Grenada anniversary marks Cold War turn

To Talk of Many Things

Last Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of a highly significant event in the history of the Cold War — the U.S. invasion of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada and the successful ouster of its brutal Marxist government. The dramatic and decisive operation set back the advance of Soviet colonialism in the Western Hemisphere, and helped shift the momentum of the Cold War in the direction of the free world.

Marxist forces seized control of Grenada in 1979, and the island quickly became a strategic focal point in the Cold War. The Grenadian Marxists soon received support from the Soviet Union and Cuba, becoming part of the worldwide communist bloc. It was a dangerous development for the United States to be faced with a new Soviet proxy nation in its own hemisphere.

On Oct. 13, 1983, the Marxist leader of Grenada, Maurice Bishop, was overthrown by Bernard Coard, an even more radical leftist. The coup was bloody and frightened neighboring Caribbean states.

The violence also concerned the United States because 600 American medical students were on the island. Thus, President Ronald Reagan dispatched American Marines and Rangers to Grenada Oct. 25, 1983. After fierce fighting, the communist regime was overthrown, the students were rescued, and Grenada soon was restored to its democratic constitutional government.

Although the Grenada incursion was a single, brief operation, it is important to realize the far-reaching impact it had on the course of the Cold War. The elimination of an outlaw regime — allied with the cause of communist colonization — engendered a number of significant political side effects that would prove auspicious to American interests.

The foremost achievement was the halting of Soviet-Cuban expansion in the Caribbean and Latin America. Under Marxist rule, Grenada was made to function as a heavily developed military base for arming and supplying Soviet-sponsored fighters throughout Latin America. If not for the timely intervention, the entire region could have been in danger of falling to communist forces, leaving the United States strategically out-maneuvered by the Soviet Union.

The diplomatic benefits cannot be overstated any more than the strategic ones. Coard's deadly coup was a great source of fear among U.S. allies in the region, leading a number of Caribbean nations to appeal for help, lest they be targeted by the Marxists.

If the United States had failed to act, its credibility among these allies would have been damaged. However, having sundered a vassal regime from the Soviet sphere of influence, the United States was able to foster greater good will with its Caribbean allies. This proved to be vital for future cooperation in carrying out Cold War containment policy.

The operation provoked considerable criticism concerning its prudence and justification. Editor Robert Kaiser opined in the Oct. 30, 1983, issue of The Washington Post that the Reagan administration's ideological approach to national security had squandered American moral authority to objurgate Soviet tyranny. The same issue featured columnist Mary McGrory musing that the administration lacked sufficient reason to use military force.

The Grenada ouster, however, would have been justified — even if no American students were on the island — because the regime was complicit in overall Soviet attempts to undermine U.S. security. It would not have been wise to ignore the prospect of communist guerrillas and terrorists spreading so close to American borders.

In The Washington Post's Nov. 2, 1983, issue, columnist David Broder rightly pointed out that the invasion potentially would send an important signal to Moscow that America would not tolerate being threatened in a key region. In the same issue, columnist William F. Buckley elaborated by pointing out that the invasion was a logical extension of American policy to stop communist imperialism.

The invasion of Grenada ultimately turned out to be a contributing factor in building American confidence and rolling back Soviet influence in the Western Hemisphere. The event also proved to signal the eventual collapse of communism as a threat to the world.

Jonathan Kelly is a junior political science major.