The Gulf: A New World

It was certainly nothing that Saddam Hussein intended, but his invasion of Kuwait bore its most significant fruit on Sunday. For the first time since World War II, the leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union met each other not as cold war adversaries or even as wary rivals to make their competition more manageable, but as partners cooperating against a common enemy: Saddam. Presidents George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in Helsinki fully agreed on their objective: an unconditional Iraqi pullout.

As the summit began, Gorbachev presented Bush with a cartoon showing the two as boxers, with a figure...