President George H.W. Bush orders U.S. troops into Somalia to ‘save thousands of innocents’ 30 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Dec 4 1992)

1990s, U.S. Presidents


Video: 'President George H.W. Bush - Address on Somalia'

(Friday, December 4, 1992, 12:30 p.m. EST; one day before the start of Operation Restore Hope, during the Somali Civil War) — President George H.W. Bush today ordered American troops to lead a mercy mission to Somalia, threatening military action against warlords and gangs who were blocking food for starving millions.

Bush gathered broad support for the intervention from top leaders of Congress, from other world leaders, and from President-elect Bill Clinton, and then went on television at midday (click here to watch Bush’s full address) to announce an operation that thrusts the United States into a new post-cold-war role as a military force on behalf of humanitarian, not strategic ends.

“I understand the United States alone cannot right the world’s wrongs,” Bush declared in his speech, delivered just 47 days before he left office. “But we also know that some crises in the world cannot be resolved without American involvement, that American action is often necessary as a catalyst for broader involvement of the community of nations.”


Video: '12/8/1992 Dateline NBC Special Coverage "Operation Restore Hope" "Military lands on Somalian beaches'

Military leaders said they would send 28,000 troops into Somalia, beginning next week and proceeding in four stages. The State Department said that Britain, Belgium, France, Canada, Pakistan, and Jordan would also contribute troops or supplies and that Germany and Japan, among others, were expected to contribute money and perhaps equipment.

But the bulk of the force will be American. Administration officials expressed hope that the United States could begin to hand off some of the country to the existing United Nations peacekeeping operation before Clinton is inaugurated on Jan. 20, 1993, but it was clear that the new President would inherit an ongoing military operation.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news briefing that American support troops and marines stationed on ships offshore would be left on duty for an undetermined period to act as a deterrent to Somalia’s warring clans even after most of the American expeditionary force was withdrawn.