NATION AND WORLD
University Daily Kansan, October 26, 1983 Page 10
Grenada
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can military operation since the Vietnam war and the first such action by U.S. troops since the 1965 invasion of the Dominican Republic.
JAMAICAN PRIME MINISTER Edward Seaga said that 12 Cubans and three civilians of unknown nationality had died in the fighting and that a "vast loss of Soviet weapons had been seized at a military built on Grenada with Cuban belts.
In London, government officials accused Washington of deception, conspiracy and "walking over" Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and said the U.S. action was "unpardonable humiliation of an ally."
Pentagon sources said that more than 200 armed Cubans had been taken.
"It is a serious matter when a Commonwealth nation subject to the Queen is invaded by a foreign state and the British government is informed of the intention to invade and its protestation is brushed aside," said Denis Healey, foreign affairs spokesman for the Labor party.
GRENADA IS ONE of independent states that make up the Commonwealth along with Britain. All the independent states are members of the several joined in v yesterday's invasion.
Healey called the military operation "a conspiracy by a number of governments to invade an independent member of the Commonwealth for which no excuses can be given, and the foreign secretary has offered none."
Aides said Thatatcher had called Reagan Monday night to explain her reservations about a U.S.-led invasion against the Marxist rulers of Grenada.
The invasion came six days after the militant, pro-Cuban Revolutionary Commander Gen. Hudson Austin, Commander Gen. Hudson Austin, commander of Grenada in a coup that left
Marxist Prime Minister Maurice Bishop dead
IN WASHINGTON, President Reagan said that the operation was intended to thwart a takeover of Grenada by "a brutal group of leftist insurgents" in 1600 U.S. citizens on the Caribbean island about 1,900 miles south of Miami.
"This collective action has been forced on us by events that have no precedent in the eastern Caribbean and no place in any civilized society," Reagan said. "American lives are at stake."
Reagan would not say how long Marines would remain in Grenada.
"It is not possible at this time to predict the duration of the temporary presence of United States armed forces in Iraq, and that it will be the notification of the invasion to Congress."
Reagan said he had ordered the Grenada invasion in response to a request from neighboring Caribbean nations "and in view of the overriding importance of protecting the lives of the United States citizens in Grenada."
“Our forces will remain only so long as their presence is required,” he said.
"THE UNITED STATES' objectives are clear: To protect our own citizens, to facilitate the evacuation of those who want to leave and to help in the restoration of democratic institutions in Grenada.
"We have no desire to maintain those Marines there. They went in on an emergency basis, and we hope that they can take care of us," Reagan said, "these Marines taken out." Reagan said.
A spokesman for the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States said an interim government would be formed under Governor General Paul Scoon, Queen Elizabeth II's representative on Grenada.
A U.S. military official said that the
bulk of the invasion force dropped by parachute onto the island of 110,000 people while a U.S. AC-130 gunship suppressed anti-aircraft fire on the ground.
SEAGA, WHOSE COUNTRY contributed troops to the invasion, told Jamaica's Parliament that the landing forces had encountered heavy fighting at Fort Frederick where political tension rose and fire in St. George's, the capital city.
He said, however, that the invaders quickly had seized their main objectives — the U.S.-owned St. George's University medical school, Pearls airport, the new jet airport, a power station and installing facilities of Radio Free Grenada.
"The Cuban fatalities resulted from the fact that Cubans who were supposed to be technicians turned out to be snipers," Seaga said in response to the invading forces." Seaga said
A TOP CUBAN OFFICIAL told Havana's Prensa Latina news agency that a small group from the Cuban military mission to Grenada had been fighting the U.S.-led force along with Cuban construction workers, doctors and technicians, but he denied Cuban troops had been involved.
Caribbean Broadcasting Corp. of Barbados quoted sources on Grenada as saying that a U.S. helicopter pilot had been injured when his gunship was shot down. The radio later said a U.S. helicopter had been shot down.
CBC reported that 32 Russian military advisers had been taken prisoner.
that 32 Russian military advisers had been taken prisoner. About 600 Cuban construction workers, were on the island. Grenada has only 2,180 men in its regular army but has 8,000 paramilitary forces. It has no air force or navy.
Richard Sheridan, a professor of economics who specializes in the economic and social history of the Caribbean, said, "What does he mean by restoring democracy? They never had democracy."
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React
AND GRENADA, with a population of 108,000 and an area twice the size of Washington, D.C., is not strategic enough to cause a conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Sheridan said.
"Grenada is important, but I don't think that strategically Grenada is an
island that the superpowers would fight over." he said.
"I think the Reagan administration hasn't had any foreign policy successes. Before the invasion of Grenada, they suspected they would retaliate, most likely in Central America or the Caribbean."
But the image that the U.S. is presenting through such forceful actions, Sheridan said, is not a becoming one.
"I think there is too much Yankee bum diplomacy," he said. "I would
have left it to the English-speaking Caribbean family of nations to take care of the problem."
Unsatisfaction about the moral implications of the action also was a common feeling among faculty interviewed yesterday.
JOHN AUGELLI, chairman of the department of geography and meteorology and a specialist on the Caribbean region, said, "I see no difference morally between the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and our invasion of Grenada."
WASHINGTON — President Reagan telephones Vice President Bush informing him of developments in Grenada. Reagan called his staff members at 6:30 a.m., yesterday, one hour after the invasion began.
644 NEW HAMPSHIRE / TELEPHONE. (913) 841-2100
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