1 Part VII: Pax Americana and the “American Mediterranean” Session 10 Guyana, Jamaica, Grenada: Radical Change and Imperial Intervention in the British West Indies The Fear of Communism in Guyana, British Intervention, CIA Covert Action Democratic Socialism in Jamaica: Michael Manley (1972-1980) The U.S. Invasion of Grenada o The Grenadian Revolution, 1979-1983: Not in Anybody’s Backyard o The Reagan Doctrine: Rolling Back Communism, Ending the Vietnam Syndrome, and Standing Tall (on Grenada) An Opportunity Presents Itself: Divisions in Grenada U.S. Destabilization, Preparations for an Invasion U.S. Justifications for Invading Grenada Operation Urgent Fury
Transcript
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Part VII: Pax Americana and the “American Mediterranean” Session 10 Guyana, Jamaica, Grenada: Radical Change and Imperial Intervention in the British West Indies The Fear of Communism in Guyana, British Intervention, CIA Covert Action
Democratic Socialism in Jamaica: Michael Manley (1972-1980) The U.S. Invasion of Grenada
o The Grenadian Revolution, 1979-1983: Not in Anybody’s Backyard o The Reagan Doctrine: Rolling Back Communism, Ending the
Vietnam Syndrome, and Standing Tall (on Grenada) An Opportunity Presents Itself: Divisions in Grenada U.S. Destabilization, Preparations for an Invasion U.S. Justifications for Invading Grenada Operation Urgent Fury
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The Fear of Communism in Guyana, British Intervention, CIA Covert Action
1953, first elections under universal suffrage, socialist People’s Progressive Party (PPP) won
PPP, led by Cheddi Jagan, Janet Rosenberg, Forbes Burnham
Strongly anti-colonialist, inter-racial unity against British rule and capitalist oppression
U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower pressured the British to intervene
After only 133 days, British troops landed and suspended the colony’s constitution, blocking internal self-governance
Forbes Burnham broke from the PPP, established the People’s National Congress (PNC)
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Jagan won elections in 1957 and in 1961
U.S. President John F. Kennedy, worked with the British to prevent Guyana from becoming independent under a communist government.
Spring of 1963, agents of the CIA and the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), organize a general strike. Burnham’s PNC began to attack supporters of the PPP, unleashed a wave of ethnic violence.
Summer of 1963 President Kennedy and British Prime Minister MacMillan agreed that Britain would delay Guyana’s independence until a new government was in office.
1964, elections under new rules imposed by the British, Burnham’s PNC won; personalist authoritarianism; ruled from 1964 until his death in 1985, rigged elections, assassinated opponents.
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DDeemmooccrraattiicc SSoocciiaalliissmm iinn JJaammaaiiccaa:: MMiicchhaaeell MMaannlleeyy ((11997722--11998800)) Late 1960s, height of
the Black Power movement, prominence of Rastafarians, spread of socialist ideals from Cuba
Michael Manley, 1972, multi-class alliance, “Power for the People” and “Better Must Come,”
People’s National Party (PNP) won, defeating Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Edward Seaga.
Social programs designed to benefit women, youth, and the unemployed.
Literacy campaign, free secondary education, job creation programs, the building of public housing, and leasing idle lands to small farmers.
Rent controls and price controls on basic food also helped to diminish the burden on working-class families
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Introduced maternity leave, and equal pay for equal work.
A new minimum wage law included domestic servants and agricultural labourers.
1974, democratic socialism, Socialist International and the Non-Aligned Movement, fought for a New International Economic Order
Renegotiated contracts with American- and Canadian-owned bauxite mining companies in Jamaica.
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Nationalized industries, taking over a controlling share of 51% of mining companies, sugar estates, some hotels, public utilities, public transport, and Radio Jamaica.
Jamaican middle- and upper-classes, opposition JLP, and The Gleaner, began to spread fear
Michael Manley and Fidel Castro, joint programs with Cuba, in agriculture, fishing, and education. Cuban volunteers built houses, schools, and dams in Jamaica; Cuban doctors worked in the public hospitals.
U.S. President Gerald Ford, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, opposed Jamaica’s growing alliance with Cuba, support for Cuba in Angola in 1975: cut economic aid from $13 million in 1974, to only $4 million in 1975.
American tourists stayed away: start of a financial crisis; skyrocketing oil prices; weakening world demand for aluminum; sugar prices fell; ocial spending was financed by commercial bank loans
Capital flight. 1976, violence, weapons, CIA destabilization
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PNP won elections again in 1976, by an even larger margin than in 1972.
1977, a split developed inside the PNP 1978, Manley, loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund In 1980, intense political violence, 800 killed, social spending cut, the
TThhee GGrreennaaddiiaann RReevvoolluuttiioonn,, 11997799--11998833:: NNoott iinn AAnnyybbooddyy’’ss BBaacckkyyaarrdd Eric Gairy, Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) March 13, 1979, Gairy removed from power: armed uprising led by
the New Jewel Movement (Joint Endeavour for Welfare, Education, and Liberation), founded in 1972
Maurice Bishop Grenada turned to Cuba for advice and assistance, joined Nicaragua
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Marxist-Leninist principles,
Black Power friendly relations with the
Soviet Union, Vietnam, East Germany, North Korea, Mozambique, Libya and Syria; vote at UN in favour of Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Johnson Doctrine, 1965, Dominican Republic, U.S. would not accept nor tolerate a “second Cuba” in the region.
April 13, 1979, Grenada announces closer ties to Cuba, U.S. Ambassador Frank Ortiz: “We would view with displeasure any tendency on the part of Grenada to develop closer ties with Cuba”.
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Bishop: “No country has the right to tell us what to do or how to run our country or who to be friendly with. Anybody who thinks they can bully us or threaten us, clearly has no understanding, idea or clue as to what material we are made of. We do not therefore recognize any right of the United States of America to instruct us on who we may develop relations with and who we may not. No one, no
matter how mighty and powerful they are, will be permitted to dictate to the Government and people of Grenada who we can have friendly relations with and what kind of relations we must have with other countries. We are not in anybody’s back-yard and we are definitely not for sale”.
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Ronald Reagan promised to
“roll back Communism in the Western Hemisphere”
Ronald Reagan, televised address to the U.S. public on October 27, 1983: “In 1979 trouble came to Grenada. Maurice Bishop, a protégé of Fidel Castro, staged a military coup and overthrew the government which had been elected under the constitution left to the people by the British. He sought the help of Cuba in building an airport, which he claimed was for tourist trade, but which looked suspiciously suitable
for military aircraft, including Soviet-built long-range bombers.”
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Gains in realizing social and economic rights and popular democracy Grenada achieved a 9% cumulative growth rate. Unemployment dropped from 49% to 14%. Budget surplus, increased by 25% in 1982 alone.
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Diversified agriculture, developed cooperatives, agro-industrial development led to a reduction of food imports from over 40% to 28%of total imports
Literacy rate increased from 85% to 98%
Free health care and secondary education; number of secondary schools tripled; scholarships for studies abroad.
Development of the fishing industry, handicrafts, housing, tourism, expansion of roads and transport systems, upgrading of public utilities.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (IBRD) commended Grenada for its achievements
Development of parish and zonal councils along with “mass organizations”: grassroots democracy, “popular socialism.”
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No multiparty elections, no opposition media Late 1983, serious reversals, persistent problems
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Isolated in (CARICOM): Trinidad’s Prime Minister, Eric Williams;
Dominica’s Prime Minister, Eugenia Charles; Barbados’s Prime Minister, Tom Adams; prime ministers of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Antigua, and St. Kitts-Nevis, refused to recognize Grenada’s government.
(Now St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Antigua, and Dominica, are members of the Venezuelan-led Bolivarian Alliance of Our Peoples of the Americas (ALBA), founded by Hugo Chávez in 2004)
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The Reagan Doctrine: Rolling Back Communism, Ending the Vietnam Syndrome, and Standing Tall (on Grenada) Reasserting American Exceptionalism
The Reagan Doctrine: rolling back communism End the “Vietnam Syndrome” In a 1981 commencement address at West Point, Reagan declared the
“Vietnam syndrome” to be a “temporary aberration”—“The era of self-doubt is over….Let friend and foe alike be made aware of the spirit that is once more sweeping across our land, because it means we will meet our responsibility to the free world. Very much a part of this new spirit is patriotism”.
Reagan effectively declared that in Grenada, Caribbean socialism would meet its first literal graveyard.
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An Opportunity Presents Itself: Divisions in Grenada
Grenadian churches, small business owners, and a majority of Grenadians (as high as 91% according to a survey done by a Trinidadian political scientist in 1983), started to oppose the revolution; month before the U.S. invasion, one cabinet minister suggested that a popular rebellion had already started. Another poll: 86.2% of Grenadians remained favourable to Bishop’s leadership and 77.2% concluded that his government had always been popular.
Execution on October 19 of Maurice Bishop and seven others, including cabinet ministers, who were all executed by firing squad at Fort Rupert along with an unknown number of supporters of Bishop who had earlier freed him from imprisonment.
Culprits: Deputy Prime Minister, Bernard Coard; head of the People’s Revolutionary Army, Hudson Austin.
Dispute over power sharing, future directions, personality
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Fidel Castro, cut off all financial and military aid: “Today no one can yet say whether those who used the dagger of division and internal confrontation did so motu proprio or were inspired and egged on by imperialism. It is something that could have been done by the CIA – and, if somebody else was responsible, the CIA could not have done it any better. The fact is that allegedly revolutionary arguments were used, invoking the purest principles of Marxism-Leninism and charging Bishop with practising a personality-cult and drawing away from the Leninist norms and methods of leadership. In our view, nothing could be more absurd than to attribute such tendencies to Bishop. It was impossible to imagine anyone more noble, modest and unselfish. He could never have been guilty of being authoritarian; if he had any defect, it was his excessive tolerance and trust. In our view, Coard’s group objectively destroyed the Revolution and opened the door to imperialist aggression.”
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Grenada was host to U.S.-run St. George’s University School of Medicine
U.S. Destabilization, Preparations for an Invasion
Vieques, Puerto Rico, rehearsal: “Ocean Venture 81” invasion of Amber and the Amberdines
1981 CIA began a campaign of destabilization and sabotage
Reagan: blocking loans from international financial institutions
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U.S. Justifications for Invading Grenada
4 U.S. rationalizations for “Operation Urgent Fury”: 1) 800 U.S. medical students in Grenada were in immediate danger; yet,
officials at the medical school refused to issue a call for help when the U.S. government tried to pressure them to do so; 500 parents cabled Reagan asking him to not undertake any aggression; 90% of the medical students said they were never in any danger and did not want to be evacuated; visiting U.S. diplomats from Barbados found no danger. The medical school was not a priority for invading U.S. troops.
2) Cuban military buildup in Grenada? Numbering less than a thousand, consisted of construction workers, doctors, and development experts.
3) New airport under construction in Grenada, a base for Soviet “bear bombers”
4) Invitation issued by the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)
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Operation Urgent Fury
On October 25, 1983; 23 warships, aircraft carrier USS Independence.
Caribbean force from Jamaica, Barbados, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Antigua, and Dominica, totaling 300 men
“Good Neighbor” policy of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “collective action”
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November 4, 1983, Reagan:
“In Grenada, our military forces moved quickly and professionally to protect American lives and respond to an urgent request from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. We joined in an effort to restore order and democracy to that strife-torn island. Only days before our actions, Prime Minister Maurice Bishop had been brutally murdered, along with several members of his Cabinet and unarmed civilians. With a thousand Americans, including some 800 students, on that island, we weren’t about to wait for the Iran crisis to repeat itself, only this time, in our own neighborhood — the Caribbean.”
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George H.W. Bush: “a proud moment,” supported by an overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens; cure to the “legacies of Vietnam and Watergate [that] still haunted the conduct of our own foreign policy”; “today America really feels the future is bright”.
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Stephen Kinzer:
“An orgy of self-congratulation followed the triumph. A total of 8,612 medals were awarded to participants — most of them to desk officers who never came within a thousand miles of the island. ‘Our days of weakness are over!’ Reagan exulted in a speech to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in New York. ‘Our military forces are back on their feet and standing tall’.”
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The U.S. ignored all international condemnation of the invasion.
Attacking Cuban Ambassador’s residence
“Heaven can wait, because we’re raising hell”
U.S. journalists banned from conducting live coverage
U.S. PsyOps CIA comic book on Grenada
Airport at Point Salines, Grenada, today named after Maurice Bishop.
