U.S. Invasion of Grenada

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 a long overdue scholarly reconsideration of Operation Urgent Fury, based on historical evidence that only recently has been revealed in declassified documents, unheralded oral history interviews and unnoticed memoir accounts. This curated telling also offers a fresh view of the subject by unspooling the tangled story of the invasion in an accessible style. A 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 response was hastily drafted, many snafus and accidents marked the chaotic initial days of the operation when the international press was forcibly denied access to the battlefields by U.S. forces. Inevitably it fell to individual soldiers, aviators and sailors to correct situations arising from faulty intelligence, excessive secrecy or poor coordination. This work recounts their inspiring, underreported stories in filling out a more complete picture of the Grenada invasion.

This is a terrific book. I thought I knew a lot about the Grenada operation, but I can't tell you how much I learned from it. Actually, I can. I learned a lot. ...impressive...fascinating...outstanding...details are chilling...This is really a tour de force--it will become the seminal work on Operation Urgent Fury, and I would strongly recommend it to anyone interested not only in the Grenada operation but to those interested in coming to grips with the Reagan Presidency."—Stephen F. Knott, Naval War College, Newport, RI

Phil Kukielski is a career journalist who worked as a writer and, later, a managing editor of the Providence Journal in Rhode Island over the course of four decades. He lives in Fairfax, Virginia.