Search - Desert Triumph on DVD

Good overview of Desert Storm

M. Kusumoto | CA USA | 09/30/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Desert Triumph" is one of the better documentaries I've seen of Desert Shield and Desert Storm. This is the view of the Gulf War that was broadcast in America and viewed by millions of Americans at home. Dan Rather and CBS News brought together the highlights of the different CBS news broadcasts of the Gulf War and recounted the war from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to the end of the Middle Eastern conflict. Unlike many documentaries that only use the narrator's voice to carry the story, CBS News showed the actual important news conferences both diplomatic and military, interviews with key leaders from the Allied nations as well as from Iraq, the voices of the common soldiers of the war, and background commentary from other retired generals.

The real highlight of the DVD is U.S. Central Command's General H. Normal Schwarzkopf's entire press conference as the war reached its successful conclusion. He was dazzling as he reviewed the entire air and ground campaign for a world audience.

I admit my bias as a retired Air Force enlisted service member who deployed to Saudi Arabia about a week after the war began. I enjoyed the DVD as I watched our deployed F-15 Eagles from Langley AFB, Va., taking off from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, to demonstrate America's resolve. We knew it was a thin shield of airpower and infantry defending the Gulf until the U.S. Army and Marine armored units could began arriving in theater.

"Desert Triumph" is not for military buffs looking for a revisionist view of Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Its view is the one that helped bolster American support their soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines on the sands and in the waters of the Middle East.







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