Note: The opening clip is President George W. Bush, March 20, 2003.
My fellow citizens, at this hour American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger. Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.
Kellams: Sitting across the studio desk from me is Randy Dixon with the Pryor Center.
Dixon: Hello, Kyle. Thanks for having me back. We're going to go through some archives again this week. Much like last week, we're talking about an armed conflict. And this is another President Bush — George W. — and another war in the Middle East. This time it's George W. with the war, which is called Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 1991, his father, George H.W. Bush, launched Desert Storm, which we talked about last week. It was to liberate Kuwait after an invasion by Iraq. This time, in 2003, this Bush administration led a coalition force of 49 countries to overthrow Saddam Hussein's government. Because if you'll remember, all Bush senior wanted to do was liberate Kuwait. They did it, got out, but left the Hussein regime in place.
So this attack was the result of a crackdown on terror — obviously because of 9/11 — and an accusation by this Bush administration that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. You heard that in the opener, as he called them, weapons of mass murder. But we knew them as weapons of mass destruction, and it was talked about constantly.
Kellams: I can still see Colin Powell discussing —
Dixon: Saying that there was, as he called it, credible intel. And there was a lot of speculation that it was out of revenge, because shortly after Desert Storm, if you'll recall, Saddam Hussein put out a hit on George H.W. Bush. Clinton was president at the time and responded with some military strikes. But in October of 2002, George W. Bush moved ahead and gained congressional approval to use military force. So America was preparing for war again.
Well, over at KATV, we were preparing for coverage again. And in '91, I was the executive producer. If you remember, last week I talked about we put together pamphlets about the war. Well, now we had it all over our website. We had animated trips through — you could take a 3D tour of an aircraft carrier or a battleship. Lots of maps and information that you could find.
We built a special set. I had printed a map of the Middle East that measured probably 15 feet wide and 10 feet high, and we had it up in a portion of the studio. We had reporters there in what I believe we called "America in Conflict," and they would report with updates on the war from there. We had custom graphics for on air, and we even had a former reporter of ours over there reporting for us. But we'll talk about more of that in a minute. Here is a newscast — I believe it was two days before the military assault — from mid-March of 2003.
[KATV, March 2003:]
Every Arkansan, go about their normal routines and not try to change their lives. But if they see something that looks unusual or suspicious, simply report it to authorities.
Governor Mike Huckabee prepares Arkansas for a shift in the national security alert. Good evening. I'm Karen Fuller. I'm Kerry Martin. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge talked to all state governors last night. He was briefing them on his plans to enhance national security. One of the areas of concern is our nation's airports. Channel 7's Mary Wynne joins us now live from Little Rock National. Mary.
They've increased security there several times over the last few months. What changes can we expect now? Well, Kerry, now that the terror alert has been raised, officials are putting extra precautions into place here at the airport. Just yesterday, the level was yellow. That has changed to orange last night. Orange means there is a high risk of a terrorist attack. There will be vehicle inspections as travelers enter the airport grounds. Also, police dogs may be sniffing around, like the ones you see here at LAX. The dogs will be looking for not only drugs, but explosives as well. The overall presence of law enforcement will also increase at the airports. And finally, signs will be placed asking the public to report unattended bags and suspicious behavior. For more information on other Homeland Security measures, you can log on to our website at KATV.com.
Kellams: Until you mentioned that, I'd forgotten that this was happening about this time of year.
Dixon: And remember the terror alerts — they would go up and down and continued even after the war. They had that level of orange or yellow, and it would almost — I remember we would be in the newsroom and all of a sudden it would go up, and there would really be no rhyme or reason to it. It'd be on the news every evening. They would just update on that. But the war began in the evening of March 20, and KATV did break away from ABC's coverage to air a 10 p.m. newscast. If you'll notice, we even have a different open — sort of added to the open of our news — that has a warlike sound to it.
[KATV, March 20, 2003:]
Opening shots have been fired in the war with Iraq. We'll tell you how the coalition is set up to handle chemical agents if used by Saddam Hussein. And if you want to show your support for troops overseas, we'll show you an easy way to get involved. From Arkansas's News Leader, this is Channel 7 News Nightside.
Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our purpose is sure.
Less than an hour ago, as bombs were exploding over Baghdad, tonight America's war against Iraq has begun. Good evening. I'm Karen Fuller. And I'm Kerry Martin. Explosions and gunfire can be heard in the capital city of Iraq. A government official says U.S. forces launched a surgical military strike about 8:30 Central time tonight, targeting Iraqi leaders near Baghdad.
Dixon: This is from March 2003. Now, remember the axis of evil?
Kellams: I do.
Dixon: So Scott Inman mentioned something about that. George W. Bush talked about that a lot, and of course that would be Iran, Iraq and North Korea, which they all accused of producing or promoting terror activity. So KATV continued its coverage that night. Of course the entire newscast was about the war. And here we take a look at the family of an Arkansas soldier and a unique way to support the troops.
[KATV, March 20, 2003:]
With war beginning, hundreds of Arkansas families are watching television news with greater apprehension. That's because they have loved ones that have been called to duty. Scott Inman sat down with one of those families tonight, and he joins us live with their story. Scott.
Well, Kerry and Karen, we told you about the Cochrans before. They live in Dexter. Chad Cochran is an Army reservist who left last month for Fort Hood, Texas, leaving behind a family that is trying to be strong without him. The Cochrans are still going through life's routine — Tracy at Wednesday night Bible study, her daughter's in the church nursery — but life is anything but routine these days.
[Tracy Cochran:]
I struggle going to bed at night because I know that I'm going to bed alone because he's not there, and that's pretty tough.
[Inman:]
Chad is expected to be gone for a full year, leaving his daughters without dad around the house. Chad will miss the changes in his family over the next 12 months, and as we found out, he'll miss an addition to his family in nine months. That's because Tracy is pregnant again. She told Chad over the phone.
[Tracy Cochran:]
He's like, "What? There's no way." And I was like, "Well, yeah, there's a way." He got real quiet, and he just — I can hear him gasping — he's like, "Okay." But he was real excited.
[Inman:]
The baby is due in October. Tracy says the doctor's office did mail an ultrasound picture to Chad, and we'll be keeping up with the Cochrans in the coming weeks.
Little Rock Air Force Base has been getting calls from schools and individuals who want to send care packages to troops overseas. Because of anthrax and security threats, mail is not accepted. But a group called USO, or United Service Organizations, is making it easier for you to show your support. Channel 7's Bijal Patel is here now to explain.
[Patel:]
The program is called Operation USO Care Package, and by sending a $25 donation to the USO, they will put together a care package for you. The USO has a list of items that troops have specifically requested, including sunglasses, current movies on DVD, disposable cameras, crossword puzzle books and travel items. Your $25 donation goes toward sponsoring a USO care package for one service member. You can also include a personal greeting when you send in your donation.
Kellams: You had mentioned that a former TV reporter was there.
Dixon: A guy named Geoff Morrell, who was a reporter for KATV in the early '90s, moved on as many reporters do, went to bigger markets and wound up with ABC. They assigned him to be in Qatar, which is where the coalition headquarters were, and he was covering for ABC. But we convinced the network and Geoff to let him do daily live reports for us. So here's an example of one of those daily reports.
[KATV, March 2003:]
Coalition forces blasted Iraqi government and military installations from the air today, while on land troops advanced toward the capital city of Baghdad. ABC's Geoff Morrell joins us now live from Doha, Qatar, where Central Command is headquartered. Jeff, what's the latest from your vantage point tonight?
[Morrell:]
Karen, residents of Baghdad are waking up to find parts of their city in ruin, in what the Pentagon says was the official opening of the air campaign. More than 2,000 sorties were flown, and for the first time in history, every bomb dropped — more than a thousand in all — was precision guided. The Pentagon had promised shock and awe, and that is exactly what the bombardment of Baghdad inspired. Just listen to ABC's Richard Engel.
[Engel, from Baghdad:]
This is nothing like the other nights. This is 10 times more intense.
[Morrell:]
The Iraqi capital lit up in explosions and balls of fire as more than 600 cruise missiles ripped into Saddam Hussein's palaces, the headquarters of his secret police and his security structure. The goal: cut off the regime's ability to communicate with the military.
Kellams: So you've got a former reporter there, you've been talking to some families of soldiers. But was this like the first Gulf War, where there were other more peripheral issues?
Dixon: Sure. There were scams, there was price gouging — especially at first with gasoline. But this is so unlike what's going on right now. Like I mentioned last week, in '91, gas prices actually didn't go up.
[KATV, March 2003:]
With America at war and some Iraqi oil fields burning, you might expect the prices at the pump to be going up, but so far that hadn't been the case. Seven on Your Side's Jason Peterson joins us now with a look. Jason.
[Peterson:]
Well, Karen, unfortunately gas prices remain at or near all-time highs. But now that the war is on, prices have steadied and in some places actually begun to fall. We looked at crude oil prices — they've fallen more than 25 percent in the past two weeks. But unfortunately, prices at the pump aren't falling quite as quickly. Around the state, prices are steady or dropping. In 10 of these 12 cities, regular unleaded has gone down 6 cents a gallon in El Dorado, but it's up 6 cents a gallon in Fayetteville. The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded is $1.70. Arkansas's average is 6 cents less than that. Oklahoma now has the cheapest gas in the nation, on average, at $1.56 a gallon. California is still highest at $2.17.
Kellams: So we mentioned last week, when we were talking about the first Gulf War in 1991, there were protests in support and protests in opposition. That was certainly the case again in 2003.
Dixon: Yes, and it kind of went along the same lines — there were as many people for it as against it. And none of the protests saw any violence at all. It was all pretty civil. The war started on March 20, and by April 9, coalition forces had already taken control of Baghdad and the Hussein regime fell. So on May 1, President Bush declared — remember — "Mission Accomplished."
Kellams: I do.
Dixon: It's on a ship. Yep. Had a huge banner.
[News report, May 1, 2003:]
Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. In a speech to the nation tonight, President Bush closed the book on the military conflict with Iraq, but left room for the next phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The president spoke to a cheering crowd on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier heading home for the first time since the war. President Bush says the fighting is over, but there is more work ahead as the U.S. takes the lead in rebuilding Iraq's government. Bush called the war a crucial advance in the campaign against terror and said that Iraq has been a friend to the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. Bush also thanked the men and women who, in his words, "made this day possible."
Dixon: Well, the war wasn't over.
Kellams: No, it was not.
Dixon: America's involvement just dragged on. There was the search, capture and eventual execution of Saddam Hussein. There was the transfer of power to the Iraqi interim government. There was an establishment of a new constitution. And then all these militias popped up around the country. There was actually — they called it a surge. Basically what it was, there were 30,000 additional troops sent over in 2007 to quash the uprisings that had popped up in different parts of the country. So the real end-of-the-war declaration came on Aug. 31, 2010, more than seven years after it started.
Kellams: And this came from President Barack Obama.
[Obama, Aug. 31, 2010:]
Today I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year. After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over.
Dixon: Could I bring up a project we're working on? Amy Schlesing, who was a war correspondent for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in that second Iraq war and also Afghanistan, is working on a project with the Pryor Center. It's called Arkansans at War, and she is interviewing veterans from those two wars. She was on just the other day. If you want to hear more from her about the inspiration, the techniques used and what she hopes can be accomplished with this, just go to KUAF.com. And you can email if you'd like to reach her: mystorymywar@gmail.com. She'll be compiling all these, we'll be working together and we'll have a project on Arkansans at War.
Kellams: OK. So we have a war going on now. We talked about war this Monday. We talked about war last Monday. Let's do something different next week. Not sure what it's going to be, but it's going to be fun. Hey, Randy Dixon is with the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History. Thank you, Randy.
Dixon: It's always great to be here.
Kellams: Always great to have you. I'll see you next week.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
