The
Invasion of Grenada, codenamed Operation
Urgent Fury, was a 1983 U.S.
-led invasion of Grenada
, a Caribbean
island nation of just
over 100,000 population located north of Venezuela
, triggered by a military
coup which ousted a brief revolutionary government. The successful
invasion led to a change of government but was controversial due to
charges of American
imperialism, Cold War politics, the
involvement of Cuba
, the
unstable state of the Grenadian government, and Grenada's status as
a Commonwealth
realm.
Grenada
gained independence from the United Kingdom
in 1974, but a 1979 revolution by the Marxist-Leninist New Jewel Movement suspended the
constitution. After an 1983 internal power struggle ended
with the
deposition and
execution of Grenadian Prime Minister
Maurice Bishop, the invasion began on
October 25,
1983.
A combined
force of troops from the United States (nearly 10,000 troops),
Jamaica
and members of the Regional Security System (RSS)
(approximately 300 troops) defeated Grenadian resistance and the
military government of Hudson Austin was deposed.
The
invasion was criticized by the United Kingdom, Canada
and the
United Nations General
Assembly, which condemned it as "a flagrant violation of
international law". It
enjoyed broad public support in the United States as well as among
segments of the people of Grenada.
October
25 is a national holiday in Grenada, called Thanksgiving Day,
to commemorate this event.
Additionally, on 29 May 2009, the Point Salines
International Airport
was officially renamed in honour of the slain
pre-coup leader Maurice Bishop by the Government of
Grenada.
Background
Sir
Eric Gairy had led Grenada to
independence from the United Kingdom in 1974. His term in office coincided with
civil strife in Grenada. The political environment was highly
charged and although Gairy – head of the
Grenada United Labour Party
(GULP) – claimed victory in the
general
election of 1976, the opposition did not accept the result as
legitimate. The civil strife took the form of street violence
between government supporters and gangs organized by the
New Jewel Movement. In the late 1970s,
the NJM began planning to overthrow the government. Party members
began to receive military training outside of Grenada. On March 13,
1979 while Gairy was out of the country, the NJM – led by
Maurice Bishop – launched an armed revolution
and overthrew Gairy's government, establishing the
People's Revolutionary
Government. Bishop then suspended the constitution and the New
Jewel Movement ruled the country by decree, as
Prime Minister of Grenada, until
1983. All other political parties were banned and no elections were
to be held.
Internationally, the government quickly
aligned itself with Cuba and other
communist governments.
M102 howitzers firing during
battle.
Members of the Eastern Caribbean Defense Force
American students waiting to be evacuated from the
island
On October 13, 1983, a party faction led by Deputy Prime Minister
Bernard Coard seized power illegally.
Bishop was placed under house arrest. Mass protests against the
action led to Bishop escaping detention and reasserting his
authority as the head of the government. Bishop was eventually
captured and murdered along with several government officials loyal
to him. The army under
Hudson Austin
then stepped in and formed a military council to rule the country.
The
Governor-General of
Grenada,
Paul Scoon, was placed under
house arrest. The army announced a four-day total curfew where
anyone seen on the streets would be subject to summary
execution.
After the United States invaded, Cuba released a series of official
documents to the press. According to these documents, when the
murder of Maurice Bishop was reported on October 20, the
government of Cuba declared that it was
"deeply embittered" by the murder and rendered "deep tribute" to
the assassinated leader. The same official statement reported
instructions to Cubans in Grenada that "they should abstain
absolutely from any involvement in the internal affairs of the
Party and of Grenada," while attempting to maintain the "technical
and economic collaboration that could affect essential services and
vital economic assistance for the Grenadian people."
The
Organisation of
Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), then chaired by Eugenia Charles, the Prime Minister of Dominica
, appealed to the United States, Barbados
, and Jamaica for
assistance. According to Mythu Sivapalan of
The New York Times (October 29,
1983), this formal appeal was at the behest of the
US government, which
had already decided to take military action. US officials cited the
murder of Bishop and general political instability in a country
near US borders, as well as the presence of US
medical students at
St. George's University on Grenada,
as reasons for military action. Sivapalan also claimed that the
latter reason was cited in order to gain public support.
On October 22, 1983,
Fidel Castro sent
a public message to "Cuban workers" in Grenada, stressing that they
should take no action in the event of a US invasion unless they
were "directly attacked."
Referring to the Point Salines
International Airport, the message ordered, if US forces "land on the
runway section near the university or on its surroundings to
evacuate their citizens," Cubans were "to fully refrain from
interfering."
On October 26,
Alma
Guillermoprieto reported in
The Washington Post that at a
"post-midnight news conference" with "almost 100 foreign and local
journalists," Castro "released texts of what he said were
diplomatic communications among Cuba, Grenada and the United
States," giving the essential facts. U.S. sources "confirmed the
exchange of messages," she added, but said they could not respond
to Cuba at once because the telephone lines of the U.S. interest
section in Havana were down from the evening of October 23 to late
at night on October 24.
Reagan administration
spokesman,
Larry Speakes, said that
"the U.S. disregarded Cuban and Grenadian assurances that U.S.
citizens in Grenada would be safe because, 'it was a
floating craps game and we didn't know who
was in charge'." The same issue was reported by
Alan Berger in
The Boston Globe on the same
day.
Airport
The
Bishop government began constructing the Point Salines
International Airport with the help of Britain, Cuba, Libya
, Algeria
, and other nations.
The airport had been first proposed by the
British government in 1954, when Grenada
was still a British
colony.
It had been designed
by Canadians, underwritten by the British government, and partly
built by a London firm. The US
government accused Grenada of constructing facilities to aid a
Soviet-Cuban military build-up in the Caribbean, and to assist the Soviet and Cuban transportation
of weapons to Central American
insurgents. Bishop’s government claimed that the airport was
built to accommodate commercial aircraft carrying tourists,
pointing out that such jets could not land at the existing airport
on the island’s north. Neither could the existing airport, itself,
be expanded as its runway abutted a mountain.
In 1982, then-Member of the
United States House of
Representatives Ron Dellums,
traveled to Grenada on a fact-finding mission, having been invited
by the country's Prime Minister. Dellums described his findings
before Congress:
...based on my personal observations, discussion and
analysis of the new international airport under construction in
Grenada, it is my conclusion that this project is specifically now
and has always been for the purpose of economic development and is
not for military use....
It is my thought that it is absurd, patronizing and
totally unwarranted for the United States Government to charge that
this airport poses a military threat to the United States’ national
security.
In March 1983, Ronald Reagan began issuing warnings about the
threat posed to the United States and the Caribbean by the
"Soviet-Cuban militarization" as evidenced by the excessively long
airplane runway being built as well as intelligence sources. The
runway and the oil storage tanks were unnecessary for commercial
flights, thus all evidence pointed that the airport was to become a
Cuban-Soviet military airbase.
The invasion
The invasion, which commenced at 05:00 on October 25, 1983, was the
first major operation conducted by the US military since the
Vietnam War.
Vice Admiral Joseph Metcalf, III, Commander
Second Fleet, was the overall
commander of the U.S. forces, designated Joint Task Force 120,
which was put under the planning and operational control of
Commander Timothy J. Coughlin for tactics, invasion force
management and force implementation. Fighting continued for several
days and the total number of US troops reached some 7,000 along
with 300 troops from the OECS.
The invading forces encountered about 1,500
Grenadian soldiers and about 700 Cubans, most of
whom were loyal members of the Cuban secret police and the Soviet
KGB masquerading as "construction workers". Also present were 60
advisors from the Soviet
Union
, North
Korea
, East
Germany
, Bulgaria, and Libya. Some
of the "construction workers" were actually a detachment of Cuban
Military Special Forces and combat engineers.
Official US sources state that the defenders were well-prepared,
well-positioned and put up stubborn resistance, to the extent that
the US called in two
battalions of
reinforcements on the evening of October 26. The total naval and
air superiority of the liberating coalition forces — including
helicopter gunships and
naval gunfire support — overwhelmed
the Communist forces.
Nearly eight thousand soldiers, sailors, airmen, and
Marines had participated in URGENT FURY along with 353 Caribbean
allies of the CPF.
U.S. forces had sustained 19 killed and 116 wounded;
Cuban forces sustained 25 killed, 59 wounded and 638 combatants
captured.
Grenadian forces casualties were 45 killed and 358
wounded; at least 24 civilians were killed.
Reaction in the United States
leaflet air-dropped during the
invasion
A month after the invasion,
Time magazine described it as
having "broad popular support." A
congressional study group concluded
that the invasion had been justified, as most members felt that US
students at the university near a contested runway could have been
taken hostage as
U.S. diplomats in
Iran had been four years previously. The group's report caused
House
Speaker Tip O'Neill to change his
position on the issue from opposition to support.
However, some members of the study group dissented from its
findings. Congressman
Louis Stokes
stated: "Not a single American child nor single American national
was in any way placed in danger or placed in a hostage situation
prior to the invasion." The
Congressional Black Caucus
denounced the invasion and seven
Democratic congressmen, led
by
Ted Weiss, attempted to
impeach Reagan.
International opposition and criticism
Map of invasion plan.
By a vote
of 122 in favour to 9 (Antigua and Barbuda
, Barbados, Dominica, El
Salvador
, Israel
, Jamaica, Saint Lucia
, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines
, Grenada, and the United States voting against)
with 27 abstentions, the United Nations General
Assembly adopted General Assembly Resolution
38/7 which "deeply deplores the armed intervention in Grenada,
which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and of
the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of that
State". The
government of
China termed the United States intervention an outright act of
hegemonism. The
USSR government observed that Grenada had
for a long time been the object of United States threats, that the
invasion violated
international
law, and that no small nation not to the liking of the United
States would find itself safe if the aggression against Grenada was
not rebuffed. The governments of some countries stated that the
United States intervention was a return to the era of barbarism.
The governments of other countries said the United States by its
invasion had violated several treaties and conventions to which it
was a party.
A similar resolution was discussed in the
United Nations Security
Council and although receiving widespread support it was
ultimately vetoed by the United States.
Grenada is part of the
Commonwealth of Nations and,
following the invasion, it requested help from other Commonwealth
members.
The invasion was opposed by the United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago
, and Canada, among
others. British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher personally
opposed the US invasion, and her Foreign Secretary, Geoffrey Howe, announced to the British
House of Commons
on the day before the invasion that he had no
knowledge of any possible US intervention. Ronald Reagan,
President of the United
States, assured Thatcher that an invasion was not contemplated.
Reagan later said, "She was very adamant and continued to insist
that we cancel our landings on Grenada. I couldn't tell her that it
had already begun."
After the invasion, Prime Minister Thatcher wrote to President
Reagan:
This action will be seen as intervention by a Western
country in the internal affairs of a small independent nation,
however unattractive its regime. I ask you to
consider this in the context of our wider East-West relations and
of the fact that we will be having in the next few days to present
to our Parliament
and people the siting of Cruise missiles in this country...I cannot
conceal that I am deeply disturbed by your latest
communication. The full text remains classified.
Aftermath
Following the US victory, Grenada's
Governor-General
Paul Scoon announced the resumption of
the constitution and appointed a new government. US forces remained
in Grenada after combat operations finished in December. Elements
remaining included
military
police,
special forces, and a
specialized
intelligence
detachment.
The invasion showed problems with the US government's "information
apparatus," which
Time
described as still being in "some disarray" three weeks after the
invasion.
For example, the US State
Department
falsely claimed that a mass
grave had been discovered that held 100 bodies of islanders who
had been killed by Communist
forces. Major General Norman Schwarzkopf, deputy commander of
the invasion force, said that 160 Grenadian soldiers and 71 Cubans
had been killed during the invasion; the Pentagon
had given a much lower count of 59 Cuban and
Grenadian deaths. Ronald H. Cole's
report for the Joint Chiefs
of Staff showed an even lower count.
Also of concern were the problems that the invasion showed with the
military. There was a lack of intelligence about Grenada, which
exacerbated the difficulties faced by the quickly assembled
invasion force. For example, it was not known that the students
were actually at two different campuses and there was a thirty-hour
delay in reaching students at the second campus. Maps provided to
soldiers on the ground were rudimentary, did not show
topography, and were not marked with crucial
positions. The
US Navy ships providing naval
gunfire and US Marine and Navy fighter bomber support, as well as
US Air Force aircraft providing close
air support mistakenly fired upon and killed US ground forces due
to differences in maps and location coordinates, datum, and methods
of calling for fire support. The landing strip was drawn-in by hand
on the map given to some members of the invasion force.
Goldwater-Nichols Act
Analysis
by the US Department of Defense
showed a need for improved communications and
coordination between the different branches of the US
forces. US Congressional
investigations of many of the reported problems resulted in the
most important legislative change affecting the US military
organization, doctrine, career progression, and operating
procedures since the end of
World War
II - the
Goldwater-Nichols
Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 (Pub.
L.99-433).
The Goldwater-Nichols Act made the most sweeping changes to the
United States Department of Defense since the department was
established in the
National
Security Act of 1947. The Goldwater-Nichols Act reworked the
command structure of the United States military. It increased the
powers of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and created the
concept of truly unified joint US forces (i.e., Army, Air Force,
Marines, and Navy forces organized under one command). One of the
first reorganizations resulting from both the Department of Defense
analysis and the legislation was the formation of the
US Special Operations Command
in 1987.
Other
In 2008, the
government of
Grenada announced a move to build a monument to honour the
Cubans killed during the invasion. At the time of the announcement
the
Cuban and Grenadian
government are still seeking to locate a suitable site for the
monument.
A fictionalized account of the invasion from a US military
perspective is shown in the 1986
Clint
Eastwood movie,
Heartbreak
Ridge.
Order of battle
Operation Urgent Fury.
US land forces
U.S. naval forces
Amphibious Squadron Four
, , , ,
Independence Task Group
, , , , , , with the Invasion Tactical Planning and Hands On Operational Control conducted by the Air Staff of the USS Independence
In addition, the following ships supported naval operations: , , ,
, , , , , , , and
Caribbean Peace Force
(CPF)
Notes
- Country-data.com -- Caribbean Islands: A Regional
Security System
- Cole, op. cit., p.1, 57
- Ronald H. Cole, 1997, Operation Urgent Fury:
The Planning and Execution of Joint Operations in Grenada 12
October - 2 November 1983 Joint History Office of the Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Washington, DC, p.62.] (Retrieved
November 9, 2006).
- United Nations Yearbook, Volume 37, 1983, Department
of Public Information, United Nations, New York
- Cole, op. cit., p. 50
- Reagan, Ronald (1990). An American Life page 454.
- Thatcher, Margaret (1993) The Downing Street Years
page 331.
- For Cubans - "The Nation Newspaper", 13 October
2008
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