War and peace

Among the cruise lines calling at Grenada are Princess, Carnival, Crystal, Oceania, Celebrity, Wind Star, MSC, Silversea, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Seabourn, Norwegian and Costa.

France claimed Grenada as a colony in 1650, ceded it to the British in 1763, then took it back during the American Revolution. Britain ruled it again after the war until it granted islanders independence in 1974. Grenada remains a parliamentary democracy.

As Caribbean islands go, the crime rate is low. When Hurricane Ivan roared through in 2004, it damaged the prison, and the incarcerated left to check on their families. Once the emergency was over, a public service announcement ordered prisoners to return to serve out their sentences. All did.

The U.S. got involved in Grenada politics a few years after a coup put a government in power with a Marxist philosophy, and ties to Cuba and other communist countries. But some hard-liners thought the prime minister too moderate, so another coup in 1983 put him under house arrest. Grenadians protested, the prime minister was freed, then recaptured and executed. That’s when the U.S., along with a small military contingent from other Caribbean islands, invaded.

So-called Operation Urgent Fury meant to prevent communists from gaining another foothold in the region. The United Nations, along with the governments of Britain, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, protested. The U.S. rationalized it had an interest in rescuing roughly 600 U.S. medical students on the island to avoid another Iran hostage crisis.

Less than two months later, it was all over, and elections the following year restored democracy. The date of the invasion, Oct. 25, became a national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day.