Chapter 1
Last Call
29 August 1990 Kremlin, Moscow
The Soviet President was not pleased with the outcome of the latest vote at the United Nations. Once again, the Americans and their lackeys on the Security Council and in the General Assembly had managed to outmaneuver them. This latest move was going to make it incredibly difficult for them to continue to support Iraqis’ war and the Iranians closure of the Strait as they had.
“So let me get this straight, Eduard. We were able to stop the Americans from getting a binding resolution passed in the Security Council; however, the Americans were able to get a handful of nations to put forward a resolution in the General Assembly condemning the Iraqi military actions on the Arabian Peninsula?”
“Yes, Comrade President,” replied Eduard Shevardnadze, the Soviet Foreign Minister. “They are trying to get around our Security Council veto by taking the case directly to the General Assembly.”
“Then, in practical terms, what does this mean for us?” asked the President.
“I believe it’s a signal from the Americans that they intend to proceed in building what they are calling a ‘Coalition of the Willing,’” replied Shevardnadze. “If they cannot get the UN to authorize it, they will simply act of their own accord in conjunction with other sovereign nations. They’ll then use this multinational force to fight on behalf of Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States.”
The controversial vote required a two-thirds majority and had been approved by a tight margin, signaling that not everyone at the UN agreed with action—something the Soviets planned on fully using to cause fissures within the global body.
“Yes, Comrade President. The resolution signals America’s willingness to commit their forces to military action. It will probably lead to other nations moving forward to join them as well, further complicating the Iraqis’ ability to maintain control over the Middle East.”
Vladimir Kryuchkov, the head of the KGB, felt he should say something. He cleared his throat. “Comrade President, this is an unfortunate setback. But we can still work around it. It’s just going to complicate things.”
Mikhail Gorbachev had known the Soviet spymaster long enough to know that when he used the term unfortunate setback, it usually meant whatever plan they had concocted was going to fail or need to be concluded sooner than they had planned.
“When the vote was concluded, the American Secretary of State, James Baker, asked to speak with me privately,” Shevardnadze interjected. “When we were alone, he told me they knew we had provided Saddam with substantial military aid prior to the war and that we are even now providing them with military aid—aid that is currently being used against their forces in Saudi and Oman.” He paused for a moment to pull a folder out of his briefcase and show everyone a series of images likely taken from a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.
“He showed me these. They are images of the As Sultan Qaboos Port in Tartus, Syria. These are images of our naval base, as you can see. They have also annotated the cargo vessels being offloaded and their contents being placed on trains and nearby trucks. This image is of several ships waiting to be offloaded.”
“What’s your point?” Dmitry Yazov, the Minister of Defense, asked.
“This arming and supplying of the Iraqi Army was supposed to have been done in a more secretive manner, not out in the open for everyone to see. It’s hard for me to deny what’s taking place when they can point to pictures like this,” Shevardnadze retorted angrily.
“Then don’t deny it. The Soviet Union has had a long-standing relationship with the government of Iraq. As allies, we are providing them requested support. This is no different from the Americans intervening in Saudi. As a matter of fact, we are doing substantially less than the Americans,” Yazov countered.
“Listen to me,” growled Gorbachev as he stood and glowered at his senior advisors. “I said from the very outset of this operation that our nation was not looking for a direct confrontation with the West. We would provide the Iraqis with state-of-the-art front-line equipment, intelligence, and advisors to help them achieve a swift victory over their neighbors, and by and large they have achieved that. They have a singular pocket of Saudi resistance and American soldiers holed up near Jeddah and Mecca that need to be defeated and then they will have achieved their goals. We,” he said, pointing to everyone in the room, “cannot wage an open war against the Americans. As it stands, the Warsaw Pact members are in the process of self-implosion and revolution. The last thing we can afford to have happen is a direct confrontation with the Americans. They have just demonstrated their willingness to wage an all-out war in the Middle East. At this point, we need to figure out what support we can continue to provide the Iraqis without forcing ourselves into a direct military conflict with the Americans.”
No one said anything for a moment as they watched Gorbachev angrily pace the room. They knew he was under an immense amount of pressure right now to hold together not just the Soviet Union but also the satellite nations that made up the Warsaw Pact, which were slowly disintegrating in front of them. Many of the hardliners were pushing for him to intervene militarily, but thus far he’d been able to stave off those calls by pointing to their ongoing operations in the Middle East.
Bristling at what he felt was a capitulation of their multiyear plan. General Valentin Varennikov, the head of the Russian Army, shook his head in disagreement at the assessment. “This changes nothing. Our plan is still working. The Iraqis have nearly captured all of Saudi Arabia. They have gone on to add the United Arab Emirates and isolated the Gulf States of Bahrain and Qatar, so it is just a matter of time before they join with Iraq. That encompasses nearly all the Middle Eastern oil-producing states, and they’ve done it in forty-five days.
Now is not the time to cut and run.”
“What more would you have me do, Valentin? I have authorized nearly an entire Soviet army’s worth of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, air-defense systems, and fighters, along with tens of thousands of technical advisors to aid them. We have done what we can. It is now incumbent on the Iraqis to do their part,” Gorbachev chided his Chief of the Army. He then turned to Shevardnadze. “You need to work the United Nations better. I need you to find a way to slow things down. It is obvious the Americans are going to move forward with their coalition, but you can still apply pressure to the nations joining it. You can still push for a negotiated peace that will hopefully buy the Iraqis time to consolidate their gains and reinforce their positions.”
Kryuchkov nodded in approval. “I agree. We can spin this recent vote as another case of American interventionism in yet another country. We can point to the military intervention they waged against the people of Grenada. We can bring up their coup in Panama. Yes, we can and should look to make this a public relations nightmare for the Americans and the West. Paint them as the warmongering interventionist. Maybe we can even rally the Syrians to come to Iraq’s aid and get the Iranians to do more than just blockade the Strait.”
Gorbachev smiled as he nodded along. “Yes, this is something we can use to our advantage.”
Holding a hand up, Varennikov offered, “While I still believe we should threaten to intervene if the Americans move forward with building a coalition to go after Saddam, another thing we could do that might prove just as useful is to allow more of our airmen and soldiers to leave the military to join one of the volunteer units. The pilots who have crossed over to the volunteer units have been instrumental in going after the American units. Plus, when this conflict does end, it’s going to give our air force a lot of combat experience. Will you allow me to see how many more volunteer units I can raise?”
“He has a point, Mr. President,” Kryuchkov agreed. The volunteer force was their brainchild, so to speak. “The Americans can balk all they want, but at the end of the day, if people want to volunteer to defend Iraq against American aggression, who are we to say no?”
Gorbachev thought about that for a moment as the others waited.
Finally, he said, “You have my permission to increase this force. However, no front-line units. They can be advisors to some of the front-line units, but I do not want to hear about a volunteer tank battalion or something along those lines. You can increase the number of pilots and air-defense units, but do not place our own defense at risk. Is that understood?”
Everyone smiled and agreed. For the time being, the hardliners had won another concession. Now they needed to show some better results.
*******
48 Hours Later Al-Salam Palace Baghdad, Iraq
Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze hated visiting the Middle East between the months of May and October—the hottest time of the year for this region of the world. At this point, he just needed to get through the next forty-eight hours and then he’d be on his way back to New York. He’d try to work the angle of painting the Americans as the aggressor by picking and choosing sides in a regional dispute.
Tariq Aziz walking up to the car to greet him. “Minister Shevardnadze, it is always a pleasure to meet with our Soviet allies. But you have flown a long way unannounced and in secret to meet with us privately. Please, let us get down to the reason for your visit.”
Shevardnadze smiled slightly at Aziz’s bluntness. The man was likely the brains behind Saddam, though few would ever say such a thing. They walked inside the palace and made their way over to a room where Saddam and some of his senior officials waited. As Shevardnadze entered the room, they went through the normal customs and courtesies before they got down to the business at hand.
Saddam started the conversation. “I assume your short-notice visit is in regard to the recent vote at the UN?”
Sighing, Shevardnadze responded, “Yes, Mr. President. As you are aware, the Americans have been pushing for one resolution after another condemning your nation for your acts of aggressions towards your neighbors. Up until now, we have managed to stop these resolutions from moving forward. However, they have finally managed to push through a resolution we could not stop.”
“I am aware of the resolution and what it will mean. Surely you didn’t fly all this way to tell us this?” Aziz countered with a raised eyebrow.
“No, of course not. I flew here to meet with you in person to share a very sensitive piece of intelligence we recently acquired that I believe will have a direct impact on your current military operations.” Shevardnadze motioned to Colonel Chekhov, the KGB station chief, to hand them some documents. They were in Russian with a translated copy attached.
As the Iraqis read over the papers, Major General Sokolov explained the significance of the information in their hands. “This report came to us from a highly placed source of ours in Washington. The American President is far more hawkish than Reagan when it comes to utilizing military force. He saw how quickly his military was able to overwhelm the Panamanian armed forces last year and he believes, wrongly, that they will be able to do the same thing here in Iraq.”
Saddam snorted at that assessment. “Well, we’ve already disabused them of that notion in Medina.”
“Yes, but the Americans are still in control of that area as well.
They are now staging their army out of Oman,” Major General Sokolov countered, to the chagrin of the Iraqis.
Saddam did a good job of keeping his poker face on while Sokolov kept speaking. “This summary is from a meeting President Bush had with his National Security Council eight days ago. The Americans are mobilizing for war and they are rallying their allies to join them. As a matter of fact, in seven days, the British Parliament is being called back for a special session to vote on some sort of resolution the Americans are crafting. We believe they are going to organize some international coalition sanctioned by the UN now that this resolution has passed.”
Saddam bristled a bit at this last comment, realizing the implications of what an international coalition against him could end up looking like. Finally, he said, “Minister Shevardnadze, while I appreciate the information you are sharing with us, is there something more the Soviet Union might be able to help us out with short of your nation directly fighting with us?”
“Mr. President, as you know, our own nation is coming under direct economic and political attacks by the Americans and the West. We are finding ourselves in an ever more precarious situation at home and abroad. The Americans and their CIA are instigating civil unrest across our own country to cause a collapse. Your war, however, has more than doubled the price of oil, which has provided our government coffers with a much-needed infusion of cash. World nations are needing to turn to the Soviet Union to meet their oil demands in light of the situation here.
“Our government wants to aid you further by providing you with additional volunteer squadrons of aircraft and pilots to fly them. We are also going to provide you with another brigade of S-300 missile systems and ‘contractors’ to operate them. We will also look to provide additional intelligence support to your forces. As a matter of fact, as we speak, Colonel Chekhov has several aircraft worth of equipment and personnel on their way to Baghdad to assist you,” Shevardnadze finished.
Not waiting for Saddam or anyone else to respond, Sultan Hashim Ahmed al-Tai, the Defense Minister, jumped in, asking, “When will these new weapons and contractors arrive?”
Saddam knew the importance of receiving this equipment hastily, so he let the interruption slide. “Minister Shevardnadze, my nation and I appreciate this latest offer of military assistance. I believe the additional intelligence assets and improved radar systems will be critical in knowing in advance where the Americans are likely to attack. I have a meeting with my commanders tomorrow and I will relay your information to them, but intelligence on the American movements and positions is something we could put to great use.”
“The aircraft and S-300s I spoke of should start arriving tomorrow. As to the intelligence, that will be handled by Colonel Chekhov and his capable people. General Sokolov will know in the coming days how many additional squadrons of pilots and aircraft will likely join your cause. Once the notice is announced, we’ll see how many pilots opt to join. We’ll then get their aircraft painted and remarked to reflect an Iraqi squadron. Before I leave, Mr. President, I must urge you to finish this war quickly and consolidate your gains.
We will assist you in suing for peace, but if the Americans are able to muster a large coalition against you, there may be little that can stop them.”
The two parties talked a bit longer before Minister Shevardnadze returned to the airport. His jet was spun up and ready to go. He’d now fly back to New York and the UN.
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