Following his order that launched Operation Desert Storm the previous day, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney spoke at a Pentagon briefing on January 16, 1991. ” ‘At seven tonight, as you all know by now, Eastern Time, three Thursday morning in the Gulf, the armed forces of the United States began an operation at the direction of the president [George H.W. Bush] to force Saddam Hussein to withdraw his troops from Kuwait and to end his occupation of that country.’ ”
– Stephen F. Hayes, Cheney, Page 242