To Sell A War | The Fifth Estate | Neil Docherty

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To Sell a War is a documentary film, first aired in December 1992 as part of the CBC program The Fifth Estate. The program was directed and produced by Neil Docherty.

It chronicles the Citizens for a Free Kuwait campaign efforts to spin public relations sentiment in the United States in favor of the Gulf War, focusing on the story of Nurse Nayirah, who was, in fact, Nayirah Al-Sabah, the daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to the United States Saud Nasir Al-Sabah. Her infamous testimony about Iraqi soldiers removing babies from incubators, which was widely disseminated, was a result of coaching by PR firm Hill & Knowlton.

This International Emmy award-winning, Canadian documentary program concerns a story that was frequently reported during the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi soldiers pulled Kuwaiti babies from incubators and left them to die, and states that the story is an invented atrocity. This program indicates that the fabrication operated as part of a multi-million-dollar public relations campaign designed to persuade the American people to go to war against Saddam Hussein. Following the war, numerous medical investigators, including a representative from the World Health Organization, examined the on-site evidence at Kuwaiti hospitals and determined that the reported atrocities were fabricated. This program examines the way this story helped to rally America to take arms on behalf of Kuwait and prompts some disturbing questions about a brand of public relations that bears the hallmarks of political propaganda. Highlights include a study of the ways that advertisers gauge viewer responses and the ways these techniques are used to mold public opinion on political issues; an examination of Hill and Knowlton, the public relations firm that was hired by the organization Citizens for a Free Kuwait to wage a massive anti-Iraq campaign; the revelation that the key witness to the alleged incubator atrocities was the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States; and the connection between the Hill and Knowlton firm and the congressionally-sponsored Human Rights Foundation, which was at the fore of the movement to convince Americans to go to war against Iraq. This program also features an extensive interview with the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States, Saud Nasir al-Sabah.

Release Date: 1992

Director: Neil Docherty
Stars: Linden MacIntyre, Nayirah al-Sabah
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