A Certain Point of View, Too

Book Review: ‘Desert Victory: The War for Kuwait’

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by

Alex Diaz-Granados
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(C) 1991 Naval Institute Press

Strategic Scope Without Sentiment: A Review of Desert Victory by Norman Friedman

📘 Title: Desert Victory: The War for Kuwait
🖋️ Author: Norman Friedman
🏛️ Publisher: Naval Institute Press
📅 Publication Date: Fall 1991
📚 Genre: Military History / Strategic Analysis

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Military history comes in many flavors—some rich with battlefield grit, others cool and cerebral. Norman Friedman’s Desert Victory is decidedly the latter: a strategic overview of the first Persian Gulf War that favors high-level analysis over boots-on-the-ground storytelling.

Published mere months after the liberation of Kuwait, Desert Victory offers a timely and incisive account of the conflict’s origins and execution. Friedman traces the war’s roots to Saddam Hussein’s rise in the late 1970s, his ill-fated invasion of Iran in 1980, and the geopolitical missteps that followed—particularly the support offered by moderate Arab states and two U.S. administrations to a Sunni-led Iraq against Shiite Iran. These decisions, Friedman argues, helped pave the way for Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

What sets Desert Victory apart is its methodical breakdown of the strategic and tactical decisions made by both sides. Friedman excels at explaining the mechanics of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, with particular attention to the diplomatic choreography that forged a multinational coalition. Readers interested in the architecture of war—how alliances are built, how logistics shape outcomes—will find much to admire.

That said, this is not a book for those seeking the emotional immediacy of a Cornelius Ryan or Stephen Ambrose narrative. There are few eyewitness accounts, and the prose leans toward the analytical. It informs, but rarely immerses.

In short, Desert Victory is a valuable resource for readers who want to understand the Gulf War from the top down. It’s not battlefield memoir—it’s strategic cartography. And for those with a taste for that flavor of military history, it’s a scoop worth savoring.