James Baquet

The U.S. invasion of the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada, population 90,000, is viewed with mixed reactions.

In 1983, the hawk-like Ronald Reagan was president, and the United States hadn’t had a “win” in some time. The purported cause of the action codenamed “Operation Urgent Fury” was internal strife following the killing of Grenadan Prime Minister Maurice Bishop during a coup. Bishop, a Marxist, had championed workers’ and women’s rights, education, youth affairs and health care.

The U.S. was supposedly responding to an appeal by Governor-General Paul Scoon, who — it was said — was in prison, though the story was later changed to say that he was under house arrest in his mansion. Scoon later denied both of these stories, saying he never appealed for help.

Another mission was to evacuate some 600 American medical students studying in the country, who in fact seem not to have been in imminent danger.

U.S. and allied troops totaled 7,653. There were around 2,090 opposing troops, but there are some problems with these numbers. For example, of the 780 Cuban soldiers counted, Cuba claimed 636 were listed as construction workers, and only 64 were soldiers. Many of the workers, who were there to aid in infrastructure improvements, were given weapons for self-defense. Cuban leader Fidel Castro described overseas Cuban crews as “workers and soldiers at the same time,” part of a “citizen soldier” tradition.

It was a slapdash operation. Army leaders, caught off guard, had so little time to prepare that they purchased and photocopied tourist maps to plan their actions. With no formal intelligence planning, leaders were consulting magazines like The Economist for information on the country. Furthermore, no diplomatic moves had been made. The British prime minister was not informed beforehand, even though Grenada is a CommonWealth country. She privately disapproved, though she maintained public solidarity with her friend “Ronnie” (Reagan).

It is widely believed that the action was illegal; the United Nations General Assembly condemned it in a 108 to 9 vote. While it was broadly popular in the U.S., it also led seven congressmen to attempt to impeach Reagan.

Vocabulary:

Which words above mean:

1. said something wasn’t true

2. about to happen

3. common purpose

4. transportation, communication systems, etc.

5. rage, violent anger

6. unprepared

7. publicly censure

8. poorly planned

9. violent change of government

10. desiring war