Grenada/Castro/Reagan: NYT Toes the Line

By Francis A. Boyle, 5 August 1998

Dear Friends:

The best account of the US invasion of Grenada is by Hugh O'Shaughnassey, who was there at the time, covering Grenada for a British publication, I believe either the Observer or the Guardian. His book systematically exposes each and every lie told by the Reagan administration about the invasion of Grenada.

In the Spring after the invasion, I went down to Cuba to interview the construction workers. They were indeed construction workers. I know them when I see them because during the summers in high school and college I used to do heavy construction work. About 45 or so of them were simply murdered by US Special Forces at the airport that they were then building. According to their account, US paratroopers just killed everyone in sight as they descended on the airport from the sky. My colleague, Professor John Quigley of Ohio State University Law School was in Cuba with me for this interview. He later wrote an article entitled Deat h from the Sky recounting it. I have written about the illegalities of the invasion myself in Defending Civil Resistance under International Law and World Politics and International Law.

Right after the invasion, the New York Times Op-Ed editor asked me to write an op-ed piece against the legality of the invasion, which I immediately did and called in. It never appeared. I called him and asked why: “Public opinion has shifted in favor of Reagan. We see no point publishing something so critical.” I asked him who made this decision: Abe Rosenthal, then head of the Op-Ed Page. I called Rosenthal to try to discuss this matter with him. Basically, he told me to go to hell and hung up the phone. The Newspeak Times never paid me my kill fee. You can read the article I wrote for the Newspeak Times in Defending Civil Resistance, under the title International Lawlessness in Grenada, and also in 78 American Journal of International Law and Power 172(1984). My analysis was endorsed and signed by Professors Isaak Dore, Abe Chayes, Clyde Ferguson, and Burns Weston, among others.

Francis A. Boyle
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