White House Won’t Blame Envoy for Misreading Iraq
The White House today declined to criticize U.S. Ambassador April C. Glaspie for failing to anticipate that Saddam Hussein would invade Kuwait, saying “the whole world was misled.”
In her dealings with the Iraqi president before the invasion, Glaspie was just reflecting then-U.S. policy of seeking to nurture relations with Baghdad, presidential Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said.
Fitzwater said the fact that the U.S. ambassador to Iraq is now working as a senior Iraqi desk officer at the State Department in Washington does not reflect any lack of faith in her abilities.
However, he did not dispute reports that Hussein had made menacing comments to Glaspie a week before the invasion, suggesting that the United States should not oppose Iraqi aims.
The Washington Post reported today that an Iraqi-supplied transcript of the July 25 meeting suggested that Glaspie reassured Hussein that the United States had no official position on Iraq’s border dispute with Kuwait.
Glaspie was as surprised by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait as were other U.S. officials, Fitzwater said.
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