On February 27

On this day in ...
... 1991 (20 years ago today), in a televised address, U.S. President George H.W. Bush declared Kuwait liberated, Iraq defeated, and U.S.-led allies on stand-down status. He called upon Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whose forces The New York Times described as "isolated and battered," to begin negotiating a permanent ceasefire. (map credit) The declaration marked the end of the Persian Gulf War -- but not, as readers of our "...and counting..." feature well know, the end of all combat in Iraq.

(Prior February 27 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

On November 19

On this day in ...
... 1990 (20 years ago today), at a summit meeting in Paris, leaders of more than a score of countries signed an agreement billed as "the end of the cold war that divided East and West for more than four decades." The agreement between the member states of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and those of the Warsaw Pact promised to destroy "tens of thousands" of "nonnuclear weapons." Signing along with U.S. President George H.W. Bush was Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. (credit for photo of the 2 leaders at a 1989 Malta summit) At the signing in Paris, the latter proclaimed:

'What a long way the world has come!'

A thought worth pondering given the current, new uncertainties about the fate of New START, the disarmament pact we've been tracking (prior IntLawGrrls posts).

(Prior November 19 posts are here, here, and here.)

On January 12

On this day in ...
... 1991, both chambers of Congress adopted a Persian Gulf War Resolution authorizing President George H.W. Bush to deploy U.S. troops to liberate Kuwait, which Iraq had invaded the previous August. The vote in the House of Representatives was 250 to 183; in the Senate, 52 to 47. (That these votes were far from unanimous may be a reflection on public sentiment, evinced by the then-popular T-shirt at left.) The U.S. resolution invoked U.N. Security Council Resolution 678 (1991), which, as Congress put it, "authorized member states of the United Nations to use all necessary means, after January 15, 1991, to uphold and implement all relevant Security Council resolutions and to restore international peace and security in the area." What became known as the 1st Gulf War would begin 4 days later and conclude with a ceasefire at the end of February.

(Prior January 12 posts are here and here.)

On April 4

On this day in ...

... 1984 (25 years ago today), to make way for road-building, British authorities broke up a peace camp that women had set up 3 years earlier at Greenham Common, Berkshire (left), in protest of plans to store Cruise missiles at a military air base near their homes. (photo credit)

... 1984 (25 years ago today), U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced support for an international ban on chemical weapons. The audio clip of his statement, in which he said that he would send then-Vice President George H.W. Bush to Geneva to take part in multilateral negotiation of a chemical weapons treaty, is here.

(Prior April 4 posts are here and here.)