In this book strategic analyst Avigdor Haselkorn provides an important reassessment of the 1991 Gulf War. Haselkorn's step-by-step narrative - in which he reviews the events of the war with Iraq, examines intelligence and planning during the war, discusses why President Bush abruptly terminated it, and analyzes the strategic consequences - is absorbing and frightening. He reveals that the war was not the splendid high-tech victory that many Americans perceive, but a nearly catastrophic event.

The threatened use of weapons of mass destruction during the Gulf War has redefined the meaning of deterrence, Haselkorn contends, and has set in motion trends that portend great danger to world peace.

This book focuses on the role played by biological and chemical weapons in the Gulf War and scrutinizes the dynamics of deterrence. It supplies the grim facts about anthrax, botulinum toxin, and poison gases and traces the terror of their use. Haselkorn shows that President Bush had little choice about ending the war when he did, given the failure of U.S. intelligence and severe flaws in strategic planning.

Indeed, leaders on both sides of the conflict either were dangerously uninformed or did not fully understand the information they had. This book provides a key to the continuing stalemate with Iraq, and it offers new insights into how the spread of weapons of mass destruction will affect world politics and future battlefields.