The Ending

With Iraqi resistance nearing collapse, Bush declared a ceasefire on February 28, ending the Persian Gulf War. The 1991 Gulf War was a different kind of war for a different kind of time. Vietnam, and the quagmire it represented, was receding into the past. The humanitarian interventions of the 1990s were not yet on the horizon. The Cold War was coming to a close and a new world of international cooperation seemed to be dawning. The Gulf War unfolded almost without a hitch. And unlike Vietnam, the ending seemed clean. But it didn't take long for that image to unravel.