How the US invasion of Grenada was reported in 1983

The US president ordered troops into the Caribbean island, part of the Commonwealth, in October 1983 after prime minister Maurice Bishop was overthrown and murdered.

The move infuriated the British prime minister, who sent a response just after midnight on the day troops moved in, saying “This action will be seen as intervention by a western country in the internal affairs of a small independent nation, however unattractive its regime.”

Reagan-Thatcher tapes

In tapes released by the White House of a phone call responding to this message, Reagan is heard speaking in a soft and apologetic tone as he seeks to appease his famously close ally.

Opening the conversation, he told Mrs Thatcher: “If I were there, Margaret, I’d throw my hat in the door before I came in.”

(Reagan Library/Margaret Thatcher Foundation)

She responds, saying: “There’s no need to do that.”

In a conversation lasting more than ten minutes, the president explained at length that the United States had not given advance notice of the invasion because of fears a mole would leak sensitive information.

Other recordings include the president attempting to persuade Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to delay pulling troops from Lebanon in 1983; discussing the release of western hostages in the Middle East with Pakistani president Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq; and a conversation with Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, the father of Syria’s current president Bashar al-Assad. Grenada gained independence from the UK in 1974.

Operation Urgent Fury was launched by the US after a power struggle within Bishop’s leftist New Jewel Movement led to his arrest and killing. The invasion resulted in a US victory within weeks.