Page 71 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

GRENADA
INVASION
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GRENADA INVASION. The October 1983 storming of this Caribbean island
by U.S. troops created some of the deepest-ever tensions between press and
government. A Marxist coup and the subsequent execution of Prime Minister
Maurice Bishop prompted President Ronald Reagan to divert to Grenada a 10-
ship navy task force bound for Lebanon. The reason for the "intervention"—
dubbed "Operation Urgent Fury"—was ostensibly to protect U.S. students at
a medical school on the island. But in an unprecedented move, reporters were
barred from accompanying the invasion forces. Those who chartered private
boats were either forced back by the U.S. military, sometimes under fire, or
detained by troops if they did land. On the third and final day of hostilities, a
contingent of 15 television and wire-service reporters was taken in by military
transport plane but brought out the same day. Massed in nearby Barbados was
a force of 300 journalists trying to get into Grenada. The extraordinary measures
were felt to be a result of resentment by military commanders, many of whom
served in Vietnam and blamed press coverage for losing the war. Outrage at the
restrictions, however, led to the establishment of a media pool cleared and ready
to join military maneuvers on short notice. This system was implemented in the
invasion of Panama six years later.
SOURCES: Peter M. Dunn and Bruce W. Watson, eds. American Intervention in Gre-
nada: The Implication of Operation "Urgent Fury," 1985; Gordon K. Lewis, Grenada,
the Jewel Despoiled, 1987.
Marc Edge