In the lead-up to Operation Desert Storm, Boyd was consulted by Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney on war planning. Boyd advocated for a rapid maneuver approach — the "left hook" flanking movement through the western desert — rather than a frontal assault against Iraqi forces in Kuwait. While the extent of Boyd's direct influence on the final plan is debated (General Schwarzkopf's staff developed the operational details), the Gulf War campaign clearly embodied Boydian principles: speed, surprise, simultaneous operations that overwhelmed Iraqi OODA loops, and attacks on Iraqi command and control (orientation disruption) that caused the Iraqi military to collapse psychologically before it was destroyed physically. The 100-hour ground war was widely seen as vindication of maneuver warfare theory. Boyd watched the war unfold from retirement, reportedly observing that the campaign confirmed his theories about the primacy of mental and moral warfare over physical destruction.