>There was no doubt that Castro wanted to make Grenada a
>Cuban satellite. That's probably why the communists
>arrested and eventually killed Bishop, and why U.S. forces
>killed almost 60 Cubans, wounded 25, and hundreds more were
>returned to Havana.
>
>Those weren't simply contractors.

http://www.unf.edu/~rkephart/Writings/Grenada-Iraq.html

"At the time, I was a graduate student doing doctoral research on Carriacou. The Marines reached Carriacou on Nov. 1, after spending a week on the main island of Grenada. When they found out that I was a US citizen, the first question they asked me was about the location of the “battalion of North Korean soldiers.” Now, Carriacou is a twelve-square-mile island inhabited by several thousand people, nearly all of African descent, living in a society where everyone knows everything that’s going on. The idea of a battalion of Koreans hiding there was simply ludicrous. As we see now with Iraq, strange ideas about the “enemy” are nothing new."

"Reagan claimed that a new airport with a runway capable of handling jet planes could only be intended for military use. In fact, Grenadians had been working for a new airport for years, because the old one was dangerously close to the mountains and could handle only smaller prop planes (meaning that Grenadians going abroad or tourists flying into Grenada nearly always had expensive layovers in Barbados or Trinidad). The Reagan administration was also upset by the Cuban presence, even though the Cuban “force” consisted mostly of teachers, doctors, and middle-aged construction workers helping build the new airport (of the 784 Cubans on the island, about 40 were members of the Cuban armed forces)."


Ronald Kephart is an associate professor of sociology, anthropology, and criminal justice at the University of North Florida.