U.S Propaganda and Media Performance in the 1991 Gulf War

Abstract

The overall idea of the present dissertation revolves around the role of U.S propaganda and media during times of war. Using the 1991 Gulf War as a case of study, this paper attempts to demonstrate that the U.S relies so heavily on wartime propaganda to legitimise its military interventions, and that the media is a tool that U.S leaders make use of to reinforce propaganda and mobilise popular support. To this end, a qualitative, descriptive analytical approach is applied. Moreover, the 1991 Gulf War is discussed in its historical context as the first major conflict for the United States in the post-Cold War era. During the Cold War era, anti-communist propaganda was the vehicle through which many U.S military interventions were legitimised. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union, which ended the Cold War, resulted in a propaganda crisis for U.S leaders, who had to find new propaganda for selling the war in the Persian Gulf. Because it does not matter how credible propaganda rhetoric is as long as it effectively meets the desired objectives, U.S propaganda of the 1991 Gulf War was based on fabrications and exaggerations. Moreover, U.S leaders adapted the media to propaganda through imposing several restrictions on the journalists' content and their access to the battlefields. Consequently, the media and propaganda were inseparable war weapons that the U.S made use of during the 1991 Gulf War