Overthrow #11: Grenada

Grenada? You might be wondering why we even got involved in this island nation of around 100,000 people. Was it to dominate the nutmeg market (they produce about 1/3 of the world' supply)? No, it appears it was more about getting some of our world power mojo back.

Grenada's politics were very unstable. After getting independence from the British in 1974, they were led by a crazy guy named Eric Gairy who acted as a dictator and tried to convince the UN to investigate the Bermuda Triangle. He was couped by some commies, who then were couped by some uber-commies in 1983, who felt the other guys weren't going far enough.

The US claimed their reason for getting involved was to save the lives of US students at a Grenadian medical school, and the uber-commies had just killed off the old regime. But it probably was more about getting a notch in our cold war belt. At the time, the US was struggling in the Middle East. Actually, the day after making the decision to invade, was when a suicide bomber killed hundreds of marines in Lebanon. Actually, the US war-ship that was sent, had been on its way to Lebanon. Regardless, the takeover was quick. In what might have been the most asymmetrical war ever, 6,000 US soldiers landed and secured Grenada. Reagan reacted to the victory by proclaiming, "Our days of weakness are over. Our military forces are back on their feet, and standing tall."

Ranking (Worst to Least Worst)

1. Guatemala
2. Nicaragua
3. Chile
4. Iran
5. Honduras
6. The Philippines
7. Cuba
8. Vietnam
9. Hawaii
10. Puerto Rico

11. Grenada

No offence to all the Grenadian Xpress riders or any of you major nutmeg fans, but it's hard to get too upset about this. The uber-commies had grabbed power by force, and things didn't bode too well for the people there. And the US overthrow was actually followed by elections. Albeit a US-okayed candidate won, but they had become more democratic, and, according to the book I'm reading, most Grenadians look back positively on the US interference. There were certainly some sketchy aspects to it. The rest of the world was so turned off that 100 nations of the United Nations passed a resolution "deeply deploring... a flagrant violation of international law."

Still, the world really didn't change for the worse b/c of this and neither, appearantly, did Grenada. We certainly can't say that about most of our overthrows.