economy and national security. Bush began constructing an international coalition demeaning Iraqi withdraw. The US gained support from the Soviet Union and other Arab nations, such as Saudi Arabia which allowed the US to send troops to their country in order to protect them from potential Iraqi invasion. Thirty countries contributed military forces ,and other paid for military efforts cost. By the fall of 1990 the showed no signs of backing out and the US moved forward with military action. Bush secured a Security Council resolution authorized the use of force by the U.S led coalition if the Iraq did not leave Kuwait by January,1991. With Iraq rejecting the proposal of leaving Kuwait by the deadline, the US led coalition launch a massive air attack and ground assault on Iraq and, in a hundred hours Iraq finally retreated from Kuwait.

” The beleaguered mind-set of the Soviet leader might have contributed  to their decision to shoot down a South Korean passenger jet, KAL flight 007,that in September 1983 strayed over Soviet territory, killing all 269 people aboard, including  sixty-one Americans.”  P.393

In 1983, the tensions between the US and USSR reached a level not seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis. These factors were the United States’s Strategic Defense Initiative and planned deployment of Pershing II mission in Europe. The Soviet were highly suspicious of a surprised nuclear attack by the US. On September 1, 1983 when Korean Airlines Flight 007 unintentionally entered Soviet airspace over the Kamchatka Peninsula, in Russia’s Far East region was approaching Sakhalin. The Soviets mistook the commercial airliner as a Boeing RC-135 spy plane owned by the US navy and order Su-15 Flogon fighters to intercept the jetliner. After not being able to get the attention of  the pilots in KAL 007, the Soviet decided to shoot down the passenger jet killing all passengers. This horrified the world, many including President Ronald Reagan calling it an act of barbarism.