Word: panama
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Some of Endara's lieutenants would prefer to have no army at all. Ricardo Arias Calderon, one of Endara's two Vice Presidents, is known to believe Panama should follow the example of Costa Rica, which does not have a substantial military force; yet Calderon has been prevailed on to say the opposite in recent interviews. The U.S. insists that a professional military is needed to protect the Panama Canal and it must, regrettably, be headed in part by Noriega's followers because hardly any uncorrupted and democratic Panamanian officers with military experience are available. "The danger," says Ambler Moss...
...fact, such a development might produce stability of a distinctly unwelcome variety. Many times previously, the interaction of a weak civilian leadership and a strong military has plunged Panama -- and other U.S. client states in Central America -- into dictatorship. A week after the military triumph against Noriega, the U.S. was discovering again that it is much easier to depose a dictator than to establish a democracy...
...probably the best-conceived military operation since World War II," declared retired Army Chief of Staff General Edward Meyer. Insisted a veteran enlisted man in Panama: "From a professional military point of view, this operation will go down as a brilliant success." For the U.S. military, said a senior Pentagon officer who had no doubt that the G.I.s had passed the exam with flying colors, "the Panama invasion was a test of manhood...
Tactically, Grenada and Panama were vastly different. The Grenada strike was thrown together in two days adhering to a foolish requirement that it be a joint operation of all U.S. services. As a result, command lines were blurred and coordination was poor. Navy commanders could not talk to their counterparts in the Army and the Air Force because their radios were incompatible. The troops had difficulty finding the American students they had been sent to liberate...
...Panama attack, in contrast, had been planned and polished for months. Some 13,000 U.S. troops were already in place at well-stocked bases. They provided intelligence on opposing forces and protection for the arriving invaders. Most significant, Panama was mainly an Army show, though small units of Navy SEALs and Marines were involved. Joint Chiefs Chairman General Colin Powell squelched interservice rivalries and gave the two top on-site Army generals, Maxwell Thurman, head of the U.S. Southern Command, and Carl Stiner, the Task Force Commander, clear authority to direct the attacks. Says retired Vice Admiral Joseph Metcalf...