Posted on 06/10/2004 7:01:49 PM PDT by doug from upland
November 7, 1983
Why the Surprise Move in Grenada-and What Next?
The U.S. has foiled Cuban plans to turn the tiny nation into a Marxist puppet. The task now: Bring back democracy.
POINT SALINES, Grenada
In the most dramatic move of his Presidency, Ronald Reagan sent in the
Marines and Army to pluck to safety hundreds of Americans from this troubled
island and to halt Cuban-Soviet advances in the hemisphere.
The invasion ends the Cuban presence on Grenada and takes out of commission
a controversial airfield that the U.S. believed would have allowed Havana
and Moscow to extend their power in the Caribbean and Central America.
After evacuating nearly 500 Americans from what he called great peril
on the island, Reagan told a nationwide television audience on October
27 that the invasion nipped in the bud a Cuban plot to occupy Grenada.
"We have discovered a complete base with weapons and communications
equipment which makes it clear a Cuban occupation of the island had been
planned," Reagan said, adding that 600 Cubans had been taken prisoner.
Clandestine caches. The President asserted that American troops had
located several arms warehouses, one of which held "weapons and ammunition
stacked almost to the ceiling-enough to supply thousands of terrorists."
The speech came as the invaders began mopping-up operations after two
days of heavier-than-expected fighting. Ahead now: A period of occupation
by American troops, during which Grenada will hold elections for a new
government to replace the Marxist regime that the invasion had tossed out
of power.
Reagan's goal is to restore democracy quickly to the former British
colony, still a Commonwealth member. Pending elections, an interim government
will be set up, probably led by Grenada's Governor-General Sir-Paul Scoon.
No deadline has been set for a U.S. pullout, although officials say
it could come within weeks-if the British agree to take over a peacekeeping
role.
Prisoner policy. An immediate concern is how to return the Cuban prisoners
to Havana and what to do with 49 Russian diplomats and Soviet citizensplus
a lesser number of North Koreans, Bulgarians and East Germans-who took
refuge in the Soviet Embassy.
While the island has been a sore spot for the U.S. for years, the decision
to invade apparently came only after six small Caribbean democracies appealed
for help in restoring order to Grenada following a bloody mid-October coup
pitting Marxist against Marxist.
Nearby states, increasingly alarmed by Grenada's military buildup, expressed
the fear that without U.S. help the upheaval and leftist sentiment would
engulf the rest of the region.
Despite the request for help by the Organization of Eastern Caribbean
States (OECS), the legality of the operation is being questioned seriously
in the U.S. and abroad. Washington takes as its authority a 1981 mutual-security
treaty among OECS states that permits them to request aid when they are
threatened. According to Secretary of State George Shultz, the even more
Marxist and hostile government that seized control of Grenada jeopardized
the security of neighboring states.
The U.S. rejects charges that the invasion violated the charter of
the Organization of American States, a pact that prohibits intervention
by members in each other's affairs. Both Grenada and the U.S. belong to
the OAS.
What is not in dispute is that Grenada had been in turmoil since Prime
Minister Maurice Bishop, a protégé of Cuba's Fidel Castro,
was slain along with cabinet members and many civilians on October 19.
The killings followed a coup by a radical band of Army officers.
The bloodbath, in Shultz's words, produced "an atmosphere of violent
uncertainty" that posed a serious threat to the safety of the 1,000 Americans
living in Grenada. About 800 were students and faculty members at St. George's
University School of Medicine. Most of the others were retirees.
A central concern: That 1,000 or more Americans could be seized and
held as hostages in the manner of those taken at the U.S. Embassy in Iran.
"The nightmare of our hostages in Iran must never be repeated," Reagan
declared.
Just one day before the invasion, the junta led by Gen. Hudson Austin
cabled assurance that no harm would come to Americans. But in Washington's
opinion, the situation was too explosive for the Grenadians to guarantee
anyone's safety.
On October 20, Reagan decided to divert to nearby Caribbean waters a
21ship naval force, part of which was carrying Marines to Lebanon. At that
time, he said, he was only contemplating evacuating Americans if the situation
should worsen suddenly.
Call for aid. The next day, while on a golfing trip to Augusta, Ga.,
Reagan, Shultz and others continued to discuss the near anarchy in Grenada.
About the same time,
ministers from Jamaica, Barbados and five members of the OECS were
calling upon Washington for help.
The decision to invade was made October 23, the same day that U.S. diplomats
who had visited Grenada returned with disturbing reports of "high anxiety"
among American students, an opinion that differed sharply from an earlier
reading by university administrators.
Washington's concerns were vindicated by the first of several hundred
Americans evacuated from the island to an Air Force base at Charleston,
S.C.
Students' views. One medical student, Bill Riffley of Phoenix, Ariz.,
recounted an ordeal of terror in which Grenadian troops kicked in the door
of the house in which he was living with other Americans and held them
for 3 hours. "There were about 30 Grenadians with AK-47s," he said. "They
said they were there to protect us."
"We thought we could be potential hostages," added student Jeff Geller
of Woodbridge, N.Y. "We just wanted to get out, if we could."
The invasion began before dawn on October 25 with 1,200 American Marines,
700 U.S. Army Rangers and 300 more fighters from Barbados, Jamaica, Antigua,
St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Dominica.
Secrecy surrounding the operation was almost total. While congressional
leaders were informed on the eve of the invasion, they were not told when
it would be launched and were not asked to approve the mission. Not even
the White House press office was informed.
Reporters were not permitted to accompany U.S. forces to Grenada, and
those already there were quickly ordered out. Journalists were allowed
on the island only on the third day.
The U.S. forces launched a threepronged assault. Marine units helicoptered
to Pearls Airport on the island's eastern shore, seizing the only functioning
commercial airstrip. Another Marine force launched an amphibious landing
at Grand Mal Bay, north of the capital of St. George's.
Farther to the south, U.S. Army Rangers and units of the 82nd Airborne
Division parachuted onto the just completed, Cuban-built airport here at
Point Salines. The Rangers immediately came under fire from Cuban positions
near the 9,000-foot-long landing strip.
While the Rangers expanded their control with the help of helicopter
gunships and jet fighters, Marines moved south from Grand Mal Bay in a
pincers movement to seize the capital.
Unexpected reception. After meeting surprisingly heavy resistance, U.S.
commanders summoned reinforcements, and troop levels climbed beyond 5,000.
Grenada's own small Army did almost no fighting, leaving most combat to
the force of Cubans described by Havana as construction workers.
The 500 Cubans the Americans expected to encounter turned out to be
upward of 1,100, armed with rifles, Soviet-made antitank weapons, antiaircraft
guns and machine guns. "For people who were supposed to be construction
workers," said one American official, "they fought very well."
U.S. forces overran a Cuban military facility, capturing a Cuban colonelapparently
a recent arrival in Grenada-along with a large amount of arms, communications
gear and secret papers.
Enough weapons were found, said one U.S. Army colonel, "to arm a division
of troops. This should dispel any idea that it was a simple construction
project." The cache included crate upon crate of Soviet AK-47 machine guns,
rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and large antiaircraft guns.
After four days, American troops still were trying to flush out the
remaining Cubans. But by the weekend, the main battle for Grenada was over
and the island controlled by the invaders.
Left unclear was the fate of General Austin, the Grenadian leader, who
was reported to be holed up on the southern end of the island with a number
of hostages of unknown nationality. The general, with his supporters, was
said to be demanding safe passage to Guyana.
Casualty Count. At least 11 U.S. servicemen were killed in the invasion
and 67 wounded. Seven were missing. A dozen Cubans and a number of Grenadian
civilians also died. The captured Cubans will be sent back to Havana.
The chance to strike against Cuba through Grenada was a long time in
coming. The island came under leftist rule in 1979 in a coup staged by
Bishop and has become increasingly tied to Havana and Moscow in the years
since.
The Reagan administration has charged that Havana had ambitions to turn
Grenada into a puppet state, from which it could export Communist revolutions
to other Caribbean islands.
U.S. concern deepened when Cuba began building the runway on the southern
tip of the island. While Bishop insisted it was for tourism, U.S. officials
feared the airstrip-big enough to land long-range Soviet bombers-would
permit Moscow to increase its pressure in the Caribbean and to ship weapons
to Marxist insurgents in Central America.
Soviet transports already fly regularly into Cuba with arms for both
Havana and Nicaragua. A landing strip on Grenada, officials say, would
give them a refueling stop that would allow them to bring in even heavier
loads. The runway also would have given the Soviets an airfield for fighter
operations that could extend over Central America as well as northern South
America.
Castro, who had been at odds with Austin over the killing of Bishop,
seems resigned to his losses. Grenada, he said, is "an occupied and invaded
country where we have nothing to do."
But the latest chapter in Grenada's history is far from over. With radicals
going underground and vowing to fight on with hidden arms caches, the U.S.
could find that American troops must remain here for a far longer stay
than anyone in Washington suspected when giving the order to invade.
Nice.
Time to watch Heartbreak Ridge again.
There was apparently no doubt that it was the US against the Commies.
Not quite secret. Someone screwed up and I got a FedEx package the day before setting out all the details of the invasion including satellite photos, background on units involved, time scheldules etc..
I was a member of a grass roots organization that supported Reagan with letters to the editor, talk-show calls, protests, etc...
That was before email or faxes so talking points were distributed nationally by FedEx. If you do a Google search for a couple months afterwards you'll find some very upset Congressmen calling for Congressional hearings into how our group got the info.
I laughed my arse off when I was reading a DU thread this weekend. A guy claimed we invaded Grenada and attacked a bunch of Cuban construction workers at the airport.
He conveniently failed to remember the Cubans were armed to the teeth in fox holes.
Good story about the clueless RAT b*st*rds.
22nd MAU Operation Urgent Fury bump.
Priceless.
I bet that would be worth something on ebay. :) Seriously, that's a great prized possession.
I remember this well. I was in Grenada before the invasion visiting a friend at the Medical School. There were armed Cubans everywhere. They had taken over the radio station and were standing guard outside. I was out on a secluded beach with my friend and an armed Cuban walked up to us and said he and his comrades were hiding above the beach to be on the look out for an Amercian invasion. He asked us for money and we gave him all we had 5.00 and got the heck out of Dodge. We had a flat in a little village. Someone helped my friend fix it. I went into a shack to get a coke. There were posters all around the wall with Reagans picture saying "DOWN WITH THE IMPERALIST AMERCIANS" You could have heard a pin drop when I walked in. I was sitting at a place eating out one evening and the Grenadian serving us whispered in my ear that the men sitting at the next table were Russians. I was soo stupid I knew nothing about politics and knew nothing about what was happpening. A few months after getting back home the US invaded and I learned then that the media lies and so do democrats. That air strip was very large and was being built by Russia and Cuba---- and it was for military planes.
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