Inquiring minds want to know!
The world will never know whether decisive American diplomacy and military action before Aug. 2 could have prevented Hussein from invading Kuwait. What is known is that American diplomacy during the first six months of 1990, as documented by Waas, reveals an administration eager to accommodate Saddam. The low points of this diplomacy follow:
--On April 25, in testimony before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, Secretary of State James Baker declined to criticize Saddam's threat that he would use chemical weapons to deter nuclear attack.
--On April 26, Assistant Secretary of State John Kelly, before a House foreign affairs subcommittee attended by an Iraqi embassy officer, excused Saddam's threats to Israel as mere rhetoric.
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/1991/02/02-08-91tdc/02-08-91dops-column-01.asp