The United States launched an operation known as Operation Desert Shield, also known as the Persian Gulf War, in August 1990 in response Saddam Hussein's order to Iraqi forces to take control of Kuwait. President George Herbert Walker Bush made the decision to send American troops to Saudi Arabia to form an international coalition that would eventually evolve into an operation known as Operation Desert Storm. The U.S. military has not witnessed an event of such international and domestic significance since the Cold War. Saddam Hussein's main goal in sending troops to take Kuwait was to take control of their oil fields, which Hussein thought would be an easy task; however, he failed to understand that the United States and the United Nations were closely monitoring the actions of the Iraqis. Hussein also had other motivations, such as freeing himself from the debt he was drowning in because of the Iran-Iraq War two years earlier. He presented the pretext for war with Kuwait by defining their refusal to give land to Iraq as an act of military belligerence. President Bush ordered the United States to respond just five days after Iraq invaded Kuwait. If the United States had not acted, Hussein would likely have continued to invade other oil-producing countries and take control of America's main sources of oil, while threatening the lives of a number of people. 'innocents. Operation Desert Shield was launched by President HW. Bush to increase the number of forces and troops in the areas surrounding Kuwait and mainly in Saudi Arabia in response to the invasion of Kuwait by 120,000 soldiers and 2,000 tanks. The United Nations called for the withdrawal of the Iraqi army from its presence in Kuwait, but Hussein went middle of paper......ending the war cleanly was the wrong way to approach ending the war as there were so many open ends with the Iraqis that could possibly lead to conflict in the future; but because the war was expensive, 620 billion dollars, and because three hundred and ninety American soldiers were already dead. After settling the details of the management of the Iraqi army and its leader Hussein, General Schwarzkopf, who played a major role and served as a key leader of the US military during Operation Shield and Desert Storm , traveled to Saddam Hussein's location so that he could witness his surrender, but Hussein's actions following this event forced President Bush to establish "no-fly zones" for protect the Kurds in the north of Iraq and the Shiites in the south. Ultimately, Operation Desert Storm, the largest military operation since Vietnam, ended successfully..