April Glaspie was the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq in the run-up to the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Per John Kiriakou, in the days before the invasion Secretary of State James Baker cabled Glaspie instructing her to see Saddam Hussein before going on vacation. It was, per Kiriakou, only the second time Glaspie had met Saddam — the first being when she presented her credentials. “Saddam didn’t meet with anybody, really.”[1]
Glaspie delivered the talking-points cable as written. Per Kiriakou the operative line was that the United States had no position on inter-Arab disputes. Saddam — per Kiriakou’s reconstruction — interpreted that not as permission to seize the disputed Rumaila oil field on the Kuwait border (which the U.S. expected), but as permission to take the whole country. “Saddam would never — I know, come on now — well, we figured … he really wants to start another war? … The whole country fell in four hours.”[1][2][3]