Schwarzkopf, Norman (1934– )

A 1991 photograph shows General Norman Schwarzkopf during his command of Operation Desert Storm, the combined military campaign for the liberation of Kuwait. Schwarzkopf became known as ‘Stormin' Norman’ for his blitzkrieg tactics during the Gulf War.

US general. He was supreme commander of the Allied forces in the Gulf War 1991. He planned and executed a blitzkrieg campaign, ‘Desert Storm’, sustaining remarkably few Allied casualties in the liberation of Kuwait. He was a battalion commander in the Vietnam War and deputy commander of the US invasion of Grenada in 1983.

Schwarzkopf was born in Trenton, New Jersey. A graduate of the military academy at West Point, he obtained a master's degree in guided-missile engineering. He became an infantry soldier and later a paratrooper, and did two tours of service in Vietnam, as an adviser 1965–66 and in command of an infantry battalion 1969–70. Maintaining the 28-member Arab-Western military coalition against Iraq in 1991 extended his diplomatic skills, and his success in the Gulf War made him a popular hero in the USA. He retired from the army in August 1991.