Histoire THE USA & CONFLICT 1941-2011

Method: Commenting on 2 documents

GUIDELINE - THE GULF WAR VERSUS VIETNAM AND WWII
Every general of the Bush administration had been in Vietnam. They had all been shaped by Vietnam. By the catastrophe of Vietnam.
President Bush however was of a different generation from his generals, a different generation in a different war ; so he viewed the Gulf War differently.
Bush was a man for whom World War II had been a defining experience of his youth as he'd been the youngest pilot in the Navy. He viewed Saddam Hussein and the invasion of Kuwait in the same way he had viewed Japanese and German attacks in World War II.
“President Bush’s view,” TIME, 9 March 1991.
Hitler, Saddam’s advisor.
Jeff, The Arlington Gazette, 9 September 1990.

Stage 1: Presenting the document: the introduction

Both docs deal with the Gulf War and compare it to WWII. The 1991 Gulf War was the first post Cold War (1945/7-1989/91) conflict caused by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait (2 August 1990.
The TIME article entitled “President’s Bush’s views” published on 9 March 1991 also compares it to the Vietnam War while Jeff’s cartoon of “Hitler as Saddam’s advisor” published earlier on 9 September 1990 in the Arlington Gazette focuses on WWII.

Stage 2: Analysing the document

DESCRIBING A CARTOON
- What you see
 Structuring INTERPRETING A CARTOON
- What you know

Article
• §1 The army’s opinion
President Bush’s generals shocked by the Vietnam trauma
• §2 But president’s different
BUT difference of generation and war between president Bush Sr / his commanding officers
• §3 => Different view
Bush fought in WWII & saw USA vs Iraq // Japan & Germany

Cartoon
• Character 1 : Saddam Hussein
(Appearance) big head with heavy, bushy eyebrows and moustache as a soldier with uniform & beret (skull) (Action) looking at the other character on his shoulder
• Character 2 Hitler
(Appearance) small soldier with military uniform, SS arm band, small moustache (Action) advising SH to go on invading

1. Gulf War // Vietnam
Article §1

2. Gulf War // WWII
Article §2, §3 + cartoon

1. Gulf War similar to Vietnam
• Vietnam 1964-1973 defeat
• asymmetric war against Vietcong guerrilla => dirty war

2. Gulf war similar to WWII
• 1990 Gulf War against Iraq
// WWII (1941-5) against Axis
• wars of aggression + wars of liberation

Stage 3: Concluding

To conclude, we can say that this article is fairly reliable (serious quality newsmagazine) and unbiased as it is balanced as it presents conflicting views ; the cartoon is reliable as well (full references) but clearly one-sided, against Iraq.
To recap, these documents compare the Gulf War with WWII but also Vietnam. President Bush was right: the Gulf operation was a successful liberation war and not another Vietnam quagmire.