Museum Metadata Exchange

Names

Name PrimaryGuide to the Gulf War Collection

IDs

ID LocalAWM00009

ID Urihttp://www.awm.gov.au/findingaids/special/Ephemera/gulf.xml

Descriptions

Brief DescriptionThe collection contains postcard, leaflets and souvenirs produced during the Gulf War, 1990-1991. The postcards are primarily made up of American and French postcards, however there are also a small number of British postcards and tourist postcards produced in the Middle East. There are all forms of leaflets collected such as leaflets from peace rallies, a list of atrocities carried out by Saddam Hussein before the war, language cards, missing person poster, US leaflets addressing Iraqi troops and Kurdish and Arabic civilians and post war plan of action leaflets. In the souvenir part of the collection there are items such as stickers, menus and a list of the ships which were involved in the Gulf War. 2 postcard albums, 15 folders and 1 solander box

Full DescriptionSERIES 1: American and British Postcards, 1990-1991. Description: The American and British Gulf War postcard collection is primarily made up of postcards supporting their involvement in the Gulf War. There is a small collection of satirical postcards, and one anti-war postcard. There are also postcards of American Naval vessels which took part in the war.; SERIES 2: French Postcards, 1990-1991. Description: This collection contains French postcards produced during the Gulf War. The postcards make great use of imagery - montages, cartoons - to put across each postcard's message. The collection is a mixture of postcards for and against the Gulf War. Many of the anti war postcards use satire to good effect.; SERIES 3: Middle East Postcards, 1990-1991. Description: Postcards produced in, or thought to be produced in the Middle East. This includes Gulf War specific postcards, as well as tourist postcards of the area collected at the time of the Gulf War.; SERIES 4: Oversized Postcards, 1990-1991. Description: This series contains postcards, which could not be stored with the rest of the postcard collection due to their large size. Its content is a mixture of the previous three series.; SERIES 5: Souvenirs, 1990-1991. Description: This series contains souvenirs such as a list of the ships involved in the Gulf War, stickers and menus.; SERIES 6: Leaflets, 1990-1991. Description: This collection of leaflets contains items such as language cards, US leaflets to the Iraqi troops and the Kurdish and Arabic civilians, a missing persons poster, instructional leaflets for service personnel and a selection a leaflets collected from peace rallies held in Canberra and New South Wales, there are two post war action plans also included.; SERIES 7: Posters, 1990-1991. Description: This series contains anti-war and peace rally posters.; SERIES 8: Publications,1990-1991. Description: This series contains publications produced during the war period, including those read by troops during their deployment.

SignificanceIraq invaded its rival oil exporting neighbour, Kuwait on 2 August 1990. The invasion was widely condemned by the international community, and four days later the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a trade embargo against Iraq. Iraq's access to the sea was blockaded within weeks, and the United States assembled a large multinational force in the Persian Gulf, and another in Saudi Arabia. By the end of 1990 this force numbered some 40,000 troops from thirty countries, though the United States was the dominant partner in the coalition. In November, the UN Security Council set 15 January 1991 as the deadline for Iraqi forces to withdraw from Kuwait. The deadline passed without an Iraqi withdrawal, and on the 17 January coalition forces began an aerial bombardment of Iraq, which continued without respite until the war ended 43 days later. On 24 February, after more than a month of aerial attacks, the coalition's ground forces moved against Iraqi positions in both Kuwait and Iraq itself. After two days of strikes, Bagdad radio announced that Iraq's armed forces had been ordered to withdraw from Kuwait to the positions they had occupied before August 1990. Two days after this order, the coalition ceased hostilities and declared victory. Australia's involvement in the Gulf War included providing escort and logistic support during combat operations and continued long after the ceasefire in 1991. The Royal Australian Navy maintained a regular presence under Operation DAMASK, forming part of the Multinational Interception Force. Their task was to maintain United Nations sanctions on Iraq as part of the ceasefire arrangements. The tenth and last DAMASK deployment occured in mid-2001.

RightsContact Senior Curator, Published & Digitised Collections, Australian War Memorial.

AccessOpen - Contact Senior Curator, Published & Digitised Collections, Australian War Memorial.

NoteSelected additional and related material available at http://www.awm.gov.au/search/collections/ using the search terms described under 'subject _local'. Copies of many items from the Memorial's collections may also be purchased @ http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/sales/.

Subjects

pontGreeting cards; Postcards

localGreeting cards: Gulf War; Gulf War Newspaper Clippings; Map Collection: Gulf War

scotMilitary service

Coverage Spatial

TextIraq

Coverage Temporal

From1990

To1991

Related Collections

Dates

Date Record Updated2012-05-30 23:40