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Air National Guard units.  This changed when President Bush decided to increase the number of U.S. military forces in the Gulf because of a significant build-up of Iraqi forces in the area.  Following Secretary of Defense Richard B. Cheney's public announcement on 8 November, approximately 200,000 more troops were sent to the Gulf area, with about half of them coming from the U.S. Army's VII Corps in Germany.  A second increment of deployments for the Air Force began in late November and continued to the end of the year.

	USAFE deployments began in late August when the CS directed the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing to deploy F-lllF aircraft from RAF Lakenheath, united Kingdom, to Taif Air Base, Saudi Arabia.  Other Phase I Deployments followed: 401st Tactical Fighter Wing F-16s to the international airport at Doha, Qatar, from Torrejon AB and a Wild Weasel squadron of the 52d Tactical Fighter Wing, Spangdahlen AB, Germany, to Shaikh Isa Air Base, Bahrain.

	 Following the president's decision to augment rather than rotate military forces, USCENTCOM directed USAFE to provide an additional 140 combat aircraft by mid-January 1991.  Headquarters USAFE reoriented its planning to provide augmentation forces.  Additionally, the U.S. Commander 1n Chief Central Command (USCINCCENT) accelerated the dates for Phase II so all U.S. military forces would be in place before the end of December.  With the 15 January 1991 UN deadline for Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait quickly approaching, the USCINCCENT wanted Phase II units to have an opportunity to conduct training.  Furthermore, the deployment bases were prepared to receive the added forces.  USAFE Phase I1 aircraft deployed between 29 November and 29 December.  USAFE also identified attrition reserve aircraft and crews to replace those that might be lost in combat.

	During the first two weeks of 1991, there was a, tremendous flurry of diplomatic activity to head off war between the coalition forces and Iraq.  In early December, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein accepted an offer from President Bush for talks to resolve the crisis.  initially, Hussein insisted that talks be held within days before the 15 January ON deadline.  After several weeks of debate, the U.S.  and Iraq finally agreed to meet on 9 january 1991 in Geneva, Switzerland. U.S. Secretary of States James A.  Baker III and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz met fruitlessly for six and one-half hours.  United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar met Aziz in Baghdad on 12 and 13 January in a further effort to avert war, again without success.

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