US Invasion of Grenada — Operation Urgent Fury
The United States invaded Grenada in October 1983 six days after a coup on an island of 91,000 people. The New Jewel Movement had taken power in 1979 under Maurice Bishop, aligned itself with Cuba, and was building an airport with Cuban labour that Washington described as a military base and that the British contractors involved said was for tourism. In October 1983 the party's hard-line faction under Bernard Coard arrested Bishop, and when a crowd released him he was retaken and executed with several ministers. A shoot-on-sight curfew followed. The invasion was launched on 25 October with some 7,000 troops, justified on three grounds: the safety of about 600 American medical students, an invitation from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, and a request from the governor-general that was signed after the decision was taken. Resistance came from the Grenadian army and from Cuban construction workers who were also reservists, and the fighting lasted a few days; 19 Americans, 25 Cubans and 45 Grenadians died. The operation was militarily untidy — units without common radio frequencies, out-of-date maps, an accidental strike on a mental hospital — and the failures produced the Goldwater-Nichols reorganisation of the American command structure in 1986. Britain was not consulted about an invasion of a Commonwealth realm and Thatcher objected privately and sharply. The General Assembly deplored it by 108 votes to 9. Elections were held in 1984 and the airport opened to tourists. The invasion also came two days after 241 American servicemen were killed by a truck bomb in Beirut, which is not a coincidence anyone in Washington was eager to discuss at the time. Grenada observes 25 October as Thanksgiving Day.
- Year: 1983 CE
- Category: Military
