Word: noriega
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...within a small circle; Joint Chiefs spokesman Colonel William Smullen asserts that "there were a handful, really a small number, of people in this entire building ((the Pentagon)) who knew this operation was going to happen." In retrospect, though, the invasion looks inevitable. The U.S. through two Administrations built Noriega into a menacing monster -- instead of what he was, the tin-pot dictator of a not very important country -- and put its credibility on the line in declaring that he had to go. But everything Washington tried -- propaganda, economic sanctions, attempts to foment a coup -- failed. The Pentagon prepared fresh...
...Noriega obligingly provided it. The dictator had his rubber-stamp People's Assembly name him "Maximum Leader" and declare that American provocations created a "state of war" between the two countries. That coincided with attacks on U.S. servicemen in Panama. There had previously been hundreds of . similar incidents and not all one-sided; in an altercation outside a laundry in Panama City, a U.S. officer, who was not supposed to be carrying a gun, shot and wounded a Panamanian. It is possible too that Washington took Noriega's declaration of "war" more seriously than it was intended. Nonetheless, the President...
...aides, says a participant. The President was especially infuriated to hear details of the incident in which an American Navy lieutenant was pulled out of a car and beaten by Panama Defense Forces soldiers while his wife was threatened with gang rape. "Enough is enough," said Bush. "This guy ((Noriega)) is not going to lay off. It will only get worse...
...meeting turned to a consideration of options. One was a "surgical" paramilitary attempt to capture Noriega. It was rejected as too iffy and risky (probably wisely, in view of the later inability of American forces to snatch the dictator during the invasion). Powell outlined the plan for a full invasion, forthrightly telling Bush that "there is no way this operation is not going to result in casualties" among both U.S. servicemen and Panamanian civilians. Bush listened and then simply said, "Let's do it" -- by far the most fateful three words of his presidency to date...
Among other reasons, the invasion was notable as perhaps the biggest U.S. foreign policy venture in 40 years that had nothing to do with containment of communism. Nobody ever pretended to find reds among Noriega's entourage or voiced any fear that Panama would go communist. Communism also was only a peripheral issue in the Philippines intervention. One reason the Philippine military dislikes Aquino is that it feels she has not been vigorous enough in suppressing communist guerrillas. But the main issue for Bush was simply the survival of a democratically elected government that Washington had helped to install...