The President spoke to the nation about an hour after the Khorramshahr strike had occurred and the planes were safely away out of range of Iraqi or Soviet anti aircraft. He hit all of the fine points, denouncing Soviet and Iraqi aggression, demanding the withdraw of the invading forces out of Iranian territory, offering support to the Iranian people, thanking offers of support from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UEA, Jordan, Israel, and Great Britain. As of the speech, the continental European powers, particularly France, were silent.
The president announced that American forces would enter into an alliance with the Iranian military to eject the Iraqi invaders. Supplies and other technical support would be given for Iranian troops who were fighting the Soviet invasion. Finally a no fly zone would be imposed south of the Zagros Mountains. That was the riskiest part of the strategy. If the Soviets decided to contest it, a direct clash between American and Soviet forces would result, which could spiral out of control.
After the speech, we went down to the situation room for a report on the results of the strike. The results were better than anyone had expected. An entire Iraqi Armored Division had been taken out of action. But that was just the first course.
Apparently an ammo dump stocked with chemical weapons shells was hit, releasing poison gas over a wide area. Iraqi casualties were estimated to be in the thousands. The prevailing winds were blowing from the east, minimizing Iranian civilian casualties.
The effects, both political and military, played themselves out over the following few days. First, the Iraqi advance was not only stopped, but reversed, as Iranian forces rallied and pushed back the decimated Iraqis. Second, Saddam Hussein claimed that we had in fact dropped chemical weapons on his forces. This caused several days of anti war demonstrations in Europe and North America. The President was called a war criminal and was burned in effigy.
Clearly we were going to have to get on top of that, lest we lose the propaganda war,