The Grenadian people eventually grew to support the invasion. As others have mentioned, Grenada was in Martial Law at the time, and they had implemented a 24-Hour Shoot-and-Kill Curfew for anyone that left their house. On October 23rd 1983, a suicide bomber drove a truck of explosives into the US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. At any rate, Grenadians, 35 years after the invasion, rescue mission, intervasion or intervention, now have the opportunity to reflect and decide whether the events of October 25, 1983 were justified and whether we are better of as a people for it. Dowling, Ralph E. A study examined the Ronald Reagan Administration's rhetoric about the invasion of Grenada to determine its ethical quality and whether the American public could make a fair judgment about the incident based on this rhetoric. It is not unreasonable to assume that a U.S. invasion of Grenada was planned at least two years prior to the revolution's self-destruction, which gave the United States the excuse it had been waiting for. Robert Longley is a U.S. government and history expert with over 30 years of experience in municipal government. The American students were rescued and the Marxist regime was replaced by an appointed interim government. With chants of “let them come, we will bury them in the sea” after every maneuver, Grenadians were willing and ready to defend the gains of the revolution at all costs and even willing to die for it once the revolution remained intact and Bishop was their leader. The attack was conducted on the Lebanese joint peacekeeping force and resulted in an additional death of 58 French paratroopers and six civilians. Two rescue attempts ordered by the administration of President Jimmy Carter failed, and the Iranians held the American diplomats hostage for 444 days, finally releasing them at the very moment Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President of the United States on January 20, 1981. So strategic thinking goes even farther back. Occupation of Haiti From 1915 to 1934, Iran Hostage Crisis: Events, Causes, and Aftermath, U.S. Policy in the Middle East: 1945 to 2008, The Iran-Contra Affair: Ronald Reagan’s Arms Sales Scandal, Biography of Douglas MacArthur, 5-Star American General, The Most Important Inventions of the Industrial Revolution, Operation Urgent Fury: The Planning and Execution of Joint Operations in Grenada, The U.S. The newly-independent nation operated as a democracy until 1979, when the New Jewel Movement, a Marxist-Leninist faction led by Maurice Bishop overthrew the government in a violent coup. United States invades Grenada, Oct. 25, 1983. On November 4, 1979, a group of armed, radical students in Iran seized the American embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. Please enable … While historians recognize the challenges to the UN Charter posed by the US invasion of Grenada, it did not become a major international incident, nor did it pose the problems for the United States that rose in the wake of the invasion of Iraq. "The fact is it the government of Grenada is a Marxist military dictatorship," said Sen. John G. Tower (R-Tex. On the morning of October 25, 1983, the United States, supported by the Caribbean Defense Force, invaded Grenada. The U.S. and a coalition of six Caribbean nations invaded the island nation of Grenada, 100 miles (160 km) north of Venezuela.Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury by the U.S. military, it resulted in military occupation within a few days. The Reagan Doctrine: To Wipe Out Communism. U.S. forces suffered 19 killed and 116 wounded. The real reason for the invasion was that Grenada was a nearby country and Reagan was concerned that Cuba and the Soviet Union were establishing a military foothold there. Sir Eric Gairy had led Grenada to independence from the United Kingdom in 1974. A four-story cinder-block building collapsed into rubble killing 241 American servicemen, among them 220 marines, 18 navy personnel, 3 army soldiers while wounding another 60 Americans. Police officer investigated on sex related allegations, Brothers charged with 2012 murder of 72-year-old British pen…. Combined Cuban and Grenadian military forces sustained 70 killed, 417 wounded, and 638 captured. So it was simply about America looking after their own strategic interests, which is the pretext they use to intervene in or invade countries as they have done so many times in their history. In advocating his so-called “rollback” approach to communism, Reagan emphasized the rising influence of the Soviet-Cuban alliance in Latin America and the Caribbean. Grenada just happened to be a pawn in their chess game at that particular point in time. The invading force was made up of the 1 st and 2 nd Ranger Battalions and the 82 nd Airborne Division, along with other Marines, Delta Force, and Navy SEALs, altogether numbering 7,600 troops drawn from both the U.S. and Jamaica. With the free elections held on December 3, 1984, the New National Party won control of the once-again democratic Grenadian government. The Iran hostage crisis, as it came to be known, further eroded the already tense relations between the United States and the Soviet Union that had never fully recovered from the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The situation was boiling, as the invasion of Grenada took place only two days after the 1983 Beirut Barracks Bombing which claimed the lives of 220 US Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers. This was emphatically borne out by a survey carried out by the Institute of Social and Economic Research of the University of the West Indies, which was headed by the late Dr. Patrick Emmanuel. So it is hypocritical to give the impression that they came to save Black people in Grenada while not saving their own black people in the United States. Ironically, the victory was a pyrrhic one because the revolution was already over by the time the marines landed and Reagan was to claim a victory over socialism, which is what Grenada represented in the geopolitical axis during the era of the Cold War. The result was inevitable because Grenada could never match the military might of the US. Examination of President Reagan's rhetorical efforts revealed numerous violations of democratic ethical standards. An Ethical Analysis of Reagan's Rhetoric Justifying the Invasion of Grenada. When protests against Bernard Coard’s Marxist government in Grenada became violent, Reagan cited “concerns over the 600 U.S. medical students on the island” and fears of another Iran hostage crisis as justification for launching the Grenada invasion. On November 2, 1983, the United Nations General Assembly, by a vote of 108 to 9, declared the military action “a flagrant violation of international law.” In addition, several American politicians criticized the invasion as a rash and dangerous overreaction by President Reagan to the deadly bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon that had killed over 240 U.S. troops just two days earlier. Opportunistically, in an effort to deflect US public attention from this horrific experience, the warships that were headed to Lebanon were diverted to Grenada in a so-called rescue mission for Americans and particularly American medical students studying in Grenada. This was by far the deadliest single day toll, post World War II attack on American marines overseas. Over the four and a half years of the Revolution, Grenadians rallied around the leadership and aligned themselves with the army and militia in numerous maneuvers to stave off what was perceived to be the imminent threat of invasion. But then again I am only one Grenadian with one opinion that may not be a popular one but I am sure there are others who do share my opinion.............. 2013 © Dwayne Francique Moving Target Group of Companies. As a people we would have come out stronger and more united for it and the wanton loss of lives would have been avoided. The US invasion of Grenada was justified as a rather pleasant diversion from the Iran-Contra fol-de-rol surrounding President Reagan. By October 29, military resistance to the invasion had ended. At the time Grenada was a commonwealth nation (Which meant that they were Britain’s problem) and they had just had a recent Communist Revolution. The island has functioned as a democracy ever since. At any rate, Grenadians, 35 years after the invasion, rescue mission, intervasion or intervention, now have the opportunity to reflect and decide whether the events of October 25, 1983 were justified and whether we are better of as a people for it. I knew the invasion was never about the US ever saving Grenadians because Grenada has a population of African origins similar to the African-Americans in the United States, a black population that has suffered the brunt of US racism since slavery and who are still second-class citizens in their own country. In 1984, Grenada conducted free democratic elections and remains a democratic nation today. In March 1983, President Reagan revealed his so-called “Reagan Doctrine,” a policy dedicated to ending the Cold War by eradicating communism worldwide. Many Grenadians, however, welcomed the invasion because they saw it as a way of getting rid of Coard and his clique. Although others may disagree, I believe the invasion robbed Grenadians and the Caribbean of a historic opportunity to resolve a crisis by ourselves and to impose a Grenadian and Caribbean solution to our problems. The very opportunity that President Reagan and his administration were looking for to invade Grenada presented itself with the death of Bishop. The operation succeeded in less than a week. These students were rescued over the next two days. The primary objectives of Operation Urgent Fury were to capture the island’s two airports, the disputed Point Salines Airport and the smaller Pearls Airport, and to rescue the American medical students trapped at St. George’s University. The United States invasion of Grenada began at dawn on 25 October 1983. In addition, at least 24 civilians were killed in the fighting. Given the codename "Operation Urgent Fury," the invasion was ordered by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to counter threats by Grenada’s Marxist governments to nearly 1,000 American nationals (including 600 medical students) living on the island at the time. Epic stories have been told about the bravery and heroism of our Grenadian soldiers and they do deserved to be recognized for they have earned a prominent place in our history as martyrs of the Grenadian people. A bloody coup in Grenada, along with a perceived threat to American students on the island provided the U.S. with an excellent excuse to eliminate a … The political environment was highly charged and although Gairy – head of the Grenada United Labour Party – claimed victory in the general election of 1976, the opposition did not accept the result as legitimate. Just two days before the invasion of Grenada began, the October 23, 1983, terrorist bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon had taken the lives of 220 US Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers. It commemorates the freeing, as a result of the invasion, of several … Homicide 13 for Grenada- was it a justified action? The main reason for the dispute was the way the US justified their decision to invade. The Grenadan Government did not purpose to launch an invasion … The invasion, despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of Grenadians welcomed it, still represents a major aberration in Grenadian history where the potential invaders and enemy were converted by force of circumstances into heroes and rescuers. On October 19, 1983, an internal political struggle boiled over when another Cuban-friendly Marxist, Bernard Coard, assassinated Bishop and took control of the Grenadian government. A majority of the members of the House delegation reported to Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. on Tuesday that the threat to roughly 1,000 United States citizens on … Patterson: No, I don't think that invading is ever justified but I do think that America has a right as a major power to secure islands that are vulnerable from an American point of view. The Invasion of Grenada, codenamed Operation Urgent Fury, was an invasion of the island nation of Grenada by the United States of America and several other nations in response to a coup d'état by Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard. Most Republicans, however, said Reagan's actions were justified. Elsewhere, at the same time, the Cold War was heating up again. So,the invasion was justified in the context of the Cold War,and those who answered by poking fun at the threat that Communist rule in Grenada did or didn't pose to USA at the time - … The Invasion of Grenada, codenamed Operation Urgent Fury, was an invasion of the island nation of Grenada by the United States of America and several other nations in response to an internal power struggle which ended with the deposition and execution of Grenadan Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. The Relationship Between U.S. and Great Britain After World War II, The History of the U.S. War in Afghanistan, Warsaw Pact: Definition, History, and Significance, Go Back in Time With This 1980s History Timeline, The U.S. The allied invading force was opposed by about 1,500 Grenadian troops and 700 armed Cuban military engineers working on the expansion of the Point Salines Airport. His term in office coincided with civil strife in Grenada. By the end of the invasion’s first day, U.S. Army Rangers had secured both the Point Salines and Pearls airports, and rescued 140 American students from St. George’s University True Blue campus. While the Bishop government vowed the runway had been built to accommodate large commercial tourist aircraft, U.S. officials feared the airport would also be used to help the Soviet Union and Cuba transport arms to communist insurgents in Central America. First proposed in 1954, while Grenada was still a British colony, the airport included a 9,000-foot-long runway, which U.S. officials noted would accommodate the largest Soviet military aircraft. The situation on Grenada had been of concern to American officials since 1979, when the leftist Maurice Bishop seized power and began to develop close relations with Cuba. In public, Reagan and his aides justified their invasion with three arguments. Dr.Terrence Marryshow. Does … The imposition of economic sanctions as well as debarring Grenada from participating in regional and international fora would have been sufficient to oust the Coard clique from power and thus save Grenadians from the physical and psychological trauma of an invasion. The U.S. contingent totaled 7,600 troops from the Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force. While im… It wasn’t justified, but it was necessary. Did Tecumseh’s Curse Kill Seven US Presidents? While these opinions may not be popular in some quarters, I humbly apologize for any offense since my intention is never to offend but to elucidate. In 1974, Grenada gained its independence from the United Kingdom. A total of almost 8,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, along with 353 troops of the Caribbean Peace Forces participated in Operation Urgent Fury. Political prisoners, jailed since 1979 were released. Invasion of Grenada: A Twenty Year Retrospective. The Rangers also learned that another 223 students were being held at the university’s Grand Anse campus. Today, the island observes October 25—the day of the invasion, as Thanksgiving, “a special day to remember how the U.S. military rescued them from a communist takeover and restored constitutional government.”. No more Shortpree-Now Ayanfe and finished with competition, Written by  Reagan himself said in no uncertain manner that the invasion was undertaken to save American medical students going to school as the St George’s University. Washington justified its use of overwhelming force against a largely unarmed civilian population with quintessential Cold War rhetoric, that Grenada's socialist government was an imminent threat to freedom and prosperity in the Western Hemisphere. The Caribbean has long been a region of critical importance not only to the United States, but also to the security and prosperity of all the countries in the western hemisphere. While the invasion enjoyed broad support from the American public, mainly due to the successful and timely rescue of the medical students, it was not without its critics. Shortly after taking power, the Bishop government, with the help of Cuba, Libya, and other countries, began building the Point Salines Airport. A study examined the Ronald Reagan Administration's rhetoric about the invasion of Grenada to determine its ethical quality and whether the American public could make a fair judgment about the incident based on this rhetoric. An American invasion force of 2,000 marines and paratroopers, which landed in Grenada yesterday with 300 troops from six Caribbean countries, was … However, with his untimely demise at Fort Rupert on 19th October, many of the militia were disarmed by the Coard faction, and many soldiers took off their uniforms and deserted the army after the tragic events. 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