The Rape of Kuwait

This is Ripe!

On page 8 of Suitcase Filled with Nails, I mention the only book I could find on Kuwait, prior to moving there was The Rape of Kuwait, written by Jean Sasson.  It was written and published in 1990 just as Iraq invaded Kuwait. During my stint there, I heard rumors that The Rape of Kuwait was commissioned and paid for by the Kuwaiti government as part of a marketing plan to publicize their plight.  Those rumors appear to be substantiated in a few paragraphs of the article below.

Arthur E. Rowse, Progressive; May91, FLACKING FOR THE EMIR Vol. 55

Issue 5, p20, 3p

Another major success racked up by Citizens for a Free Kuwait was The Rape of Kuwait, a quickie 154-page paperback by Jean Sasson about Iraqi atrocities. The publisher, Knightsbridge Publishing Company, a small firm in New York City, hit the stands with a first printing of 1.2 million shortly before the war began, advertising the book heavily on television and in newspapers.

Knightsbridge representatives firmly deny that the book was subsidized, and Mankiewicz says H&K {publicists} "had nothing to do with it." But the Kuwaiti embassy acknowledges that it purchased 20,000 copies of the book to send to American troops, and Citizens for a Free Kuwait somehow obtained enough copies to include it in thousands of information kits prepared by Hill & Knowlton for public distribution.

Though quickie paperbacks rarely receive such treatment, The Rape of Kuwait was featured in serious discussions on morning TV talk shows and received respectful reviews in such outlets as The Wall Street Journal. As a result, the book soon made its way onto best-seller lists and into a second printing.

The tattered copy I checked out of the local library in 2003, to prep me for my trip to Kuwait, was riddled with typos.  Maybe this was the first printing, dashed out on command. Doesn’t this take self-publishing to a new level?