---
title: '"The Wave" leaflet, Gulf War amphibious deception'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gulf-war-leaflet-the-wave-amphibious-deception-1991/
description: Two-sided leaflet drawn to suggest that US Marines would land from the sea on the Kuwaiti coast. Tagged by technique, with source and rights.
section: Collection
---

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3. "The Wave" leaflet, Gulf War amphibious deception

[!["The Wave" leaflet, Gulf War amphibious deception, 1990 US leaflet: Two-sided leaflet drawn to suggest that US Marines would](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gulf-war-leaflet-the-wave-amphibious-deception-1991.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gulf-war-leaflet-the-wave-amphibious-deception-1991.jpg)

# "The Wave" leaflet, Gulf War amphibious deception

Two-sided leaflet drawn to suggest that US Marines would land from the sea on the Kuwaiti coast. The item description says 12,000 copies were put into empty plastic bottles and dumped off the coast of occupied Kuwait on 14 January 1991, with about 90,000 more reportedly dropped by aircraft. The tell is that the message is a planned feint: its purpose, per the description, was to deceive Iraqi forces about where the attack would come from, not to report plans.

## Propaganda techniques used in this leaflet

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Theme, Event, Source, Rights

[← "Believe me, guys, time is not on our side!!" Arabic leaflet V04, Gulf War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gulf-war-leaflet-time-is-not-on-our-side-v04-1990/) [UNITAF handshake leaflet for Somalia (Operation Restore Hope, 1993) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/us-unitaf-somalia-handshake-leaflet-1993/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal, Ad hominem, Straw man)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)