US Invasion of Grenada — Operation Urgent Fury
On October 25, 1983 — two days after the Beirut Marine barracks bombing that killed 241 Americans — the Reagan administration launched Operation Urgent Fury, an invasion of the small Caribbean island of Grenada. The official justification was the protection of some 1,000 American medical students on the island following an internal coup within the ruling New Jewel Movement that had killed Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. The deeper motivation was the Reagan Doctrine in action: rolling back a Marxist-aligned government that had accepted Cuban construction workers to build a new airport Reagan insisted was a Soviet-Cuban military installation. The invasion was opposed by the United Kingdom — an unusual transatlantic rift, since Grenada was a Commonwealth nation with Queen Elizabeth as head of state — and condemned by a UN General Assembly resolution as a 'flagrant violation of international law.' Military operations were completed within days; the Cuban workers and a small Cuban military contingent were overwhelmed. The invasion was enormously popular domestically and was seen by the Reagan administration as demonstrating American willingness to use force after the perceived passivity of the Carter years. Grenada's Marxist government was replaced by a pro-American administration.
- Year: 1983 CE
- Category: Military
