July 26, 1952: The Death of Eva Perón

July 26, 1952: Eva Perón, the First Lady of Argentina, dies of cancer at age 33. As she dies, a legend is born. As was later said in a Jimmy Stewart movie, When the legend became the truth, they printed the legend.

María Eva Duarte was born on May 7, 1919, in Los Toldos, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Her father's family was French, her mother's Spanish, in both cases from the Basque Country. Her father was a bigamist, and left Eva and her mother for his legal family, leaving them in poverty, forcing them to move to nearby Junin.

Eva acted in school plays, and at age 15 she ran off to the national capital of Buenos Aires. With its wide boulevards, it was known as "The Paris of South America." She bleached her black hair blonde, and got some film roles, and a regular role on a radio show in 1942. In 1943, she was hired as a regular on the radio show Great Women of History, playing Queen Elizabeth I of England, Sarah Bernhardt, and Czarina Alexandra of Russia. This fed her interest in politics and power.

The city was struck by an earthquake in 1944, and she was one of the performers hired for a benefit by the country's Secretary of Labor, Colonel Juan Domingo Perón. He was 48 and a widower, she was 24 and, to put it politely, had gotten around. She founded the Argentine Radio Syndicate, and started a show titled For a Better Future, which promoted her new boyfriend. They married in 1945, and he was elected President in 1946.

The Peróns toured Europe in 1947, and were warmly received by Spain's fascist dictator Francisco Franco. They promised him food and money for infrastructure, for which he was desperate, as Spain had not yet recovered from the civil war he started and had won in 1939, and kept their word. Eva handed 100-peseta notes to poor people in the streets of Madrid, and this helped build her legend as a friend of the poor.

The Peróns also met with once-and-future President of France Charles de Gaulle and Pope Pius XII. But King George VI announced he would not meet Eva, only Juan, on their visit to Britain. Faced with this snub, the visit was canceled. Worse was to come in Switzerland, where tomatoes were thrown at her car.

Although a philosophy of nationalism, "Peronism" was not fascist in the traditional sense. Although Juan Perón admired Italy and Benito Mussolini, he didn't like German culture or Adolf Hitler, and actively engaged the Jewish community in Argentina rather than engage in anti-Semitism. International allegations of fascism and anti-Semitism against both Peróns were unfair. Accusations of totalitarianism and dictatorship, however, were very fair.

Eva convinced her husband to give Argentine women the right to vote, and took over the Society of Beneficence, and continued its image of charity. In fact, it became a means of embezzling money into Swiss bank accounts controlled by the Peróns and their allies. Still, thanks to her husband's cult of personality, she had unwittingly developed one of her own, and had come to be seen as a saint, even before the illness that took her life.

In 1950, she fainted in public, and was diagnosed with cervical cancer. At first, the public story was that she had an appendectomy. She had a hysterectomy in 1951, but the cancer had already spread. She was the 1st Argentine to undergo chemotherapy, but that didn't work, either. She died on July 26, 1952. During her funeral procession, people rushed toward the horse-drawn carriage carrying her coffin, and 8 of them were crushed to death. (This would also happen the next year at Joseph Stalin's funeral, except, instead of 8, it was hundreds.)

Juan Perón was overthrown in 1955, replaced by a military dictatorship, forcing him to flee the country, and to abandon plans for a grand memorial for his wife, a plan that included a statue taller than the Statue of Liberty. In 1973, Juan returned to power with his 3rd wife Isabel. He died in office in 1974, and Isabel Perón succeeded him as President. She had had enough of Eva's legend, and Eva's coffin was finally laid to rest in her family's tomb in Buenos Aires.

In 1978, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice produced the musical Evita in London's West End, starring Elaine Page as Eva and Joss Ackland as Juan. It premiered on Broadway the next year, with Patti LuPone and Bob Gunton. It was regarded as one of the best musicals of the era, but, as far as history goes, it was a puff piece, ignoring the excesses of the Peróns. It was filmed in 1996, with Madonna and Jonathan Pryce.

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July 26, 1952 was a Saturday. The same day, Adlai Stevenson gave his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. I have a separate entry for that event.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 10-6 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (The ballpark was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Mickey Mantle hit a grand slam in the 1st inning to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead, but starting pitcher Vic Raschi blew it. Despite that slam, and 3 hits each from Phil Rizzuto and Hank Bauer, the game went to extra innings, and Bobby Hogue gave up a walkoff grand slam to Bud Souchock in the 10th.

* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-2 at the Polo Grounds. Hank Thomspon hit a grand slam, and Dusty Rhodes also hit a home run. Willie Mays was serving in the Korean War, and was unavailable for the Giants.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-3 at Ebbets Field. Stan Musial had hurt the Dodgers so often that it led to his nickname: He became known as Stan the Man because Brooklyn fans would say, "That man is back in town." This time, he went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and an RBI. Jackie Robinson only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Braves, 6-4 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-2 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Senators beat the Cleveland Indians, 11-10 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Gil Coan went 4-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBIs for the Senators. 

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 9-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Ted Williams was serving in the Korean War, and was unavailable for the Sox.

June 8, 1949: George Orwell Publishes "Nineteen Eighty-Four"

June 8, 1949: Nineteen Eighty-Four is published by Secker & Warburg in London. It is the last novel written by Eric Arthur Blair to be published in his lifetime. It has become synonymous with his pen name: George Orwell.

The year was not chosen at random: It was simply the year in which the book was written, 1948, with the last 2 digits reversed, suggesting a "near future" to which the reader might be able to relate, even if Orwell himself might not live to see it.

He was born on June 25, 1903, in Motihari in British-occupied India, where his father was a civil servant for the British government. The following year, the family moved back to the home island, and Eric Blair grew up in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, outside Reading, about 40 miles west of London. But by the time his earlier well-remembered novel, Animal Farm, was published in 1945, his death was a foregone conclusion: He had been suffering from tuberculosis as early as 1938, when he was a journalist covering the Spanish Civil War. He died on January 21, 1950.

Within the world of the novel -- which begins with the words, "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen," and the date turns out to be April 4, 1984 -- Britain, now known as Airstrip One, as well as America and the entire Western Hemisphere, and also the original Oceania, meaning Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, are part of a totalitarian superstate, named Oceania.

This superstate is apparently led by Big Brother, who is pushed by the Party, the political organization that actually runs Oceania. Orwell leaves it vague as to whether Big Brother is a man who actually exists, or ever did, or is merely a convenient symbol for the Party to use.

The government tells the people, "Big Brother is watching you." As a result, they don't want to disappoint him by doing anything against the Party, and therefore against the nation. "Who controls the present controls the past" is a Party plank, and so there is a Ministry of Truth, which rewrites history to suit the Party's needs.

The reader learns that "Oceania had always been at war with with Eastasia," which includes Japan, China, and the Himalayas. The reader also learns that "Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia," which includes what had been the Soviet Union and the rest of continental Europe. Both statements of perpetual war had been true, and neither had been true, and could flip, depending on what the Party thought it needed at the time: "Even the names of countries, and their shapes on the map, had been different. Airstrip One, for instance, had not been so called in those days: it had been called England, or Britain, though London, he felt fairly certain, had always been called London."

"He" is the novel's protagonist, a Ministry of Truth worker named Winston Smith. Through his work of changing the truth, he has seen the truth, and begins to rebel. One thing leads to another, and his contact in a resistance group turns out to be a mole placed by the Party, and Winston is captured and tortured, and his loyalty is restored. The last line of the novel is, "He loved Big Brother."

In real life, the year 1984 turned out to be very little like the world of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, although a movie based on the book, starring William Hurt as Winston, was released that year. And yet, in the years to come, Britain, and, to a lesser extent, America, would become loaded with closed-circuit TV cameras used by law-enforcement agencies. This growth of government watching led to a British TV "reality show," exported to America, titled Big Brother.

In short, just as "Machiavellian" has come to represent the kind of tactics that Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was mocking in his book The Prince, "Orwellian" has come to mean the kind of governmental approach -- in total, or even in part, as with CCTV cameras -- that Orwell himself, a democratic socialist -- opposed.

In 1982, Alan Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta premiered, showing a fascist, surveillance-obsessed Britain of 1997, led by a Big Brother-type figure, who was basically insecure and needed the love of the people. A film version was released in 2006, set in 2038, and it took a lot of liberties with the original story, including making the Chancellor a much meaner figure, valuing fear more than love. He was played by William Hurt, who had come full circle from playing Winston Smith 22 years earlier.

*

June 8, 1949 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Briggs Stadium (now Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Virgil Trucks and Tommy Byrne both went the distance, before Vic Wertz singled home the winning run off Byrne in the bottom of the 11th inning. Joe DiMaggio did not play, as he was recovering from a heel injury.

* The New York Giants lost the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0 at the Polo Grounds. Stan Musial went 1-for-4, and Gerry Staley pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-1 at Ebbets Field. It was said of Rex Barney that he would be the greatest pitcher in the world if home plate were high and outside. In this game, he went the distance, allowing just 1 run on 2 hits, but also walked 4 batters. Jackie Robinson went 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs.

* The Boston Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-7 at Braves Field in Boston. Jim Russell won the game with an RBI single in the bottom of the 15th inning.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Robin Roberts pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Washington Senators, 8-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Bob Lemon not only went the distance for the win, but hit a home run.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Ted Williams went 2-for-3 with a walk.

January 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler Is Appointed Chancellor of Germany

Hitler and Hindenburg, at Potsdam, March 21, 1933.

The photo is colorized, but otherwise real.

January 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler, Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers' Party -- in German, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated to NSDAP, or "Nazi" -- is appointed Chancellor of Germany, head of the country's government, by its head of state, President Paul von Hindenburg.

Hitler blamed Germany's loss in World War I on Communists and Jews, and often equated them. He did this to boost Germany's self-esteem, so that the people wouldn't think they lost on merit, or that the country's army -- led by Hindenburg -- had let them down. He allowed them to believe that Communists and Jews had "stabbed them in the back," betraying them.

Hindenburg, Germany's top military commander in that war, knew better. Within a year of the Armistice, he had told American journalist George Seldes that the reason Germany lost that war was because America got into it with fresh troops and supplies for the Allies.

As the country suffered through the economic disaster of hyperinflation in 1923, Hitler, by now leading the Nazi Party, led a coup that meant to take over the State of Bavaria, as a stepping-stone to a challenge to the national government in Berlin. His "Beer Hall Putsch" didn't work, and he was imprisoned.

But only for a little over a year, and, in prison, he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle), both memoir and declaration of intentions. It's been said that the Holocaust began with one book, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler; and ended with another book, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

In the 1928 German federal election, the Nazi Party won only 3 percent of the seats in the national legislature, the Reichstag. In 1930, they won 18 percent, becoming the 2nd-ranking party. On July 31, 1932, another election was held, and they won 37 percent, becoming the leading party -- but not a majority party. So the minority government of Chancellor Franz von Papen held on, but another election was forced for November 6.

Again, the Nazis finished first -- but still not with a majority, and actually lost seats, down to 33 percent. von Papen urged Hindenburg to continue to govern by emergency decree. Negotiations continued, until, on January 30, 1933, Hindenburg knew that the only way to have a stable government was to let the leader of the largest party be Chancellor. And that was Hitler.

Hitler assumed dictatorial powers, and banned all other parties. There would not be another free election in western Germany until August 14, 1949; and not another in eastern Germany until December 2, 1990. When Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934, Hitler assumed his office as President -- and replaced it with that of Führer, and its "cult of personality," which made him not just all-powerful in the government, but his country's secular god.

In the 2011 film Captain America: The First Avenger, Stanley Tucci played Dr. Abraham Erskine, the German scientist who, horrified at what the Nazis were doing, created a "super-soldier" serum to give to the United States, telling the volunteer for the serum, Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans, "The first country the Nazis invaded was their own."

Hitler took office in his country 89 days after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President of the United States, and 33 days before FDR was sworn in as his country's head of state and head of government. No one knew it in the Winter of 1932-33, but the two men were on a collision course. In the end, neither man survived it, but one's philosophy did. And, as late as June 1944, it wasn't clear which one's it would be.

*

January 30, 1933 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And while the NHL season was underway, no games were scheduled for that day. So there were no scores.

January 21, 1924: Vladimir Lenin Dies

Lenin's mummy

January 21, 1924: Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, dictator of the Soviet Union ever since, and the leader of the worldwide Communist movement, dies of a stroke at his home in Gorki, about 6 miles south of central Moscow. He was 53 years old, and had been dealing with ill health the entire time he was in power.

His body was embalmed to preserve it for long-term public display in a mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square. It's still there, as shown in this photograph.

His death led to a power struggle within the Politburo. Ultimately, it was Joseph Stalin who won out, forcing out Leon Trotsky and other Lenin loyalists. Stalin also inherited Lenin's cult of personality, and took it to new levels.

Lenin had governed a nation wracked with civil war, great poverty, and extensive hunger. And while he made inspirational speeches and wrote stirring papers, he was guilty of atrocities, just as Stalin turned out to be -- although Stalin went on to perform them on a scale not previously imagined.

Charles Kuralt and retired U.S. Army General Norman Schwarzkopf co-hosted a 1994 CBS Reports broadcast: Hitler & Stalin: Legacy of Hate. After the opening segment, about Hitler's rise, they went to commercial, and, upon coming back, Schwarzkopf said, "The world didn't know it at the time, Charles, but 1924 was a very bad year. That was the year that Adolf Hitler formed the Nazis into a national party, and Joseph Stalin became the Premier of Russia." Before addressing Stalin's rise, Kuralt added, "Both their mothers wanted them to be priests."

After Stalin died in 1953, there was another power struggle, won by Nikita Khrushchev. In a 1956 speech, Khrushchev revealed some of Stalin's atrocities, denouncing him, and recommitting the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the ideals of its founder, Lenin -- an official hero there, but not to the free world.

Following viewer demands for a battle with a Russian as a character, a 2013 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, featured a five-man "battle royale": "Nice" Peter Shukoff, himself of Russian descent, played Rasputin, Vladimir Lenin and Vladimir Putin; while "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played Joseph Stalin and Mikhail Gorbachev.

*

January 21, 1924 was a Monday. English comedian Benny Hill was born on this day.

Baseball and football were in their off-seasons. There was, as yet, no major professional basketball league. And there was only 1 game played in the National Hockey League that day. The Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2.

The Senators had won the Stanley Cup in 1920, 1921 and 1923, so they were the defending Champions at this time. They were led by Hall-of-Famers Frank Nighbor, Jack Darragh, Harry "Punch" Broadbent, Cy Denneny, Eddie Gerard, Frank "King" Clancy, and goaltender Clint Benedict.

In spite of this game, the Canadiens would go on to dethrone the Senators as Cup winners, led by Hall-of-Famers Howie Morenz, Aurel Joliat, and the man for whom the trophy for best goaltender would be named, Georges Vezina.

January 16, 1991: The Persian Gulf War Begins

January 16, 1991: After 5 months of warning, President George H.W. Bush launches the Persian Gulf War against Iraq.

In 1968, the Ba'ath Party had taken power in Iraq. The new President was Ahmed Haasan al-Bakr. His Vice President was Saddam Hussein. Through a combination of oil wealth and socialist policies, the country grew, but was not exactly free.

In 1979, after 11 years of strengthening his case with the country's national security apparatus, and 3 years of doing so through the country's military, Saddam was strong enough to show al-Bakr that, due to his failing health, it was time to "retire." Fearing what would happen if he didn't take the hint, he took it, and died 3 years later.

In 1980, Iraq went to war with Iran, which was then holding Americans hostage. Naturally, America took Iraq's side. The release of the hostages and the change of power in America, both happening on January 20, 1981, did not change this support: The new President, Ronald Reagan, looked on Iraq as a check on Iran's power.

The war lasted 8 years, before both sides finally accepted that it was a stalemate. Saddam, leading the much smaller nation, had some justification to treat this like a victory. He emerged with the 4th-largest army in the world (behind the Soviet Union, China and America), and a great deal of popularity, not just at home, but in the Arab world. (Something a lot of Americans forget: Iran's largest ethnic group is Persians, and they are not Arabs. Most of them don't even speak Arabic: The country's 1st language is Farsi, although they do use the Arabic alphabet.)

Shortly after the Iran-Iraq War ended in 1988, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the election to succeed Reagan as President. For the 1st year and a half of his Administration, he saw no need to treat Iraq, or Saddam in particular, as an enemy. Surely, as President, with access to all national-security-connected information (and, as a former Director of the CIA, he would have been keenly interested in such), he knew of Saddam's civil liberties violations within his own borders. But he acted as though they didn't matter.

But on August 2, 1990, the Iraqi Army invaded the much-smaller neighboring nation of Kuwait. It was a move by Saddam to gain control of Kuwait's oil, to further enrich both himself and his country. Indeed, by ruling Iraq and Kuwait, Saddam now controlled about 10 percent of the world's oil production. But it was also a matter of national pride: Iraq has 18 provinces, and he called Kuwait "the 19th Province."

Bush guessed -- with some justification -- that neighboring Saudi Arabia might be next. This would have resulted in an energy and economic nightmare for the world. It would also have caused a huge civil war within the Muslim world, as Saudi Arabia is home to the 2 holiest sites in Islam: Mecca and Medina. An Iraqi invasion of Saudi Arabia could have meant complete chaos. And with the Soviet Union falling apart, America was now the only nation that could do something about it.

Or... was it? America had been aiding the Saudis for decades, in exchange for cheap oil. (It didn't always work: The Saudis had authorized gas price hikes in 1973 and 1979 that triggered gas shortages, inflation, and recessions.) Famously, in 1981, Reagan had sold the Saudis some AWACS (Airborne Warning And Control System) planes, with the most advanced radar in the world. In return, the Saudis brought their oil prices back down. Even as a Democrat, I have to concede that this was a good move on Reagan's part, as it stopped the nasty inflation of 1979-81.

So the question of late 1990 was, could the Saudis have defended themselves in a war against Iraq? Iraq had the better army. But the Saudis had the far superior navy and air force. Many Americans, myself included, thought that America shouldn't risk its soldiers' lives for the protection of Saudi Arabia or what Bush called "the liberation of Kuwait." (Some liberation: Kuwait did not give women the right to vote until 2005.)

Bush decided that the question of whether the Saudis could defend themselves did not need to be answered. He immediately withdrew America's support for Iraq, stood up for Kuwait, and said, "This naked aggression will not stand." He interrupted his vacation at Walker's Point, the home from his mother's side of the family at Kennebunkport, Maine, launched Operation Desert Shield, and warned Saddam that he had to withdraw his troops from Kuwait, or America and its allies would inflict consequences.

Yes, allies. The nations of NATO, nearby Egypt, and, of course, the Saudis mobilized their troops for this alliance. Britain did so despite a split in the Conservative Party that led to Margaret Thatcher's replacement as Prime Minister by John Major on November 28.

The Soviets, who made semi-socialist Iraq one of the few countries that both they and America supported, were in no position to help them. But, within the Warsaw Pact (which was dissolved on February 25, 1991, as the war was entering its endgame), Poland and Czechoslovakia (it split into 2 nations 2 years later) sent troops. From the Far East, so did Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and South Korea.

Iran was not going to get on the side of one enemy against another, and so they stayed out of it. And no other major Arab country was going to help Iraq: King Hussein I of Jordan, the leading Arab monarch outside Saudi Arabia, stood up for the Saudis, and stayed out of it. President Hafez al-Assad of Syria, already an ally of Iran, sent troops. (It's hard to believe now, given what Assad and his son Bashar al-Assad have done since, but they helped the official U.S. cause then.)

At first, the American people were split on whether such a war would be worth it. On October 10, 1990, testimony was given before the non-governmental Congressional Human Rights Caucus, by a 15-year-old girl who provided only her first name, Nayirah. The testimony was widely publicized, and was cited numerous times by Bush and some Senators in their rationale to back Kuwait.

In 1992, it was revealed that Nayirah's last name was Al-Ṣabaḥ, and that she was the daughter of Saud Al-Nasir Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States, and a cousin of the nation's monarch, Emir Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. Furthermore, it was revealed that her testimony was organized as part of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait public relations campaign, which was run by Hill & Knowlton for the Kuwaiti government. They thought the American people wouldn't know any better -- and they didn't.

A protest against the coming war was held in New York on October 20, 1990: About 25,000 people, including myself, marched down Broadway from Columbus Circle, through Times Square to Herald Square. We were afraid that this war would be another "Vietnam" -- the word "quagmire" was being used by opponents of the would-be war -- leading to the restoration of the draft, and tens of thousands of Americans dead, and hundreds of thousands wounded.

But, like the protests during the Vietnam War, our patriotism was questioned. Those who supported the idea were accused of "rooting for the enemy." And, also like the Vietnam-era protests, it was useless: The war was going to begin when the President of the United States wanted it to, and it was going to end when the President of the United States wanted it to.

Bush set January 16, 1991 as the deadline. Saddam stayed put. At 2:38 AM on January 17, Baghdad time -- 6:38 PM on January 16, New York and Washington time -- Operation Desert Storm was launched. (Bush originally wanted to call it "Desert Sword," but was talked out of it, due to the symbolism of swords in Muslim imagery.) In a display of what his son would call "shock and awe" against Saddam 12 years later, U.S. planes bombarded the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and did the same to Iraqi military bases.

Dictators always think they're smarter than they actually are, and Saddam thought he had a brilliant way of turning the war in his favor: On January 18, Iraq fired 12 "Scud" missiles at the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. (As Jerusalem is the 3rd-holiest city in Islam, as well as the holiest in Christianity and Judaism, he could not attack that city.)

The Scuds were largely ineffective as a tactic. But as strategy, the idea was that the Israeli government would overreact, and attack Iraq. Why did Saddam want this? Because it would make the Muslim world rally to him, and attack not only American troops, but Israel itself. That was the theory.

Saddam was a chameleon. He was willing to appear to be whatever people wanted him to be, to keep their support. Put on a suit, and look like a man capable of dealing with Western businessmen? Check.

Put on a uniform, and look like a great military leader? Check.

Dress like a faithful Muslim, and appeal to people's religion? Check. Smile like a man who was a father to his country, and not a bloodthirsty dictator who would do anything, and kill anybody, to maintain power? Check. 

Like many Middle Eastern dictators, he was copying Gamal Abdel Nasser, who ruled Egypt with an iron fist and a cult of personality from 1953 until his death in 1970, right down to making himself appear to be a healthy, good-looking guy with a great mustache. Nasser, of course, was copying his idol, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Neither Stalin, nor Nasser, nor Saddam was ever quite as physically strong as they appeared to be. But, as with any dictator or would-be dictator, from Alexander the Great to Henry VIII, from Napoleon Bonaparte to Adolf Hitler, reality didn't matter: Image was everything. Or, as would-be dictator Donald Trump would say, the "optics."

Prime Ministers of Israel, knowing that the Torah insists upon facial hair, but also seeing what men with facial hair had done to the Jewish people just in the 20th Century -- including Czar Nicholas II of Russia, Vladimir Lenin, Hitler, Stalin and Nasser -- have tended to be clean-shaven. But in 1990 and '91, the Prime Minister was Yitzhak Shamir, a hard-right leader (though not a dictator), and he had a mustache. He was pissed off, and he knew Israel had the capability to end Saddam's reign in a matter of days, and he wanted to do it.

Bush talked him out of it, telling him that he could beat Saddam, but he could not beat the entire Muslim world, even with America's help. Shamir was angry, but he was not suicidal, politically or otherwise. He accepted that the Scuds wouldn't hurt Israel much, and stayed out of it.

Saddam had played his best card, and didn't even know he was bluffing.

During the Vietnam War, there had been film cameras capturing the shooting, killing and dying as it was happening, and then sending the film to the networks for airing on the next available evening news broadcast. It helped turn the public's opinion against the war.

Bush had been a Congressman from Texas from 1965 to 1970, and had seen this. He knew that, if he was to keep public opinion on his side, he had to control what the public saw from this war. So, at first, he kept up the aerial assault, instead of launching a ground war. It looked spectacular on television. Critics called it "The Video Game War": Beat the enemy, and never lose a life. (Except it cost a lot more than a quarter: The war ended up costing $60 billion, or about $129 billion in 2022 money. The Saudi royal family reimbursed half of that cost.)

The coverage of the war was in-depth, but mostly positive: Unlike in Vietnam, the government encouraged the TV networks to show positive things, and, believing it would mean higher ratings, they did. CNN, in particular, went all-in and went all-out, and its boss, Ted Turner, would be named Time magazine's Man of the Year, ahead of Bush, Powell, Schwarzkopf, Saddam, and anybody else directly involved.

Keep it sanitary, no blood, no screams, no death on our side; and you'll keep it watchable. Keep it sellable.

And Bush, a businessman before running for public office (oil), knew who to assign to sell it: His Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the 1st black man to hold that post, Colin Powell, who was charming and personable, and, when he said, "Trust me," people wanted to; and the lead General in the field, "Stormin'" Norman Schwarzkopf, a huge man who had just the right combination of respect for his troops (which was heavily returned) and bluster for the press. John Wayne one minute, a Santa Claus in camo gear the next.

Most Americans were buying it. Some weren't. Many were terrified that this war was going to be another "Vietnam," On January 26, 300,000 people, myself included, went to Washington, braved a bitter cold, and marched from the Capitol to the White House to protest it. Most of the country didn't want to hear any dissent. Our patriotism was questioned harder than ever. After all, as the saying was during World War II, "There's a war on."

The next day, Super Bowl XXV was held in Tampa. Stormin' Norman attended. And Whitney Houston sang what became treated as the most famous rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" ever. Never mind that Whitney had one of the greatest voices on Earth: It was lip-synched. Even that was a fake -- or, at the very least, an insincere -- means of selling the war. The country moved on as if the protest the day before hadn't even happened. (Oh yes, the game: The Giants beat the Buffalo Bills, 20-19.)

The air attacks continued, unrelentingly. On February 22, Bush issued a 24-hour ultimatum: Get out of Kuwait, or there will be a ground war. Again, Saddam refused to give in. Pride? Maybe. It led to a situation of, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." (A saying that Bush's son once famously messed up in a press conference.) On February 24, Bush sent ground troops in.

On February 25, 20,000 Iraqis surrendered to U.S. troops. The world's 4th-largest army collapsed, almost literally overnight. Hearing about this, Saddam ordered a missile attack on a U.S. base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 Americans.

Like a boxer for whom the worst thing you can do is knock him down, because all it does is make him mad, the U.S. Army just pushed harder. They killed about 10,000 Iraqi troops as they were retreating from Kuwait City down Highway 80 to Basra, Iraq's 2nd-largest city behind Baghdad. The road became known as the Highway of Death. On February 27, U.S. Marines and Saudi troops entered Kuwait City. Later that day, it was announced that 500,000 Iraqi soldiers had been taken as prisoners of war.

On February 28, Iraq announced that it would accept all United Nations resolutions. Bush spoke from the Oval Office at the White House, announcing, "Kuwait is liberated. Iraq's army is defeated. Our military objectives are met." (Kuwait was liberated? As the singer Meat Loaf would have said, Two out of three ain't bad.)

Except for some metaphorical T-crossings and I-dottings, the war was over, after 43 days of aerial bombardment, and 4 days of ground fighting. It rivaled Israel's June 1967 Six-Day War against its Arab neighbors in terms of quick effectiveness, and easily surpassed the most recent notable victory of a NATO nation, Britain's 74-day Falklands War against Argentina in the Spring of 1982.

Many people, especially neoconservatives, wanted Bush to keep the war going, to send U.S. troops on to Baghdad, and to topple Saddam. He wouldn't do it. A seasoned diplomat who understood the world, he knew that, under those conditions, it would be harder to "win the peace" than to win the war.

He also knew that having Saddam in place as a check on Iran -- what was in place before the war, known by the Latin phrase Status quo ante bellum -- would save American lives and resources. To paraphrase a stage play that had recently been on Broadway, and was being adapted into a film, Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men, Bush needed Saddam "on that wall."

It would also save the enormous popularity he had gained. Never as popular as Reagan, even after winning 426 Electoral Votes in the 1988 election, and (despite being a genuine hero as the U.S. Navy's youngest fighter pilot in World War II) having a reputation as a "wimp," Bush now had an approval rating of 91 percent.

That rating scared several Democrats out of running against him in 1992. One that it didn't scare was Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, who pointed out that the war hadn't helped to lift the American economy out of the worst recession the nation had seen since the Great Depression. One of the smartest politicians of the modern era, Clinton exercised what could be called political jujitsu: He used Bush's claims of leadership and experience against him, arguing, "The same old experience is not relevant." The Soviet Union had fully collapsed, and there was a new order in the Middle East as well. Instead of riding a victorious war to a landslide re-election, Bush became a victim of his own success.

In what turned out to be a 3-way race, with businessman Ross Perot running a 3rd-party (or, rather, an independent) campaign and earning 19 percent of the popular vote (but not coming close to winning a single State or its Electoral Votes), Clinton was elected, taking 370 Electoral Votes. Bush only won 37 percent of the popular vote, the lowest total for a major-party candidate in 80 years. The Gulf War didn't help him at all.

Hearing that news, Saddam stood on the balcony of his presidential palace, acknowledged the cheers of the crowd that had gathered below, and fired a pistol into the air. He had lost the war, but had outlasted the victor.

In 1996, Margaret Thatcher sat for an interview for a PBS Frontline documentary about the Gulf War. She set up a big question: "There is the aggressor, Saddam Hussein, still in power. There is the President of the United States, no longer in power. There is the Prime Minister of Great Britain, no longer in power. I wonder: Who won?" The documentary immediately cut to an interview with Brent Scowcroft, Bush's National Security Adviser, saying, "We did. We did." He said it very nervously, as if he didn't quite believe it, and was hoping against hope that the viewer would believe it.

In 1994, Bush's son, George W. Bush, was elected Governor of Texas. In 2000, he emerged victorious (I won't say "won") in the Presidential election. In 2002, he copied his father's run-up to war, this time insisting that Saddam had "weapons of mass destruction" that he was ready to use on the free world, and thus had to be stopped.

Now, Colin Powell was Secretary of State, and was sent to the United Nations with the accusation. Once again, he basically said, "Trust me." Unlike Adlai Stevenson, whom President John F. Kennedy had sent to the UN as America's Ambassador to it 40 years earlier, with proof of Soviet missiles in Cuba, Powell had no proof, only the value of his word. Except the value of his word was meaningless, because he was counting on the value of the younger Bush's word. Which, as it turned out, was no good.

Once again, Saddam Hussein refused the demands and ignored the deadlines of an American President named George Bush. Once again, on March 19, 2003, he was made to pay for it. This time, the President named George Bush did go all the way to Baghdad, and did remove Saddam from power. Saddam was executed in 2006.

Except this President named George Bush didn't figure out that he also had to win the peace, and that being an occupying power would prevent that. He wasn't as smart as his father. He was just smart enough to use the continuing situation in Iraq to get himself narrowly re-elected in 2004, but by the Congressional elections of 2006, America had had enough of his incompetence, his Administration's lies, and his Party's lying about the patriotism of Democratic candidates, and elected Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress.

That same year, on an episode of NCIS, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (played by Mark Harmon) was hospitalized with a head injury that temporarily cost him his memory of everything that had happened since his service in the Gulf War. He had been watching coverage of the current Iraq War, and his doctor told his friend, Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard (David McCallum), that Gibbs wants to know why we're still at war with Iraq. Ducky said, "He's not the only one."

On December 31, 2011, 3 years after another election ended the Republican Party's hold on the White House, the last American troops left Iraq.

*

January 16, 1991 was a Wednesday. Baseball was in its off-season. The NFL was wrapping up its season, with the Super Bowl 11 days away. There were 8 NBA games played that day:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves, 93-89 at Madison Square Garden. Kiki Vandeweghe led all scorers with 26 points, but it wasn't enough.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Boston Celtics, 110-105 at the Boston Garden. The trio known as "Run TMC" ran riot: Tim Hardaway Sr. scored 37, Mitch Richmond 26, Chris Mullin 14. For the Celtics, Kevin Gamble scored 26 and Kevin McHale 22, but it wasn't nearly enough. Larry Bird was injured, and didn't play.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Orlando Magic, 99-88 at the Orlando Arena. Michael Jordan scored 29 points. In his 7th season with Da Bulls, Jordan led them to their, and his, 1st NBA Championship that June.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Miami Heat, 108-94 at the Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio. LeBron James did not play for either team. He had just turned 6 years old.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Indiana Pacers, 126-119 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. For the Bucks, Jay Humphries scored 33 and Ricky Pierce scored 31. For the Pacers, Reggie Miller scored 26.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks, 100-94 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. David Robinson scored 30.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Charlotte Hornets, 111-104 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver.

* And the Washington Bullets beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 101-99 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Former Knicks star Bernard King scored 32 for the Wizards-to-be.

And there were 4 NHL games played:

* The New Jersey Devils played the Chicago Blackhawks to a tie, 2-2 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. The Devils trailed 2-0 going into the 3rd period, but got goals from Tommy Albelin and Captain Kirk Muller.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-3 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Vancouver Canucks, 2-1 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.