Frontline Transcript not by Bill Moyers.
pbs.org
NARRATOR: With victory won, the political concentration that had brought such success now seemed to desert the White House team. Washington left all the details of the ceasefire for the generals to work out alone.
Gen. CALVIN WALLER: Norm Schwarzkopf said, "How do we make this happen? What do we do?" And we had a State Department representative in our war room and he said to the State Department representative, "What is it we're supposed to do, Mr. State Department rep?" And the State Department rep gave what we call the "Iraqi salute." He didn't know.
Gen. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF: I had no instructions whatsoever, so lacking any, and based upon the conversations Colin and I had had, I_ I_ called my stenographer in and dictated my own terms of reference. And then I called up Colin and said, "I'm going to send these to you." You know, "If_ if you all approve, then send them back to me. This is what I'll do."
Gen. CALVIN WALLER: The Pentagon changed "happy" to "glad," "we" to "they" and put in a few fixes, gave it to the State Department and the State Department changed a couple of words and sent it back to us and says, "Use this."
NARRATOR: [March 3, 1991, Southern Iraq] Schwarzkopf decided that the ceasefire talks would be held in coalition-occupied Iraq, near the town of Safwan. The Iraqi leadership wanted a deal that would return their captured territory and give them the freedom to crush the rebellions. Schwarzkopf's objectives were simpler.
Gen. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF: I went to Safwan with my own instructions, which basically, number one, was to get our POWs back and then, number two, to make sure that we had very, very clear lines drawn so that we didn't have any inadvertent battles after that.
NARRATOR: A pair of Apache gunships hovered over the approaching Iraqi convoy. Just hours before, Saddam had personally briefed the Iraqi generals arriving to meet Schwarzkopf.
Gen. WAFIC AL SAMMARAI, Iraqi Military Intelligence: [through interpreter] Saddam wanted to consolidate the ceasefire in any way he could and he ordered his officers to give any information they knew about the minefields and the prisoners of war. He didn't want to give the West any excuse to resume fighting. He wanted to sign a ceasefire agreement at any price.
NARRATOR: Accompanied by the Saudi commander-in-chief, Schwarzkopf led the defeated Iraqi generals to the tent where the meeting would be held. Once the talks got under way, Schwarzkopf got everything he wanted, but so did the Iraqis.
Gen. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF: What they were most concerned about was that this was going to be a permanent border and_ and over and over again, they kept saying, "Is this a permanent border or is this just temporary?" and I kept having to reassure them that, "No, this is not a permanent border. This is a temporary demarcation line between our forces."
And then this fellow looked at me and said, "Well, can we fly our helicopters?" And I knew the great devastation we had inflicted upon their roads and their bridges and that seemed like a very reasonable request to me.
BERNARD TRAINOR: And then the Iraqis asked the question which should have given Schwarzkopf pause and that was, "Well, how about armed helicopters?" And Schwarzkopf, without even thinking, said, "Yes, armed helicopters."
Now, what the Iraqis had in mind was using their helicopter gunships to put down the Shia uprising which had taken place and Schwarzkopf gave them_ gave them carte_ carte blanche to do it. So he was_ he was finessed by the_ by the Iraqis at the Safwan conference.
NARRATOR: The Iraqi generals got exactly what Saddam wanted, to the astonishment of some of the civilian architects of the war.
MARGARET THATCHER, Prime Minister, Great Britain, 1979-1990: They should have surrendered their equipment, the lot. When you're dealing with a dictator, he has got not only to be defeated well and truly, but he's got to be seen to be defeated by his own people so that they identify the privations they've had to go through with his actions. And we didn't do that.
Gen. BRENT SCOWCROFT, National Security Advisor: I think what we should have insisted upon is Saddam Hussein come to Safwan. That was our mistake because that allowed him to blame his generals for the defeat and not he himself.
NARRATOR: Saddam Hussein now moved forces loyal to him from Baghdad to suppress the uprisings in the south. American troops could see the fighting from their positions, but they were ordered not to intervene.
Gen. COLIN POWELL: My advice to the president throughout the period of this uprising is that this did not seem to me to be an operation that we needed to get_ get involved in because I couldn't figure out who was doing what to whom. And it would have required us to move further into Iraq and take responsibility for that part of Iraq and for a purpose that was not stated.
ROBERT GATES, Deputy National Security Advisor: And that was the quagmire. Therein laid Vietnam, as far as we were concerned, because we would still be there. And what's more, given the American way of doing things, we would have then had the responsibility for rebuilding all of the infrastructure and we were just determined not to get sucked into that trap.
NARRATOR: Inside Iraq, as each rebel village and town fell, there were terrible reprisals. These pictures, filmed by the Iraqis themselves, would not reach the West for two years. They show Shia prisoners and senior officers from the Iraqi regime. There are estimates that tens of thousands of Shias were killed. TARIQ AZIZ, Iraqi Foreign Minister: The Americans did not interfere, therefore it took us only few days to recover from the surprise, to reorganize our troops, reorganize our resources and impose peace and order on the southern governorates. It took us two weeks to do that.
NARRATOR: Just a few miles away, half a million coalition troops began to leave Iraq. After months in the desert, they were returning home. The allies still hoped one of Saddam's generals would overthrow him, but the ill-fated uprising had caused the Iraqi military to rally around Saddam out of fear of something worse. The White House had miscalculated.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi leader had his part of the bargain to keep.
Maj. JEFF TICE, F-15 Pilot: Around about March 3rd or 4th, this gray-haired gentleman opens up my cell door and says, "Do you need anything?" I said, "Well, at this point in time," I said, "yes, I could use a couple blankets. I would like some shoes." I hadn't had any shoes. I was wearing yellow POW pajamas now that didn't fit.
You know, so I started asking for stuff. I figured, "I'd, better ask now. I may not get anything ever again. No one's ever asked me if I needed anything." So I started asking for stuff and he says, "Don't worry. You won't need any of that. You'll be leaving. You'll be going home in 15 minutes." |
