WW in 1983: The criminal invasion of Grenada

This article first appeared in the Nov. 3, 1983, issue of Workers World. WW editors planned three different front pages for that issue. First was a scientists’ protest of U.S. first-strike missiles in Western Europe. This was pushed aside as a bomb strike in Lebanon killed 241 Marines occupying that country. Then the U.S. invasion of Grenada became a last-minute lead story as well as a war crime.

Oct. 26 – In less than a day, the Reagan administration’s cover story for its brutal and unprovoked invasion of Grenada has unraveled. People and governments all around the world are condemning the U.S. action as a totally illegal, unjustifiable exercise of arrogant imperial force, and are demanding the immediate withdrawal of Washington’s occupation forces from this small Caribbean island.

It is also clear already that this massive intervention was premeditated and in the making for over two years. The tragic internal struggle inside Grenada was merely seized on by Reagan as a pretext for sending in troops to overpower the people of a small but revolutionary Black state struggling for self-determination.

This is a classic case of counter-revolution being brought in on the bayonets of an overwhelming occupying force. Heroic resistance to the intervention continues as we go to press, despite reports of high Grenadian casualties.

The invasion began Tuesday at 5 a.m. as nearly 2,000 U.S. Marines and Army Rangers, in the largest U.S. military operation since the Viet Nam war, attacked the small island of Grenada. They came from a 15-ship aircraft carrier battle group off the coast, including the aircraft carriers of Guam and Independence (with 70 jet warplanes aboard), from a five-ship amphibious task force, and from at least 18 U.S. Army transport planes and a number of large helicopters which flew in from Barbados.

They were supplemented today by an additional 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, making the invasion army forces nearly three times as big as the Grenadian army!

Within hours of the start of the invasion, President Reagan was telling the world that its main purpose was to safeguard the lives of 1,000 U.S. citizens in Grenada.

The Pentagon has barred newscasters from Grenada while the invasion is going on. Even though it is only 50 miles from Barbados and accessible by boat in a few hours, no reporters have been allowed to file stories from the island.

However, phone calls to relatives before the invasion began and reports by American ham radio operators since then have made it abundantly clear that the overwhelming sentiment of U.S. citizens on Grenada is that it is the Pentagon’s invasion, not the previous internal struggle, that has endangered their lives.

Charles Modica, the chancellor of St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada, where there are 650 U.S. students, has said in numerous press and TV interviews that he felt there was no danger to the safety of the students, that he had spoken to the State Department this weekend and was not urged to have students leave the country, and that on Monday, the day before the invasion, the curfew that had been in effect was lifted and the airport opened so that those foreigners who wanted to could leave Grenada. (ABC-TV Nightline, Oct. 25)

The Parents Network, a group of relatives of U.S. students in Grenada, had sent a telegram to Reagan on Monday urging him not to take “precipitous or provocative action at this time.”

Parents accuse Reagan

Jean Berman of Westport, Conn., whose son Daniel is a medical student on the island, called the invasion “outrageous.”

“Reagan is not getting his facts straight,” Berman said. “Yesterday was peaceful in Grenada, and only 50 to 60 students wanted to leave. Now, Reagan is saying more than 300 students want to leave. Of course, today they would, when their island is overrun by Marines.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 26)

Her husband, Dr. Leo Berman, told Pacifica radio that their son and daughter, students at the school, were in no danger. “The whole thing was engineered,” he said, “and I hold Reagan responsible.”

Dr. Peter Bourne, who had been in touch with the school, said on ABC-TV Nightly News yesterday that the medical school had been “completely protected, the students and faculty were totally safe, and there was no justification whatsoever for the invasion.”

This view of the situation in Grenada before the U.S. invasion was confirmed by ham radio operator Dan Atkinson, a retired American businessman who has lived in Grenada for 12 years. In a broadcast monitored here, he said, “Quite frankly there had been no threats whatsoever to any Americans” before the assault. “It was abundantly clear to all of us except the students [and] they were in no immediate danger. They had been offered the opportunity to leave the island, if they wished to do so, as recently as yesterday [Monday].... The airport had been opened for that purpose.” (Washington Post, Oct. 26)

But the situation after the invasion was quite different. A student ham operator, Mark Carpenter, reported that “Every time a gunship goes over, there’s fire all around us.” He said he was lying on the floor to avoid getting hit. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Cable to Reagan

Moreover, the Grenadian Revolutionary Military Council had been assuring the U.S. that it could absolutely guarantee the safety of Americans there. Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Grenada had learned of the U.S. invasion plans two days beforehand and sent a cable to the U.S. Embassy in Bridgetown, Barbados, that said:

“Grenada has not and is not threatening the use of force against any country, and we do not have any such aspirations. We reiterate that the lives, well-being, and property of every American and other foreign citizen residing in Grenada are fully protected and guaranteed by our government.... There is absolutely no basis whatsoever for any country launching an invasion of our beloved country and homeland.”

Tramples international law

A second “justification” given by the Reagan administration for its massive military intervention is that it was asked to “restore order” by countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. To give the operation a “multilateral” cover, 300 soldiers and police from six Caribbean countries were flown into Grenada after the U.S. troops had taken over the island’s two airports.

But, in fact, even according to the Charter of the OECS, such an invasion is illegal. Moreover, the U.S. is not a member of the OECS, while some member nations of the organization, like Trinidad and Tobago, refused to go along with the invasion.

These fabricated excuses used by the Reagan-Pentagon clique for their criminal action assume that the invasion was planned only in the last few days, since an internal political struggle resulted in the tragic death of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and other Cabinet members on Oct. 19 and the seizure of power by the military.

However, there is evidence that not only did the U.S. line up its Caribbean puppets for the invasion before the death of Bishop, but that the plans for an invasion were actually drawn up over two years ago!

‘Ocean Venture 82’

In August 1981, U.S. Marines and Army Rangers–the same forces used in Tuesday’s invasion–staged a “mock” invasion of a Caribbean island code-named “Amber” and belonging to an island chain called the “Amberdines.” The scenario followed by the Defense Department involved “rescuing” U.S. nationals from a “Marxist” regime and installing a new government friendly to the U.S. These “war games” were staged on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, bringing an outraged response from the peasants and fishermen living in the vicinity.

At the same time, Grenada protested to the U.S. that this “exercise” was in fact a dress rehearsal for an invasion of Grenada. It pointed out that an area of southern Grenada is actually called “Amber,” while the island chain is known as the “Grenadines.”

Bush in Jamaica

Two days before the death of Maurice Bishop, Vice President George Bush was visiting Jamaica and its right-wing leader, Edward Seaga, who has been the main Caribbean booster of the invasion and was himself elected after a CIA-financed campaign of destabilization brought down his predecessor, Michael Manley. Bush gave a speech in Jamaica in which, according to a somewhat puzzled press, he departed from his prepared ending and shouted, “Long live freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” and “slammed the lectern three times with his fist.” (New York Times, Oct. 18)

What was Bush, himself a former head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, doing in this key Caribbean country just eight days before the invasion of Grenada?

Bush chaired the Crisis Management Group meeting in the White House Situation Room on Oct. 20 that recommended the launching of the invasion force. He has played a key role in this operation. It is obvious that his Jamaican trip was not an innocent excursion but part of the preparations for the intervention, which were well underway before there had been any bloodshed in Grenada.

This also raises the question of what role U.S. operatives may have played in the internal events which were utilized as a pretext for the invasion. One authority on Caribbean studies, Professor Wendell Bell of Yale, has advanced the theory that CIA agents in Grenada “were scheming to overthrow Bishop and egged on Bishop’s detractors.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 26)

Popular resistance

Despite the staggering concentration of firepower against Grenada by the world’s biggest nuclear power, however, resistance is still being put up as of this writing. The Pentagon refuses to release Grenadian casualty figures and speaks of “scattered pockets” of resistance, but, according to the Grenadian representative at the UN, the dead and wounded run into the many hundreds. Cuban construction workers at the southern airport are reported to have put up a heroic fight against the invaders. The last six died fighting rather than surrender, while hundreds of other Cuban workers gave up only when they ran out of ammunition.

The determined stand of the Cubans, underscored in a press conference by Premier Fidel Castro last night, was a warning to U.S. militarists of what they will find if their plans for the Caribbean include another invasion of Cuba.

(The Cuban government detailed its understanding of the internal struggle in Grenada in a statement issued Oct. 20, five days before the U.S. invasion. After condemning the deaths of Maurice Bishop and the other leaders killed with him, the Cubans warned, “Imperialism will now try to use this tragedy and the grave errors committed by the Grenadian revolutionaries to sweep away Grenada’s revolutionary process and subject it anew to its imperial and neo-colonialist domination.... Only a miracle of common sense, equanimity and wisdom of Grenadian revolutionaries and the calm reaction and actions of the international progressive movement may still save the Grenadian revolutionary process.”)

Will U.S. restore Governor-General?

Secretary of Defense Weinberger and Joint Chiefs of Staff head General John Vessey told a press conference this afternoon that the former Governor-General of Grenada, appointed by the British Crown but jailed after the 1979 revolution, had been “rescued” and was aboard a U.S. ship.

While Weinberger and Reagan talk about restoring “democracy” and allowing the Grenadians to “elect” whom they choose, there have been several reports that the Governor-General, a vestige of British colonialism, may be restored by the U.S. to head a “provisional government.” Obviously, such an insult to the Grenadian people could only be accomplished by continued military occupation.

World condemnation

Reagan is boasting of “success” in achieving his military objective of physically overwhelming Grenada’s defenses (although this is by no means certain, even now). But this shocking atrocity has left U.S. imperialism almost totally isolated around the world. Not one of its major allies in NATO has supported the invasion, not even Britain, which still nominally exerts some authority over Grenada as a Commonwealth country.

On the contrary, Washington’s fellow imperialist governments are distancing themselves as much as possible from this act of international banditry which has shocked smaller countries around the world by its total disregard for any shred of legality.

Less than 48 hours after the invasion, reports of demonstrations all around the world are pouring in, together with speeches of condemnation in forums like the United Nations and the Organization of American States, which once could be counted on to rubber-stamp U.S. aggression in places like Korea and the Dominican Republic.

The death of more U.S. servicemen has yet to have its full impact here. While a preliminary figure of six dead, eight missing and 33 wounded has been given out by the Pentagon, eye-witness accounts of the bloody fighting have not yet been heard. After two days of media blitz similar to that around the KAL plane incident, when the government’s version saturated the public, the dire implications of this event are bound to begin to seep through, as well as the realization that it is seen around the world as a monumental and unparalleled outrage against national sovereignty.

This event must arouse and awaken millions in this country to the perilous course now being plotted by the White House Pentagon clique. It makes more urgent than ever the need for a massive response to stop the further war plans before they are put into operation in Nicaragua, Cuba, the Middle East or any other part of the world where the people’s struggle for social and economic justice has come up against the profit demands of U.S. big business.