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he became the most important leader of the former republics.

President Bush and President Yeltsin signed another strategic arms reduction treaty, START II, in January nineteen ninety-three.

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GEORGE BUSH: "My fellow citizens, last night I ordered U.S. military forces to Panama. No president takes such action lightly."

One of George Bush's military actions as president was to send troops into Panama in December nineteen eighty-nine.

They captured the country's leader, General Manuel Noriega. The United States had charged Noriega with drug trafficking. He had also refused to honor election results that showed another candidate winning the presidency.

President Bush said he also sent troops to the Central American nation to protect the thirty-five-thousand Americans living there.

The American troops easily defeated Noriega's forces. He was taken to the United States where he was tried, found guilty and sent to prison for many years. The United States then supported the presidency of Guillermo Endara, the winner of the election in Panama.

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GEORGE BUSH: "Five months ago, Saddam Hussein started this cruel war against Kuwait. Tonight, the battle has been joined."

In August nineteen ninety, Iraq invaded its neighbor, Kuwait. The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution threatening war on Iraq unless it withdrew from Kuwait. The council set a deadline of January fifteenth, nineteen ninety-one. But Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein refused.

The United States and other nations were receiving much of their oil from Kuwait and neighboring Saudi Arabia.

President Bush succeeded in forming a coalition with thirty-eight other countries against Iraq. The purpose was to free Kuwait and protect Saudi Arabia against a possible Iraqi invasion.

GEORGE BUSH: "This military action, taken in accord with United Nations resolutions and with the consent of the United States Congress, follows months of constant and virtually endless diplomatic activity on the part of the United Nations, the United States, and many, many other countries. Arab leaders sought what became known as an Arab solution, only to conclude that Saddam Hussein was unwilling to leave Kuwait.

"Others traveled to Baghdad in a variety of efforts to restore peace and justice. Our secretary of state, James Baker, held an historic meeting in Geneva, only to be totally rebuffed. This past weekend, in a last-ditch effort, the secretary-general of the United Nations went to the Middle East with peace in his heart -- his second such mission. And he came back from Baghdad with no progress at all in getting Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait."

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Coalition forces began an air war against Iraq on January seventeenth, nineteen ninety-one. They bombed Iraqi targets in Iraq and Kuwait. On February twenty-third,
the Iraqis set fire to hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells.

WITNESS: "It looks like what I envisioned hell would look like. The country of Ku