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Also in early January, coalition support for stronger action increased. The U.S. Congress passed resolutions giving President Bush authority to use U.S. military forces against Iraq if Iraq did not vacate Kuwait. European governments supported the use of force to push Iraq from Kuwait--some more I so than others.

One other country's reaction was critical to the success of the coalition: the Soviet Union 's. On 3 August 1990, the United States and the Soviet Onion had issued "an unpre- cedented joint denunciation of the Iraqi invasion," and the Soviets immediately stopped their arms deliveries to Iraq. While Moscow did not join the U.S.-led military coalition, it supported coalition political moves in the UN Security I Council, never using its veto there to save Iraq, and it applied diplomatic pressure on Baghdad to withdraw from Kuwait. Ibis support was all the more remarkable considering that the Soviet Union was in the process of disintegrating.

Operation Desert Storm

The Un deadline for Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait passed despite last minute diplomatic efforts to avert war. At 9:01 PM Eastern Standard Time on 16 January 1991, President Bush announced that Operation Desert Storm was under way. Allied f air forces had begun attacking military targets in Iraq and Kuwait two hours earlier (A- or attack hour in the Persian Gulf was 0300 hours local time, 17 January). That first night, 66B coalition aircraft flew over 1,000 sorties against 170 assorted targets. Slightly before A-Hour, U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf launched 51 Tomahawk land attack missiles against heavily defended targets, destroying the just before the first coalition air attack.

In the air and ground campaign that followed, U.S. forces were signed to USCENTCOM, commanded by U.S. Army General B. Norman Schwarzkopf. Air units, regardless of service, were controlled by Schwarzkopf's USCENTAF, commanded by USAF Lieutenant General Charles A. Homer. USCENTAF consisted of provisional air divisions and fighter wings formed from units deployed from the united States and USAFE.

Initial Iraqi response to the air strikes was slight, and the "Iraqi air force seemed to have been taken by surprise." Coalition forces quickly achieved air superiority. During the first day Of air combat, coalition aircraft downed 11 Iraqi fighters. By the cease-fire (28 February) U.S. Air Force

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