Kuwait, overrun by Iraqi troops, desperately wants U.S. military intervention. China seeks congressional support for favorable trade status after the bloodshed at Tiananmen Square.
Where did they turn for help?To Hill and Knowlton, a powerhouse public relations firm with strong political connections and a sometimes-controversial list of clients.
Some critics charge that Hill and Knowlton, which is owned by a British conglomerate and calls itself the largest PR firm in the world, has become an "invisible government" helping shape U.S. foreign policy.
"I don't know of a firm that has more clout and more connections. It's really extraordinary," said Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, an ethics research group.
"I think we do make a difference," Bob Witeck, a senior vice president in Washington, said in a telephone interview. But he bristled at suggestions that the firm has acted as a foreign policy player or agent of the Bush administration.
Hill and Knowlton seems to have a finger in every Washington pie and then some.
Its clients have included: Saudi Arabia; Turkey; Haiti; Angola; the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which recently pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges; convicted Saudi financier Adnan Khashoggi; and Maxwell Communications PLC, owned by British tycoon Robert Maxwell who died in November.
Hill and Knowlton also represents, at no charge, a number of charities and foundations, such as the Alliance for a Drug Free America.
These days, in addition to the scores of big countries and companies that are clients, Hill and Knowlton is handling publicity for the controversial film "JFK" and its director, Oliver Stone.
But its biggest coup was the contract it signed with a group funded by the Kuwaiti government-in-exile in August 1990, shortly after the Iraqi invasion. The Kuwaitis paid Hill and Knowlton more than $10 million - a huge sum even by Washington lobbying standards - to mobilize congressional and public support for U.S. military action against Iraq.
While the PR firm was hired by the Kuwaitis, its mission also was to "build support behind" President Bush for U.S. intervention, former Hill and Knowlton chief executive Robert Dilenschneider has said.
The media blitz included dozens of "video news releases" of alleged Iraqi atrocities in Kuwait that were sent to television stations around the world.
"I was very disturbed at the idea of selling a war like you sell Nike sneakers," Rep. James A. Hayes, D-La., said in an interview last week. "If a decision that affected half a million American soldiers had been made as the result of an ad campaign - that's a terrifying thought."
Hayes said he plans to introduce legislation prohibiting foreign countries from lobbying for war.
Then there's the flap over the incubators.
In October 1990, a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl tearfully told a televised session of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus that she saw Iraqi soldiers remove babies from hospital incubators and leave them "to die on the cold floor."
The girl, identified at the time only as Nayirah, was recently discovered to be the daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to the United States. Her testimony to Congress was arranged by Hill and Knowlton.
The incubator story was repeatedly cited by Bush and helped galvanize U.S. support for sending 500,000 troops to the Persian Gulf.
Investigations by human rights groups, as well as news organizations including CBS and ABC News, have raised questions about whether the incubator claim was only war propaganda.