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Then began the most extraordinary weekend of Ronald Reagan's presidency. He had flown to Georgia's Augusta National Golf Club late Friday for two days of relaxation with Shultz and Treasury Secretary Donald Regan. At 2:45 a.m. on Saturday, Shultz was awakened in the Eisenhower cottage at Augusta with an urgent cable from Barbados, which told him that the eastern Caribbean states wanted the U.S. to invade Grenada. Shultz and the new National Security Adviser, Robert ("Bud") McFarlane, reported the request to Vice President Bush on a secure telephone line to Washington at about 3:30 a.m. Bush, in turn, roused other NSC officials to discuss the plea. He told Shultz and McFarlane that the advisers were eager, at the least, to speed the planning for an invasion. At 5:15 a.m. Reagan listened to Shultz and McFarlane explain the invasion request. He wanted to get the views of Bush and Defense Secretary Weinberger firsthand and telephoned them.
Back in Washington, Bush assembled top security officials, including Weinberger, General Vessey and key White House aides for a meeting that began at 9 a.m. and lasted almost two hours. Summed up one participant: "Everyone was gung-ho." The President joined the conversation via speakerphone for five minutes. One White House staffer warned that there would be "a lot of harsh political reaction" to a U.S. strike at the small island nation. Replied the President: "I know that. I accept that." Still, Weinberger and Vessey wanted to learn more about the weapons and willingness to fight of the Cubans on Grenada. Recalled an aide: "I had a real fear that it could be a very bad situation: Desert One all over again."
Reagan and Shultz deliberately continued to play golf on Saturday, knowing that a sudden return to Washington would fuel speculation. Suddenly, in the afternoon, Reagan took a break for a bizarre reason: a drunken gunman wanting to see him had crashed his pickup truck through a golf course gate and held hostages in the club's pro shop. After trying in vain to talk to the man by telephone, Reagan was whisked back from the 16th hole to the Eisenhower cabin by heavily armed Secret Service agents.
Then came another shocker, one of far greater significance. At 2:27 a.m. on Sunday, Reagan was awakened with the tragic news of the bombing of American and French military quarters in Beirut. The casualties jolted him. He knew he had to get back to Washington.
Now the Grenada operation became subtly intertwined with the atrocities in Lebanon. With so many American lives just lost, could Reagan risk more so soon in a military action he had the power to abort? Momentarily, he considered abandoning the invasion. Never, recalled an aide, had Reagan felt the burdens of the presidency so heavily. Could we permit "more blood on our hands?" one adviser asked somberly.