In soon-to-be published memoirs, James A. Baker III, secretary of state during the Persian Gulf War, says Iraq also planned to invade Saudi Arabia - a fact he didn't know until the conflict had ended.
Excerpts of Baker's book, "The Politics of Diplomacy," are being published in this week's issue of Newsweek.Several weeks after the war ended, Baker learned that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had sent a message to Iran's President Hashemi Rafsanjani, "describing his intentions of living in peace with Iran on land which he referred to as `our 840-kilometer seacoast,' " Baker writes. "Saddam was describing a new frontier extending from present-day Iraq to the United Arab Emirates - which, of course, would include Saudi Arabia's Persian Gulf seacoast."
Baker also debunks rumors that Gen. Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, opposed using force to remove Saddam's troops from Kuwait. The two men met privately on Oct. 19, 1990, to talk over options.
"Some have suggested that Powell and I knew that we were both opposed to the use of force and that he was soliciting my help in opposing any such course of action," Baker writes. "This is not the case and, in fact, this meeting produced a consensus that both a more aggressive military and diplomatic policy was required if there was any hope of getting Iraq out of Kuwait."
Baker also writes that he and President Bush "argued like crazy - and loudly," but that their differences never led to the sort of infighting that raged in previous administrations.
"President Reagan's foreign policy apparatus was often a witches' brew of intrigue, elbows, egos and separate agendas. I can't remember any extended period of time when someone in the national security cluster wasn't at someone else's throat," Baker writes. "The National Security Council frequently ran amok, as the Iran-Contra scandal documented in embarrassing detail. And sometimes when the president decided a major policy issue, his subordinates would ignore his wishes and pursue their own policy schemes."