The U.S. Invasion of Grenada: Legacy of a Flawed Victory

by Philip Kukielski

In the fall of 1983, arguably the coldest year of the decades-long Cold War, the world's greatest superpower invaded Grenada, a Marxist-led Caribbean nation the size of Atlanta. Why and how this unlikely one-week war was waged was shrouded in secrecy at the time--and has remained so ever since. This book is an overdue reconsideration of Operation Urgent Fury, based on historical evidence that only recently has been revealed in declassified documents, oral history interviews and memoir accounts. This chronological narrative emphasizes the human dimension of a sudden crisis now regarded as the greatest foreign policy challenge of President Ronald Reagan's first term. Because the American intervention was hastily drafted, many snafus and accidents marked the chaotic initial days of the operation. Inevitably it fell to individual soldiers, aviators and sailors to perform heroic acts to make up for faulty intelligence, inadequate communication or poor coordination. This work recounts their inspiring, underreported stories in filling out a more complete portrait of Operation Urgent Fury. The final chapter recounts the invasion's aftereffects, especially the unexpected role it played in Congressional reform of the military for future combat in the Middle East.

Genres: History

256 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2019

Reviews

[Eric Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a reference book it was pretty good, I think it accurately described what happened in Grenada at that time. What I didn't like was a lot of the political stuff afterward. I know it's part of the history of the country, but overall I didn't much read that, just the invasion part for reference for my upcoming book. Other than that you'd be hard-pressed to find a worse book. It's a lot of real talk, and also shows the underbelly of the conflict, of which it primarily focused on. It did touch on the heroism of the US service members (regardless of service) who were present in the conflict and their various roles while executing the orders from on high.