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U.S. President Ronald Reagan decided to invade the Caribbean island of Grenada in 1983. The U.S. forces gained control over the country within days.

 

Video

 

 

Overview

  • Date: 25 Oct – 15 Dec 1983
  • Location: Grenada, Caribbean
  • Start: Invasion of U.S. forces in Grenada
  • End: Withdrawal of the U.S. troops after Governor Paul Scoon & Prime Minister Nicholas Brathwaite are reinstated

 

Parties & Persons Involved

  • USA
    • Ronald Reagan (1911 – 2004)
  • Grenada
  • Cuba

 

Background

  • 1974: Grenada gains her independence from Great Britain & becomes a member of the Commonwealth
  • 1979: Maurice Bishop takes over the government in a coup d'état & forms the People‘s Revolutionary Government
  • Mar 1983: President Reagan warns that the airport on Grenada, currently under construction, could be used as a Soviet-Cuban air base & poses a clear threat to the U.S.

Grenada is in an unstable state with (political) violence & oriented towards socialism.

 

History

Prologue

  • 16 Oct 1983: Coup d'état of the Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard
  • Governor General Paul Scoon is removed & placed under house arrest
  • 19 Oct 1983: Former Prime Minister Maurice Bishop is murdered
  • 19 Oct 1983: Hudson Austin heads a military junta after a coup d'état
  • The army imposes a curfew which violation will be punished by death
  • 24 Oct 1983: Scoon asks the U.S. & Caribbean states in a letter to intervene with military force (later denied by Scoon)
  • 25 Oct 1983 – 05:00 hrs: Operation Urgent Fury commences – U.S. forces & Caribbean allies invade Grenada

 

Operation Urgent Fury (25 Oct – 15 Dec 1983)

 

 

Belligerents

 

Strength

  

Killed

   Wounded   Civilians

United States

  

8,000

  

19

   116   24 dead

Caribbean states

  

350

          

Grenada

  

1,500

  

45

   358  

Cuba

  

700

  

25

   59  

 

Consequences & Impact

  • Dec 1983: Paul Scoon is reinstated as Governor General & he announces Nicholas Braithwaite as interim Prime Minister
  • Dec 1984: The Grenada National Party wins the general election & Herbert Blaize is new Prime Minister
  • The invasion is very popular in the United States
  • The UN general assembly condemns the U.S. invasion with to 9 votes & 27 abstentions
    • Reagan’s reaction: "It didn‘t upset my breakfast at all.“
  • Problems for the Special Relationship (U.S. & UK) & the personal relations between Reagan & Thatcher because Grenada is a member of the Commonwealth