Lest we overlook. Overtly racist former president and present Republican nominee Donald Trump is just not an anomaly. He really represents a continuum of the insurance policies and positions of former President Ronald Reagan, who holds “Saint Ronnie” standing within the minds of far too many People.
Sure, the exact same Reagan who opened his 1980 marketing campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi. That’s the place civil rights employees James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman have been tortured and murdered throughout “Freedom Summer.” The identical Reagan who now we have to thank for the meme of “welfare queens.”
Reagan’s insurance policies and positions didn’t simply form Republican home coverage. He manufactured a navy push to flex his anti-communist bona fides, selecting the tiny island of Grenada to make an instance of by invading it on Oct. 25, 1983. That invasion was dubbed “Operation Urgent Fury” and despatched 7,000 U.S. troops into an island nation solely about twice the dimensions of Washington, D.C.
Was Grenada a risk to the U.S.? You be the choose. The previous is much too usually prologue, and the Caribbean our Caliban. But when we overlook current historical past, it could possibly be repeated on a far bigger scale ought to Trump win one other presidency.
I’m posting a couple of video recap of the invasion’s historical past. Right here’s a fast three-minute abstract:
This 10-minute abstract takes a extra detailed and significant have a look at Reagan’s position, and contains an interview with CIA whistleblower John Stockwell.
Tales of the American Empire video notes:
When American President Ronald Reagan entered workplace, he set a aim of re-energizing the American empire that had misplaced momentum after its embarrassing defeat in Vietnam. Invading the tiny island nation of Grenada could be a simple navy victory to show American imperial energy. The CIA instigated violence in Grenada and blamed communists, whereas asserting the Soviets have been constructing a navy base on the island. A propaganda marketing campaign started and American navy workout routines have been held to organize for this invasion.
The Zinn Training Challenge offers hyperlinks to extra detailed historic sources, together with this two-part, hourlong documentary from filmmaker John Douglass titled “Grenada: The Future Coming Towards Us.”
The filming was accomplished shortly earlier than the tragedies of October 1983 on this colourful work produced by the Caribbean Analysis Institute. John Douglas produced, filmed and edited the full-color work, and was co-directed by Carmen Ashurst and Samori Marksman and Douglas. Vinie Burroughs is the narrator of this 55-minute movie. The movie is listed as a documentary on the Grenadian Revolution, traces Grenada’s early historical past, analyzes the impression of European colonialism and clarify the evolution of recent Grenadian society. A lot footage of Grenadians – [the executed] Maurice Bishop, Caldwell Taylor, Dessima Williams, Valerie Cornwall, Candia Alleyne, Bernard Coard, Phyllis Coard, [the murdered] Fitzroy Bain, George Nurse, Brian Beggs, Claudette Pitt, [the late] Dorcas Braveboy, amongst others.
Wendell Bell, professor emeritus of sociology at Yale College, wrote “The American invasion of Grenada: a note on false prophecy”:
Though the invasion of tiny Grenada most likely is not going to go down in historical past as one of many extra earthshaking incidents of our troubled age, it’s nonetheless important as a near-perfect illustration of the usage of prophecy to justify current motion. The Reagan administration gave the American folks – and the folks of the world – three principal causes for motion, all of them within the type of contingent statements in regards to the future, that’s, what would have occurred if there had been no invasion. First, Americans would have been taken hostage or presumably killed. Second, a Soviet-Cuban navy bastion would have been established for the export of communism all through the area, particularly the jap Caribbean. And third, a contemporary navy airport would have been accomplished at Level Salines that may have turn into a risk to the very important pursuits and the nationwide safety of the USA. Though we can not inform now who amongst American leaders – together with the president himself
– believed these prophecies in the mean time of disaster, we suspect that not one of the three was credible. That’s my topic on this essay. Earlier than continuing additional, nonetheless, I wish to summarize the occasions of the invasion, since so lots of the particulars have light from reminiscence.
It’s a lengthy learn, which I can not adequately quote right here. However he concludes:
…I’ve tried to indicate that three of the foremost assertions in regards to the future made by the Reagan administration to justify its invasion of Grenada have been false:
1. People on Grenada weren’t in any actual hazard, besides from the American invaders and the preventing that the invasion precipitated.
2. The militarization of Grenada was not meant as a way to export terrorism or revolution to its Caribbean neighbors, however was primarily an effort to mobilize Grenadians as a part of a home program of revolutionary change.
3. And the worldwide airport at Level Salines was not meant to be a Soviet-Cuban navy base, however was deliberate to be a significant facility in Grenada’s financial growth. Moreover, the administration’s use of the previous to justify current motion was as defective as its use of the long run. The analogy between the hostages in Iran and the medical college students on Grenada was too tenuous to be a very good information to motion. And solely nationwide moods and the thread of time related the bombing in Lebanon and occasions in Grenada. But each added tothe inaccurate conceptions of actuality that introduced loss of life, mayhem, and destruction toGrenada.
Is it an excessive amount of to hope that subsequent time round earlier than we begin doing violence to folks, we will ask what violence we’re doing to fact? Can’t we protest when our leaders distort goal realities and ship the reality down the reminiscence gap?
Apparently sufficient, right-wing Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton made a speech about Grenada final yr, celebrating Reagan’s “victory.”
In the present day marks the fortieth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Grenada. This brief and largely neglected battle is without doubt one of the most profitable American navy interventions in historical past.
In simply 4 days, President Ronald Reagan toppled an anti-American regime, rolled again communism within the hemisphere, and saved American lives. Within the years that adopted we constructed a powerful, real, and enduring partnership with the folks of Grenada. However this success was removed from sure. It was solely potential due to President Reagan’s decisive and overwhelming navy response to a disaster on the island.
The seeds of this disaster have been sown—like many others—throughout Jimmy Carter’s disastrous presidency. Below President Carter, communism started to metastasize in Latin America and within the particularly pivotal yr of 1979, each Nicaragua and Grenada fell to communists. As he returned from Managua, Fidel Castro boasted, “now there are three of us.” And the Cuban dictator had large plans so as to add extra captive nations to his anti-American axis within the hemisphere.
Listed here are just a few segments from an in depth 2021 Twitter thread:
In 1983, Congress despatched a delegation to tour Grenada, examine, and report again. Ron Dellums and Louis Stokes, members of the group who have been additionally members of the Congressional Black Caucus, dissented from the bulk opinion, as reported by UPI.
WASHINGTON — Two of the Home members who toured Grenada are dissenting from nearly all of the delegation, saying the U.S. invasion was unlawful and that President Reagan used American college students as a handy excuse for his invasion.
Reps. Louis Stokes, D-Ohio, and Ronald Dellums, D-Calif., mentioned the Congressional Black Caucus voted to help their place. The 2, the one blacks within the 14-member Grenada delegation, had withheld their public judgments till Wednesday.
[…]
The 2 males mentioned there was no authorized or constitutional foundation for the invasion as a result of a authorities really was in impact on Grenada. The Grenadians would have settled their very own issues, they mentioned.Dellums, a pal of assassinated Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, known as the invasion ‘an undeclared act of conflict in violation of the Structure, the U.N. and OAS (Group of American States) charters.’
They mentioned Reagan’s major concern was to not defend People. ‘The proof is that not a single American little one and never a single American nationwide was positioned in jeopardy or made a hostage at any level previous to that invasion,’ Dellums mentioned. He known as the invasion ‘a thinly veiled effort to take advantage of and use a tiny Caribbean nation’ to develop U.S. militarism.
On a associated notice, The Washington Publish has been investigating what occurred to the physique of executed Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. Right here is the most recent replace:
Washington Publish video notes:
Earlier this yr, the U.S. Military launched an inside evaluate of data associated to the restoration of stays in Grenada in 1983, and efforts to find Maurice Bishop’s physique.“This is the first serious effort by the Pentagon in decades to address the role the United States played in the disappearance of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop’s remains,” mentioned Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who pushed for the Military to analyze.On this new replace to the collection, The Washington Publish’s Martine Powers unpacks the findings of the Military’s investigation, the details and occasions that it outlines, and the questions it stops in need of answering.
In Grenada, the day Bishop and others have been killed was named Nationwide Heroes Day:
In October 2022, the federal government of Grenada declared October nineteenth as a public vacation from 2023, commemorating the killings of former prime minister Maurice Bishop and a number of other members of his cupboard in 1983.
Bishop, together with a number of civilians, was killed following a palace coup orchestrated by his deputy, Bernard Coard, at Fort Rupert which was renamed Fort George.
Grenada authorities officers not too long ago introduced that they’re constructing a shrine to honor these killed on Oct. 19, 1983.
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell has introduced that Authorities intends to construct a shrine at Fort George to honour deceased revolutionary chief, Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, and others who misplaced their lives on 19 October 1983 because of inside conflicts between completely different factions of the Peoples’ Revolutionary Authorities.
[…]
Talking to a whole bunch who had gathered at Progress Park and people watching the reside broadcast on tv and radio for the Nationwide Heroes Day celebrations, the Prime Minister mentioned, “We are fully aware that for the last 40 years, you can go to what was then Fort Rupert and see almost no sign, no acknowledgment of the tragedy that happened.”
“But as we reclaim our history, as we reclaim and come to terms with our past, we will do what is right in ensuring that the necessary shrine to commemorate the tragic loss of our prime minister, members of the cabinet, and other citizens of Grenada is properly erected on that site, to ensure that our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren appreciate the sacrifice made by our forebears,” he mentioned.
Given the dearth of present and historic protection of the Caribbean and the continuing racist propaganda spewed by Trump and his MAGA acolytes, I fear that ought to he regain energy, a number of Caribbean nations may turn into straightforward targets for an additional U.S. navy journey.
Please submit your ideas on this within the feedback part beneath, the place we additionally submit our weekly Caribbean Information Roundup.
