The Persian Gulf Conflict and the Vanishing Hostages

The 3,000+ civilian hostages held in Iraq & Kuwait in late 1990 prior to the 1991 Gulf war were forgotten after they returned home. This lack of attention is anomalous compared to the treatment of the Iranian & Lebanese hostages in the 1980s. It appears that the military overshadowed the hostages & the US media did not lack for news topics, even with lack of access to the front. In fact, because of that lack of access, journalists turned to the domestic scene, & set up as symbolic hostages the US families left alone because of the father's or mother's participation in the Gulf war. M. Pflum