The United States launched an operation known as Operation Desert Shield, also known as the Persian Gulf War, in August 1990 in response to Saddam Hussein's order to Iraqi forces to take control of Kuwait. President George Herbert Walker Bush made the decision to send American troops to Saudi Arabia to form an international coalition that would eventually become an operation known as Operation Desert Storm. The United States military had not witnessed an event of this international and domestic magnitude since the Cold War. Saddam Hussein's main purpose in sending troops to conquer Kuwait was to take control of their oil fields, which Hussein believed would be an easy task; however, he failed to understand that the United States and the United Nations monitored Iraq's actions very closely. Hussein also had other motives, such as freeing himself from the debt he was drowning in due to the Iran-Iraq war just two years earlier. He called for war with Kuwait, calling their refusal to give land to Iraq an act of military belligerence. President Bush ordered the United States to respond just five days after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. If the United States had not acted, Saddam Hussein would likely have continued to invade other oil-producing countries and take control of major U.S. oil sources, as well as threaten the lives of a number of innocent people. Operation Desert Shield was launched by President HW Bush to increase the amount of forces and troops in the areas surrounding Kuwait and mainly in Saudi Arabia in response to the invasion of Kuwait by 120,000 soldiers and 2,000 tanks. The United Nations called for the withdrawal of the Iraqi army from their presence in Kuwait, but Saddam Hussein performed badly... middle of paper... ending the war cleanly was the wrong way to approach the end of the war because there were so many open issues with the Iraqis there that could lead to conflict in the future; but because the war was expensive, costing 620 billion dollars, and because three hundred and ninety American soldiers had already died. After settling loose ends with the management of the Iraqi Army and their leader Hussein, General Schwarzkopf, who played an important role and was a key leader for the US Army during Operation Desert Shield and Storm, headed to where Saddam Hussein was, so he could witness his surrender, however Hussein's actions following this event required President Bush to establish "no-fly zones" to protect the Kurds in northern Iraq and the Shiites in the south. Operation Desert Storm, the largest military operation since Vietnam, ultimately ended successfully.