“On July 25 [1990], President Saddam Hussein of Iraq summoned the United States Ambassador to Baghdad, April Glaspie, to his office in the last high-level contact between the two Governments before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2.” Glaspie told Hussein: ” ‘My assessment after 25 years’ service in this area is that your objective must have strong backing from your Arab brothers. I now speak of oil. But you, Mr. President, have fought through a horrific and painful war. Frankly, we can only see that you have deployed massive troops in the south. Normally that would not be any of our business. But when this happens in the context of what you said on your national day, then when we read the details in the two letters of the Foreign Minister, then when we see the Iraqi point of view that the measures taken by the U.A.E. [United Arab Emirates] and Kuwait is, in the final analysis, parallel to military aggression against Iraq, then it would be reasonable for me to be concerned. And for this reason, I received an instruction to ask you, in the spirit of friendship–not in the spirit of confrontation–regarding your intentions. I simply describe the concern of my Government. And I do not mean that the situation is a simple situation. But our concern is a simple one.’ ”
– Special to The New York Times, “Excerpts From Iraqi Document on Meeting with U.S. Envoy,” The New York Times, Sep. 23, 1990