TABLE OF CONTENTS to TURNING POINT: How Reagan Liberated Grenada and Won the Cold War by John Bachman

FOREWORD BY CRAIG SHIRLEY

AUTHOR’S NOTE

PREFACE

PART ONE

CHAPTER 1 THE METASTASIS OF MARXISM IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

CHAPTER 2 REAGAN’S RISE

CHAPTER 3 THE RESIGNATION OF AL HAIG

CHAPTER 4 THE SOVIET GERONTOCRACY

PART TWO

CHAPTER 5 RIPE FOR REVOLUTION

CHAPTER 6 CONTINGENCY PLANS

CHAPTER 7 THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP

PART THREE

CHAPTER 8 OPERATION URGENT FURY

CHAPTER 9 A NATION WITH GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITIES

EPILOGUE

APPENDIX A:  PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN’S “EVIL EMPIRE” SPEECH TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS

APPENDIX B:  PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN’S ADDRESS TO THE NATION ON EVENTS IN LEBANON AND GRENADA

APPENDIX C:  PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN’S REMARKS AT A WHITE HOUSE CEREMONY MARKING THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE GRENADA RESCUE MISSION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NOTES

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS

INDEX

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Epilogue to TURNING POINT: How Reagan Liberated Grenada and Won the Cold War by John Bachman

In October of 1983, Grenada was under the thumb of a brutal Marxist regime, which had just assassinated Maurice Bishop—the leader of a slightly-less brutal Marxist regime—during a bloody coup.

The U.S. government feared, with good reason, that the Soviet and Cuban-backed People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) would harm American citizens living on the island amidst a politically unstable situation, leading President Ronald Reagan to approve the invasion to rescue them.

At the time, approximately 1,000 American civilians were in Grenada. Most of these civilians were medical students at St. George’s University School of Medicine, as well as faculty and their families.

Operation Urgent Fury took place from October 25 to November 2, 1983, and while the fighting only lasted four days, the combat was intense, and American soldiers died in the fighting.

After the American victory, rescue of American citizens, and liberation of the Grenadian people, the Grenadian government declared October 26th as a day of thanksgiving, recognizing the role that the United States played in stopping the chaos and providing stability after years of unrest. Schools, businesses, and government offices are closed for the day to allow citizens to participate in the observance.

Their freedom, and ours, would not be possible without the men who laid down their lives fighting tyranny on that tiny island in the Caribbean.

The victory also sent a clear message to the Soviets and Cubans. The United States, under President Reagan, was no longer willing to tolerate the spread of Marxism and Communism in the Western Hemisphere.

Let us recognize the 19 men who were killed during Operation Urgent Fury defending freedom everywhere. All honor to their names.

U.S. ARMY

• Specialist 4 Mark Yamane: 1st Battalion, 75th Rangers
• Private First Class Russell Robinson: 1st Battalion, 75th Rangers
• Private First Class Marlin Maynard: 1st Battalion, 75th Rangers
• Sergeant Mark Rademacher: 1st Battalion, 75th Rangers
• Sergeant Randy Cline: 1st Battalion, 75th Rangers
• Specialist 4 Philip Grenier: 2nd Battalion, 75th Rangers
• Sergeant Kevin Lannon: 2nd Battalion, 75th Rangers
• Sergeant Stephen Slater: 2nd Battalion, 75th Rangers
• Sergeant Sean P. Luketina: 82nd Airborne Division
• Staff Sergeant Gary Epps: 82nd Airborne Division
• Captain Michael Ritz: 82nd Airborne Division
• Private First Class Dinesh Rajbhandary: 82nd Airborne
• Captain Keith Lucas: 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment 

U.S. NAVY—SEAL TEAM 6

• Petty Officer 1st Class Kenneth J. Butcher
• Petty Officer 1st Class Kevin E. Lundberg
• Senior Chief Engineman Robert R. Schamberger
• Petty Officer 1st Class Stephen L. Morris

U.S. MARINE CORPS

• First Lieutenant Jeffery Scharver: AH-1 pilot
• Captain Jeb Seagle: AH-1 pilot

Foreword by Craig Shirley to TURNING POINT: How Reagan Liberated Grenada and Won the Cold War by John Bachman

This is John Bachman’s first book with many more to hopefully come. He is a wonderful writer and researcher. By day, he works for Newsmax but by night, he writes and conducts exceptional research.

And that is the key to good nonfiction writing. Research. In a nonfiction book, the writing is only as good as the research and John dug deep to tell this important story accurately.

And what a story.

By now, the reader, you, must know this fact and good for Humanix Books to have the wisdom to publish this important work of history. It is a story that has not been told before.

The biggest story of the twentieth century—the fall of the Soviet Union—starts with the battle for Grenada. It is the first time the West and the United States successfully pushed back against the Soviets and communism. Since the end of World War II and the rise of Soviet communism, the story had often been about America losing and the Soviets winning. Too many times.

In Korea, we ended up with a stalemate against Communist China, backed by the Soviets.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was scored as a public relations win for America and President Kennedy, but the Russians got what they wanted—the removal of our nuclear missiles from Turkey and a pledge by the Kennedy Administration not to invade Cuba. And the Soviets still maintained their forward operating post.

We all know what happened in Vietnam, but also Laos and Cambodia. They all fell to communism. The Soviets were also in Africa and Central American, in direct violation of the Monroe Doctrine and the Treaty of Rios—United States initiatives that told outsiders to stay out of the affairs of our hemisphere.

In President Kennedy’s magnificent phraseology, he called the Cold War a “long, twilight struggle” but it was sometimes a hot struggle too, and the battle from Grenada was indeed hot. We won and evicted the communists and John tells it in gripping detail.

TURNING POINT tells the story of the liberation of Grenada, a critical time in the Cold War: a turning point from Soviet advances towards the United States’ eventual victory over the Soviet state—the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Warsaw Pact countries, and eventually the Soviet republics, and eventually, Russia itself.

Grenada was more than just a story about a small battle in a Caribbean nation. It was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. A new president was in town, and he rejected the co-existence and détente policies of previous presidents.

No, this president, Ronald Reagan was going to hit this “Evil Empire” with everything.

First, he rejected the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II (SALT II), the Jimmy Carter-inspired treaty with the Soviets, deeming it as “knuckling under” to Soviet intentions. He’d already rejected the previously negotiated Helsinki Treaty, which codified Soviet domination of the Eastern Block.

He rebuilt American defenses. He put the world on notice that America was no longer the “pitiful giant” on the world stage.

He increased the funding for Radio Free Europe and Radio Marti. He stepped up our covert operations and aided the freedom movements throughout the world including the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia.

Reagan often spoke out against the Soviets, saying America would transcend the Soviet state and cosine it to “the ash heap of history.”

An important point had been reached on world affairs. The Soviets were on the run.

In a coup de grâce, Reagan unveiled his plan for the Strategic Defense Initiative. It was a planned land- and space-based system that would shoot down Soviet ICBMs.

The Soviets were scared shitless. So much so that at the Reykjavik Summit, Soviet Premier Gorbachev offered to eliminate an entire class of Russian missiles if Reagan would give up his beloved SDI.

Reagan said “no.”

It was the “no” heard round the world.

After that, the handwriting was on the wall. The Soviets gave up their invasion of Afghanistan. And, after a fashion, the breakaway republics in Eastern Europe, well, broke away.

Then, the Berlin Wall fell. Reagan had left office several months before, but all credit was due him.

Ronald Reagan won the Cold War by standing firm against Soviet hegemony.

The Chinese say a journey of a thousand miles starts with a first step. And the first step in the defeat of Soviet communism began prophetically in a small Island named Grenada.

It’s a story that needs to be told and now John Bachman has told it and tells it well.

CRAIG SHIRLEY

TURNING POINT: How Reagan Liberated Grenada and Won the Cold War  by John Bachman FEATURES: 

• Interviews with administration officials and foreign policy leaders directly involved with the planning and execution of Operation Urgent Fury,

• New and startling revelations unearthed from primary sources about the circumstances surrounding the invasion,

• An effective blueprint for how America can act swiftly and decisively without being dragged into an unending war,

• A cautionary tale for how mission creep and a lack of clear objectives can derail an otherwise successful Operation.