Case #795.0

Deciding to Use Force in Grenada

Publication Date: January 01, 1986
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Abstract:
In late October 1983, United States military forces landed on the Caribbean island-nation of Grenada—the first time U.S. forces had intervened in their own hemisphere in a generation. The United States' immediate concern was the safety of American medical students on the island, but the invasion came in the wake of bloody turmoil within Grenada's ruling party——the Marxist New Jewel Movement——and was thus an opportunity to oust that government and its Cuban supporters. The case tells the story of how a small island few Americans had ever heard of became a major policy problem at various junctures, culminating in the decision of whether or not to invade. That decision involved a range of considerations: the welfare of the medical students; the risks of a Marxist regime in the Caribbean; a request for intervention from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States; the apparent disagreement of Britain, a close US ally but residual guarantor of Grenada; and domestic politics in the wake of the killing of 241 Marines in Lebanon by a truck bomb only days before.

Other Details

Case Author:
Gregory F. Treverton, Douglas Horner, James Dickinson
Faculty Lead:
Gregory F. Treverton
Pages (incl. exhibits):
31
Setting:
United States, Grenada
Language:
English
Funding Source:
Office of the Secretary of Defense