Grenada's "rescue" accomplished, the task of rehabilitation begins
Sweat soaked the layers of their camouflage battle uniforms. Their rifles and backpacks grew heavy in the 100° F heat of the tropical isle. But it had been a long time since American soldiers had felt so good, or so welcome, in a foreign land. Declared a delighted U.S. paratrooper as he patrolled a post in a suddenly peaceful Grenada: "We're surrounded by friendlies."
Indeed they were. The Grenadians had lived through the intrigue and excitement of a Marxist revolution and experienced one of the bloodiest days in the tiny island's history when then" popular leader, Maurice Bishop, and more than 100 citizens were gunned down by renegade leftist radicals on Oct. 19. They had fearfully endured a round-the-clock curfew imposed by an undisciplined military regime that issued orders to kill any violators. They had huddled in their houses after the American invaders had jolted them awake in a furious predawn assault on
Oct. 25. Last week Grenadians let their spirits soar.
"The chains have been removed from our hands, the stitches from our lips," said Wilkie Edwards, a bus driver in the fishing town of Grenville on Grenada's east coast. The zesty beat of steel-band calypso music from radios and portable tape decks followed the U.S. military patrols as smiling Grenadians surged about the Americans. They offered the soldiers fruit and vegetables and serenaded them with guitars. Women rushed to embrace the young paratroopers. "I feel so settled; I feel so free," declared Linda Charles, a cashier in a reopened gas station in St. George's. With a grin, David Rodd, a cement-plant worker, proclaimed: "This is the week of our liberation." Newly painted writing appeared beside the faded slogans of the revolution on the walls of buildings. GOD BLESS AMERICA read some. A few residents suggested as delicious irony: the island's new 10,000-ft. airstrip, begun with Cuban labor and long the object of deep concern in Washington, be completed with U.S. dollars and be named "Ronald Reagan International Airport."
The euphoria on the picturesque island, roughly the acreage of Detroit, may fade as Grenada tries to rebuild its shattered political system and economy. It will not be easy to fashion a new government that islanders, badly split in political ideology, can trust, or to revive an economy hurt by falling crop and tourist income. In addition, the country still faces the task of repairing its rocky roads as well as its war-damaged power facilities and water systems.