he United States Army has a long tradition of involvement in humanitarian
relief and other military operations other than war. Beginning in the spring
of 1991 it supported Operation PROVIDE COMFORT, a demanding effort
hastily organized to provide relief to the Iraqi Kurds who had been brutally suppressed
in the aftermath of DESERT STORM and had fled to the mountains. The
crisis along Iraq’s border with Turkey drew heavily upon the Army’s broad experience,
and also exposed soldiers to emerging features of the post–Cold War world:
ethnic strife, multinational relief and peacekeeping missions, military interdependence
with other government agencies as well as with nongovernmental agencies,
and the continuous glare of media exposure.
A veteran of PROVIDE COMFORT, Gordon W. Rudd was well positioned to
observe and appreciate its complexities. He has carefully documented and described
this challenging and precedent-setting operation, as well as innovatively drafted his
own charts and maps to address the new organizational aspects of employing joint
and multinational formations in ad hoc combinations. American soldiers seem
increasingly likely to find themselves deployed for complex operations other than
war in distant lands amidst unfamiliar people. If so, Dr. Rudd’s thoughtful study
will provide a useful record of the Army’s experience and a forecast of considerations
to be taken into account.
The U.S. Army Center of Military History is pleased to add Humanitarian
Intervention: Assisting the Iraqi Kurds in Operation PROVIDE COMFORT, 1991, to its
inventory of published titles. This work joins an increasing array of publications
pertinent to the post–Cold War era. As always, the central figures and true heroes
of the account are American soldiers, called upon to endure and sacrifice in the
service of their nation.