why did the US ambassador in Baghdad deceived Saddam in 1990?

Question

Why did the US ambassador in Baghdad (She was murdered later by the CIA) deceived Saddam in 1990 by telling him that occupying Kuwait is an Iraqi local issue and that USA will not oppose or even protest against it?

Answer 1

Is April Glaspie dead? That's news to me.

What Glaspie says she told Saddam prior to the invasion was that the United States had no position on the border dispute between Iraq and Kuwait. That does not mean that the US did not care if Iraq invaded Kuwait.

A similar incident occured in Asia over fifty years ago. The Secretary of State Dean Acheson stated that Japan was within the American sphere of interest, saying nothing about South Korea. North Korea did not believe that the United States would act military when they invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. Like Saddam in 1990, Kim Il Sung misinterpreted American policy.

Answer 2

That was not exactly what was said to Saddam. Her response as to the border dispute between Iraq and Kuwait was a very ambivalent answer indicating that the U.S. did not care how that issue was resolved. Unfortunately, the answer was so vague that Saddam interpreted it as meaning that we would not oppose military action.

It was a tragic mistake of U.S. diplomacy -- effectively giving a yellow light to the invasion -- by not emphasizing the requirement that the dispute be peacefully resolved (e.g. through negotiations or arbitration by the World Court).

Answer 3

Well.. somebody should let her know that she's dead. Because she's running around acting like she's alive.