Kicking the Vietnam Syndrome Narrative: Human Rights, the Nayirah Testimony, and the Gulf War

On Dec 10, 1990, with four hundred thousand American soldiers readied for war along the Saudi-Kuwaiti border, George H. W. Bush issued a presidential proclamation designating December 10 as Human Rights Day. First recognized in 1949 by Harry Truman, Human Rights Day commemorates the UN General Assem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American quarterly 2017-03, Vol.69 (1), p.71-92
Main Author: Darda, Joseph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Armed forces
Cold War
Communism
Democracy
Essays
Human rights
Jordan, June (1936-2002)
Rule of law
Vietnam War
War
Zinn, Howard
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Summary:On Dec 10, 1990, with four hundred thousand American soldiers readied for war along the Saudi-Kuwaiti border, George H. W. Bush issued a presidential proclamation designating December 10 as Human Rights Day. First recognized in 1949 by Harry Truman, Human Rights Day commemorates the UN General Assembly's signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since Truman, acknowledging Human Rights Day with a proclamation has been a routine event every December for the sitting president. With a war on the horizon, Bush took the proclamation as an opportunity to situate the looming Gulf War in a human rights context. In a world where human rights are routinely denied in too many lands, he observed, nowhere is that situation more tragic and more urgent today than in Kuwait. Listing the atrocities reportedly committed by Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait, Bush concluded that as long as such assaults occur, as long as inhumane regimes deny basic human rights, their work is not done.
ISSN:0003-0678
1080-6490
1080-6490
DOI:10.1353/aq.2017.0004