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Finally permitted by U.S. military authorities to roam freely on Grenada, newsmen found that even some of the island's ardent leftists were enthusiastic about the American intervention. Former Prime Minister Maurice Bishop had been their hero, and when he was placed under house arrest by extremists led by Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard and then executed by a Military Revolutionary Army Council headed by General Hudson Austin, the earlier revolutionaries lost their zeal. Said Lloyd Noel, a former Attorney General under Bishop who had been imprisoned after breaking with Bishop's party: "The Americans should feel free to establish a base here." He urged that the U.S. stay for at least two years of transition to a more stable government. Lyden Ramdhany, Bishop's former Minister of Tourism, conceded that "there is an end to the revolution in Grenada. We feel very embarrassed and upset. We have disappointed the left all over the Caribbean." Many Grenadians not active in politics took a similar view. "The revolution taught us what the masses can do, and what the masses are going to do today is destroy the revolution," said Norris Cox, another cement worker.
The Cubans clearly had lost favor on the island. When a noon crowd watching the police station in Grenville saw 82nd Airborne officers arrive with Godwin Horsford, a well-known Coard supporter, in their custody, the spectators booed Horsford and shouted, "Cuban! Cuban!" Ermyn Campbell, who lived next door to the Cuban embassy in St. George's, recalled that "the Cubans were darling neighbors, very polite. But the U.S. is the best thing for us now. Things were coming so unstuck that I'm sure we were just snatched in time from the devil's own mouth."
Grenadians seemed eager to comply with the pleas of Sir Paul Scoon, the Governor-General, who represents Queen Elizabeth II. His ceremonial post, virtually ignored by the Bishop government, suddenly became a temporary center of power. The residents heeded his call to go back to their jobs, even though many found little to do there. In St. George's Harbor, where colorful fishing boats bobbed in the coral-studded water, customs inspectors appeared for duty in a nearly empty storeroom. Said Haddon Latouche, one of the inspectors: "In the past, we saw crates and shipments, but we couldn't inspect them. There was always a superior authority from the party present." Some $475,000 worth of emergency food and basic supplies were on their way from the U.S. to replenish dwindling stocks. But even without them, Grenadians were in an optimistic mood. Said one shopkeeper: "We have plenty enough. The cows are in the pasture, and the fish are in the sea."