Original subtitles

NARRATOR: June, 2012.

The Grenadian government is trying to locate the remains

of its former prime minister, Maurice Bishop.

His body mysteriously disappeared in October 1983,

after he was executed in a coup by the country's armed forces.

Maurice Bishop was the leader of the Communist faction in Grenada,

called the New JEWEL Movement, or NJM.

He was overthrown on his return from a tour of Eastern Europe

by his deputy, Bernard Coard.

- Coard was ambitious, power hungry

and he claimed that the reason for the coup

was that Bishop was unable to get international support.

NARRATOR: Troops loyal to Coard took Bishop prisoner

and executed him by firing squad on October 19th.

Some of his closest collaborators suffered the same fate.

On October 25th, 1983,

troops from the United States and a coalition of six Caribbean nations

invaded Grenada to restore order.

- The United States was very cognisant

of the fact that the Caribbean, especially the West Indies,

had become a place where in some measure

the battle, let us say, the broad battle

between the United States and the Soviet Union

was taking place through proxies.

NARRATOR: But how did Grenada,

a tiny nation in the middle of the Caribbean,

become the focus of a bloody superpower struggle

at the height of the Cold War?

NARRATOR: Located in the southeastern region

of the Caribbean, Grenada is part of the Lesser Antilles;

an archipelago that includes the sovereign dependencies

of the United States, Venezuela,

France, Great Britain and the Netherlands.

By the late 1940s, as Cold War tensions began to pit

the United States and the Soviet Union against one another,

Grenada was still under British rule.

- Britain was not very interested in Grenada.

Grenada is a small country, 100,000 people,

like three city blocks in London.

This was a country of very limited importance, no-one cared about it.

NARRATOR: Grenada had a small agricultural economy

based mainly on the nutmeg industry,

which was exported to the United States

by international companies established on the island.

In 1951, Eric Gairy, a 29-year-old Grenadian schoolteacher,

organised the country's first general strike,

aimed at improving working pay and conditions under the British.

The success of the movement led Gairy

to found the Grenada United Labour Party, or GULP,

which soon won its first legislative seats.

With a groundswell of support among the Grenadian working classes,

Eric Gairy began his political career with dizzying success.

- He was a kind of national hero

who had worked his way up through the trade unions,

through the ranks, and was famous for having nationwide strikes

to put pressure on the government. But he was also quite controversial.

NARRATOR: Having been appointed Minister of Finance,

Gairy was dismissed in 1957 for embezzlement of public funds.

But that did not stop the Labour Party from quickly becoming

the second biggest political force on the island.

Meanwhile, another nearby Caribbean nation

was entering the geopolitical game of the Cold War.

- The 1959 Cuban revolution

installed the first Marxist regime in the hemisphere.

It also came in the midst of an expansion of Soviet presence

in the Americas.

The United States has always guided its foreign policy

through what some people call strategic denial of foreign powers.

That was essentially the logic of the Monroe doctrine,

"We don't want any European powers involved in the Americas.

By the same token, in the 20th century,

it was denying the presence of the Soviet Union in particular

in our hemisphere.

NARRATOR: In 1961, whilst instructing the CIA

to mount covert operations in Cuba,

John F Kennedy's administration launched a programme of assistance

to the Caribbean nations

called the Alliance for Progress.

It was an initiative that hid its true objectives

behind economic, political and social aid.

- The Alliance for Progress entailed giving Latin American governments

economic aid, but there was also a hard-nosed military component

to that as well. The US poured in military aid

and sent thousands of US Special Forces, Green Berets,

to work with Latin American militaries

to track down guerrilla groups and so-called subversives.

NARRATOR: Washington continued to orchestrate secret operations

against the Castro regime

until, in October 1962,

the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba

triggered the greatest crisis of the Cold War.

- To a large extent, while the Cold War began

really after World War Two,

you could argue that the missile crisis was a threshold moment

that defined the future of the Cold War.

NARRATOR: In 1962, to stop US interference against his government,

Fidel Castro suggested placing Soviet intercontinental

ballistic missiles in Cuba.

Nikita Khrushchev, in a secret meeting between the two leaders,

accepted. After all, he reasoned,

it was no more of a threat to the US

than the US Jupiter missiles based in Turkey were

to the Soviet Union.

When an American Air Force U2 spy plane

captured clear photographic evidence of launch sites

for the missiles being assembled,

Kennedy gave the order to blockade the island.

For 13 days, the whole world held its breath,

not knowing if an agreement between the two Cold War enemies

would be reached,

or whether the world was headed for nuclear annihilation.

- Castro and Khrushchev were engaging in activities

that brought the world very, very close to nuclear holocaust.

NARRATOR: Despite Castro's opposition,

Moscow and Washington agreed to withdraw weapons

from strategic positions.

Russian missiles left Cuba and American missiles left Turkey.

- After the missile crisis, the United States tested the Soviets

and they tested the United States,

but indirectly, through surrogates,

through client states,

they did not ever engage again in a direct confrontation,

as they did in 1962 during the missile crisis.

NARRATOR: The Cuban regime, having now been sidelined by the Soviets

and contained by the US,

began to rethink its position on the international stage.

- After the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962,

Cuba felt very threatened and isolated.

It did not believe President Kennedy's promise

that the United States would not invade Cuba.

NARRATOR: Tensions between Cuba and the United States

intensified over the decades.

It would only be a matter of time

before their soldiers faced each other on the battlefield.

Surprisingly, however, this would not be in Cuba,

but in Grenada.

From 1967 onwards, Grenada became an Associated State

and self-governing country.

A new constitution was introduced and elections called.

As leader of the United Labour Party,

Eric Gairy was elected Prime Minister in the middle of that year

and then re-elected in 1972 for a second term.

This was a stunning victory for Gairy and his Labour movement,

now the country's leading political force.

Gairy's second term in government, however,

was marked by an increasing use of violence

against his political opponents.

He used his personal guards, known as the Mongoose Gangs,

to suppress any dissent.

- They were almost a paramilitary group.

They were violent. They'd use terror tactics

to try and keep any sort of political rivals in their place,

putting pressure on them

to make sure they didn't say anything negative about Gairy.

NARRATOR: As a result of these harsh, unconstitutional methods,

opposition to Gairy's government grew rapidly.

On the 11th of March, 1973,

the young lawyer Maurice Bishop founded the New JEWEL Movement,

a Marxist coalition of several left-wing factions

opposed to Gairy's policies and methods.

- Maurice Bishop was educated in England and in the Caribbean,

in his own country, Grenada.

He came under the influence, the sway

of the Cuban Revolution of Fidel Castro.

NARRATOR: As Bishop's popularity grew,

he aspired to forge strong ties with the Cuban government

and with its powerful patron, the Soviet Union.

- They're linked in with Communism and Marxism,

and what Bishop wants to do is to take Grenada

from being closely tied to the US and its former colonial power,

the UK. Remember, the Queen is still head of state at this point,

and he wants to move them towards Russia and also towards Cuba.

NARRATOR: The small Caribbean Island

was about to step onto the playing field of the Cold War,

with devastating consequences.

NARRATOR: In the early 1970s,

the emergence of a leftist movement in Grenada

was not a major concern for Washington.

Instead, the US government was keeping its eyes firmly

on South and Central America; in particular on Chile,

where a military coup was brewing

against socialist president Salvador Allende.

Although the White House would deny it for decades,

the Nixon administration feared the influence

of Allende's Chilean-style socialism in the region...

..and was determined to stop it in its tracks.

- The Caribbean and Latin America

have always been Uncle Sam's backyard.

The American presidents and American Congress

has always been really concerned about what happens in that region.

They were behind the coup against Allende in Chile with Pinochet.

So it's always been hugely in the United States' interests

to have compliant governments in Latin America.

- The whole logic of it was to contain the expansion of Communism

and in some measure, through whatever means necessary.

NARRATOR: But whilst the US would willingly provide covert support

for right-wing groups and leaders in South America,

such as General Augusto Pinochet in Chile,

none of these methods were yet deemed necessary

in the small island of Grenada.

In 1973, it remained in the iron grip of Erick Gairy

and his Mongoose Gangs.

On February 7th, 1974, however,

Grenada finally achieved independence from Great Britain.

The transition was marked by violent demonstrations

against Gairy's regime.

Strikes and protests ensued.

Nevertheless, it was Gairy,

who, backed by his party's parliamentary majority,

was anointed the first Prime Minister

of the newly independent nation.

Bishop's New JEWEL Movement

increased their parliamentary representation

in the 1976 elections,

but again lost out to Gairy's United Labour Party.

In October 1978, Sir Paul Scoon was appointed by Queen Elizabeth

as Governor-General of Grenada,

representing Commonwealth interests in the island.

- Britain always had a Governor-General,

because Grenada was part of the Commonwealth.

So all the Commonwealth countries had a British agent.

They're essentially representing, beyond the ambassador,

representing British interests.

NARRATOR: The following year, in March 1979,

relations between Grenada, the United Kingdom and the United States

soured due to an unexpected turn of events.

This occurred when Gairy was out of the country,

pursuing a special interest of his own.

- Eric Gairy was an aficionado of UFOs,

Unidentified Flying Objects.

And he was attending a conference in New York on UFOs.

NARRATOR: Gairy was convinced that beings from other worlds

existed on Earth.

He even managed to raise the issue at the United Nations in New York

and proposed that the organisation open a commission to investigate.

On March 13th, 1979,

while Gairy was in the US urging his fellow leaders

to investigate the possibility of extra-terrestrial lifeforms,

Maurice Bishop and the New JEWEL Movement

launched a coup in Grenada.

The People's Revolutionary Government of Grenada,

as the New JEWEL now proclaimed itself,

turned the eyes of the world on its leader,

Castro protege, Maurice Bishop.

- His accession to power, violently, it was a violent undertaking,

it was a surprise both to Cuban intelligence

and to American intelligence.

He was very, very much influenced

by Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution.

He made it very clear once he was in power in office

that he wanted to pursue Marxist-Leninist methods,

political methods and economic methods,

he wanted to impose central planning on the economy

of that small country.

NARRATOR: Grenada, a small island in the Caribbean,

was now in play in the international game of the Cold War.

As soon as the new Marxist Grenadian government was installed in power,

it sought an alliance with Castro in Cuba and with Moscow.

- Bishop had gone to the Soviet Union, asking for assistance,

and he wasn't getting any.

The feeling was, he wasn't radical enough,

that's why the Soviets wouldn't support him.

- The Soviet activities in the region were far, far less

and much more peaceful than what the Cubans were doing.

- It was quite clear that there was a Cuban support

for the New JEWEL Movement,

that there was an extraordinary amount of, let's say, coincidence

between Maurice Bishop and Cuba above all.

This sent, of course, some very, very significant...

I would say more than anything else, signs of concern

in American intelligence.

NARRATOR: In 1979, just as Bishop was taking power in Grenada,

a revolution was underway in Nicaragua,

led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front

and its charismatic military commander, Daniel Ortega.

Like Bishop, Ortega was close to Fidel Castro

and after years of fighting the right-wing dictatorship

of Anastasio Somoza,

they had forced their way to power.

The Communist influence in Latin America

had suddenly expanded dramatically.

- The CIA knew that the Cuban government provided the Sandinistas

with massive amounts of military support,

which made it much more likely for them to win power,

which they did in the revolutionary struggle

against the previous regime.

So, suddenly, by the end of 1979,

there were two Marxist-sympathetic,

Cuban-inspired, Cuban-supported,

Marxist-Leninist revolutionary regimes,

one in the Caribbean and one in Central America.

And a second revolutionary Marxist-Leninist regime

threatened to win power in the country next to Nicaragua -,

El Salvador.

NARRATOR: The US feared the rise of these Communist governments

in its backyard,

and from 1981 onward, after Ronald Reagan had entered the White House,

tensions increased.

- (fires gun)

- While there were plenty of members of Congress during the 1980s

that saw Soviet incursions or the rise of Marxist parties

within this region as not a direct national security threat

to the United States, for the Reagan administration,

that combination of Communism and proximity was wholly unacceptable.

NARRATOR: The first years of Bishop's government in Grenada

were especially difficult.

Bishop needed to pull the country out of its economic crisis.

Despite his political affiliations,

he contacted Washington for economic assistance.

- Maurice Bishop articulated a position

that was very, very critical of the United States.

Yet at the same time, Maurice Bishop understood that to survive,

he couldn't be too antagonistic once he achieved political office.

And of course the response that he received

from a Great Cold War president like Ronald Reagan was,

was one that essentially conditioned US support

for a separation from that relationship,

that budding relationship with Cuba.

NARRATOR: But central to Bishop's political philosophy

was his relationship to Cuba and to his fellow Marxist regimes,

and he wasn't about to jeopardise them for economic aid.

- From the Reagan administration's perspective,

and even the Carter administration,

this created...for the United States a strategic threat,

because the Caribbean is seen as a major sea lane of communication,

and if Grenada is in a position in the southern portion of that

and you have Cuba in the northern portion of that,

it was perceived to be a strategic threat to the United States.

REAGAN: ..the spirit of free men and women...

NARRATOR: Reagan promised military and economic assistance

to right-wing freedom fighters

in the face of what he saw as Soviet expansion and aggression.

This led to support and funding of anti-Communist movements

in Cambodia, Lebanon, Angola

and, most importantly for US national security,

in South and Central America.

In order to correct the inaction of previous administrations,

several covert CIA operations were initiated.

In Nicaragua and El Salvador, an operation was orchestrated

to funnel arms to opposition paramilitary groups.

This would eventually be exposed in the American press

as the Iran-Contra affair.

The operation involved the sale of arms to Iran,

in exchange for the return of US hostages,

the proceeds from which were funnelled to right-wing militias

like the Contras in Nicaragua,

to further the fight against Communism.

In 1983, while Washington was secretly plotting

to curb Communist influence in the Caribbean,

Maurice Bishop was blissfully unaware

that the conspiracies that would seal his fate

were already in motion

and would come from within his own party.

NARRATOR: Since Maurice Bishop's ascent to power in Grenada in 1979,

ties between his Marxist Revolutionary government

and the Castro regime in Cuba had strengthened,

alarming Washington.

In 1980, Bishop asked Cuba for help

in building a new airport on the island.

- The idea was, Grenada wasn't getting enough tourism.

They had an old airport that could only accommodate very small planes

and it was on the opposite side of the island from all the beaches.

So Grenada took the plans that US-AD had developed

for a new airport near the beaches,

and then Cuba agreed to do the construction

cos they didn't have construction workers.

NARRATOR: But the US mistrusted Bishop's intentions

and his Cuban and Soviet partners.

According to US intelligence,

the proposed runway of the new airport was too large

to be used solely for commercial purposes.

Washington suspected that the new airport would be used

to receive Soviet weapons

that could then be destined for the Marxist regimes

in Cuba, and South and Central America.

- President Reagan claimed that this was intended as a stopping point

for Soviet bombers on their way to the United States.

He used photos, satellite photos of the airport construction

that were similar to photos that President Kennedy displayed

during the Cuban Missile Crisis,

to make it seem like we had to take these photos secretly.

In fact, it was a tourist site.

You didn't need a satellite to take pictures of the airport.

You could have taken with your Instamatic camera.

So this was a pretext.

NARRATOR: In 1983, tensions between the US and Grenada

were at an all-time high.

Reagan, an implacable Cold War warrior,

would do anything to combat what he considered

to be Soviet interference in the Caribbean.

- We know that what he wants to say

is the fact that we have chosen a new socio-economic

and political path of development that they do not like,

that they feel somehow threatened by,

that they think will be a bad example for our neighbours,

and therefore they feel they can crush us.

NARRATOR: In the middle of the diplomatic escalation with the US,

in October 1983, Bishop left for a tour of Czechoslovakia and Hungary,

to lobby for Soviet support.

He'd left his government in, he thought,

the safe hands of his deputy prime minister, Bernard Coard.

Little did he know that it would be Coard

who' d lead a coup d'etat in his absence.

- The reasons are not clear. Even today they're not clear.

There are various explanations that I'm aware of.

One that certainly was part of the reason

is that Coard was jealous of Bishop,

because Bishop was very charismatic,

he was very popular with the people in Grenada

and he had an impact internationally.

But perhaps Coard was more aligned with Moscow, with the Soviet Union,

and less aligned with Cuba.

It's possible that Coard wanted to get Grenada

closer under the wing of the Soviets and less under that of the Cubans.

NARRATOR: Upon his return from Eastern Europe,

Bishop was placed under immediate house arrest.

Sir Paul Scoon, the Governor-General appointed by Queen Elizabeth II,

was also arrested.

Bishop was released by his supporters just days later,

but was almost immediately re-arrested

by General Hudson Austin, the military leader of Coard's faction.

Coard quickly realised that if he was to be successful

in his power grab, he couldn't afford to let Bishop live.

- Bishop was executed,

his female partner was executed at his side,

two ministers of his government, maybe three, were executed.

A total of seven of them were all lined up at the execution wall

and shot in cold blood.

The news of that spread across the island...and chaos erupted.

The people in the island,

they much preferred Maurice Bishop.

He was charismatic. He was close to the people.

Coard and Austin, General Austin, were not.

So there was an upheaval in the streets.

NARRATOR: News of Bishop's assassination

and the resulting chaos in Grenada, quickly reached the White House.

- Reagan was informed, but he knew.

He had known well in advance.

There was a medical school on the island of Grenada.

And there were approximately 500 or 600 American students

at this medical school.

There was chaos on the island

and Reagan was convinced that those American students were in danger.

Reagan almost immediately made it clear

to Secretary of State Schultz

in the very first meeting that they had about Grenada,

that...he would favour an invasion...

..to rescue the Americans.

LOUDSPEAKER: 'All Grenadians, report immediately to militia bases.'

- Sunday, October 23rd,

the United States received an urgent formal request

from the five member nations

of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

to assist in a joint effort to restore order and democracy

on the island of Grenada.

We acceded to the request to become part of a multinational effort

with contingents from Antigua, Barbados,

Dominica, Jamaica,

St Lucia, St Vincent and the United States.

NARRATOR: On October 25th, 1983,

just six days after the assassination of Maurice Bishop,

forces from the United States, Jamaica, Barbados

and members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

began Operation Urgent Fury;

the military invasion of Grenada.

- President Ronald Reagan referred to it as a rescue mission

to justify the intervention.

And for all intents and purposes, it was successful

in evacuating US civilians.

- Bishop had already been assassinated

when the operation began.

But the real core belief on the part of the Americans

was that the assassination of Bishop

was actually going to precipitate Cuban involvement,

that the US had to be in place

to prevent the Cubans from fully taking over.

NARRATOR: The military incursion involved the rapid deployment

of around 8,000 US and allied troops.

The airport under construction near St George's University,

where the 600 American students were based,

would be the focus of the operation.

- The invasion itself was swift and effective.

The US cordoned off the island.

They sent in Marines to take the port and the airport,

and then they parachuted in US Army personnel

to go and take an airport that was under construction

by hundreds of Cubans.

NARRATOR: The invading troops clashed

with more than 1,000 Grenadian soldiers

and about 800 Cubans, mostly construction workers,

although the US would later claim they were Cuban Special Forces.

Despite the undoubted numerical superiority of the Americans,

the Cubans and Grenadians put up stubborn resistance.

There was very intense fighting between Cuban and American forces.

Most of that fighting took place on the first day, on October 25th,

the first day of the invasion.

And it's interesting that it's the only time in history

since 1959 until now,

that American and Cuban military forces

actually were in combat with each other.

25 Cubans were killed in the conflict.

And 19 Americans died in the conflict.

NARRATOR: In one of the most memorable incidents of the conflict,

American Special Forces attempted to exfiltrate

the British Governor-General, Sir Paul Scoon, and his wife.

- They spent the night defending the mansion.

They made sure Scoon and his wife were safe.

They kept them in the centre of the building

to make sure they weren't vulnerable to rocket-propelled grenades

that were being sent in.

The troops themselves created a perimeter,

they were around ten to 20 yards between each other,

and they fought off advance after advance.

They called in airstrikes, they called in attack helicopters,

and they survived the night until their Evac helicopter

came in the morning to take them all away and take Scoon to safety.

NARRATOR: The battle lasted for days

as casualties mounted on either side.

In the midst of the fighting,

Fidel Castro issued an extraordinary rallying cry.

- Fidel Castro personally told his forces on Grenada

through radio messages and radio broadcasts,

"You must fight to the death against the Americans.

None of you should surrender to the Americans."

NARRATOR: The fighting was intense

and despite overwhelming American force,

the fate of Grenada now hung in the balance.

NARRATOR: On November 2nd, 1983,

four days after the US military incursion in Grenada began,

US troops declared victory over the Grenadian-Cuban forces

and took control of the island.

The war had ended with dozens dead and hundreds wounded on both sides.

It was an extraordinary and unprecedented US intervention,

and all of it was for the first time captured in glorious technicolour

on CNN.

- Grenada, a tiny island in the Caribbean.

In 1983,

because of the New JEWEL Movement

and a very left-wing government,

the United States went into a British Commonwealth country

and took it over and overthrew the government,

because they were worried about increasing Marxism

and Soviet influence in the region.

NARRATOR: British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher,

was furious at having had no advance warning of the US military incursion

from her great friend and ally, Ronald Reagan.

- It's said that Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister at the time,

didn't know about the specifics of the US invasion into Grenada

to restore power. This had massive consequences

for Thatcher herself, who was left out of that decision-making process.

There was meant to be this very special relationship

between her and Reagan.

Of course, this raises massive questions in Parliament,

because Grenada, well, the Queen is the head of state.

This is something Thatcher should've been kept in the loop about.

NARRATOR: After the American victory,

and partly to placate Thatcher,

Sir Paul Scoon was appointed to head up an interim government

and ensure the return of parliamentary democracy

to the island.

Paul Scoon chaired the advisory council left in charge of Grenada,

until elections were held in December of the following year.

It would have the support of the British Crown,

and Scoon would continue to serve as Governor-General of Grenada

until 1992.

- Scoon was seen as a favourable figure

because he had sworn allegiance to the Queen.

So this was somebody that the US is in direct allegiance with.

However, there was a limit to Scoon's allegiance to the US.

They tried to make him sign a letter to approve the intervention,

which he did. But he removed one aspect of it.

That was where it said, "Your obedient servant,"

because he was an obedient servant of the Queen, not President Reagan.

(protests)

NARRATOR: Having accomplished their mission

and yielding to pressure from the international community,

US forces finally withdrew from the island of Grenada in December 1983,

two months after the invasion had ended.

The US was deeply engaged in fighting against the Soviet Union

in other scenarios around the world,

in Africa, proxy wars in Africa, for example.

But for the most part, you know, this was a clear-cut example

of where the US had decisively stopped.

Whether it was true or not didn't really matter,

but it decisively put an end to an attempted Soviet expansionism.

NARRATOR: Maurice Bishop's fate, however,

was shrouded in mystery.

Having been executed by a firing squad on October 19th,

the whereabouts of his body was unknown.

Rumours circulated for decades

of who might have been behind his assassination.

Towards the end of 2021,

claims surfaced that, despite denials,

the US had in fact discovered Bishop's body,

disinterred it and carried out a postmortem on his remains.

This was not the only circumstance to have no clear explanation,

as American troops came across a shocking discovery in Grenada.

- It turned out, it was discovered fairly soon after fighting ceased,

that there was a false floor

in the Cuban embassy in Grenada,

a false floor, and under that floor

in the basement of the Cuban embassy,

there was a huge cache of weapons and ammunition...

..apparently enough weapons and ammunition

to support an army of 10,000 people.

NARRATOR: It was never disclosed why the arms were there.

But what the discovery certainly confirmed

was Cuban involvement in the coup that toppled Bishop.

In December 1984,

Herbert Blaize, leader of the New National Party,

was elected Prime Minister

at the head of a pro-American administration.

- From the American public's view,

the political point of view, yes, democracy was restored to Grenada.

There were elections that were held

and Grenada has continued to elect its prime ministers and its leaders,

its parliament, in all of the years since.

So I think in Grenada, in Washington,

just about everywhere, except in Cuba,

it was considered a great success.

- Some would call this a success

that the United States intervened

and overthrew another government we didn't like.

But how can we call intervening and killing people

for not any good reason, a success?

We have to take a look at the image projected for the United States,

especially in Latin America, which was very bad.

The United States was seen once again as the Goliath from the north,

a country that had to be feared rather than respected.

NARRATOR: For Washington, Operation Urgent Fury set a precedent

for similar incursions in subsequent years.

Not all of them would be as successful or decisive

as in Grenada.

- Under President Reagan, instead of saying

"The American people won't tolerate any American intervention abroad,"

he said, "It won't tolerate any American military intervention

abroad that A, doesn't succeed, and B, lasts a long time."

So, the moves he's made have been short thrust, success or failure.

NARRATOR: Under the presidencies of George HW Bush

and William Jefferson Clinton,

similar military incursions were launched in the region.

In 1989, there was an attempt to overthrow General Noriega in Panama.

And in 1994 an operation was orchestrated

to remove the military regime

which had overthrown the democratically elected President,

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in Haiti.

- Could interventions be repeated today by the United States?

Of course. The United States is the most powerful country in the world.

The United States spends more on its military

than the next eight countries combined in the world

spend on their militaries.

And so we have a preponderance of power.

If we want to invade another country, we could do it.

Of course, we invaded Afghanistan, we invaded Iraq.

The militaries in Latin America are no comparison to those situations.

But would the United States do that?

Would it be wise for the United States to do that?

It would not be wise.

NARRATOR: Whether Operation Urgent Fury was a mission

to rescue American citizens

or an operation designed to deter Cuban and Soviet influence,

is a matter of continuing conjecture.

What is certain is that the US invasion of Grenada

created a blueprint of the way the US could intervene militarily

to enforce its will,

and would continue to do so for many years to come.

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