For the Record

After Beirut bombing and Grenada invasion, Ronald Reagan got help from. surprising source: House Speaker Tip O’Neill. House leadership quashed move by some Democrats to force vote on U.S. troop withdrawal from Lebanon. While many Democrats question move on Grenada—Senator Lawton Chiles (D., Fla.): “Are we looking for a war we can win?”—O’Neill said now is not the time for the press and Congress to be critical of U.S. Government, “when our Marines and Rangers are in action down there.” . . . American death toll in Beirut blast exceeded deaths from any similar incident in Vietnam, reports Fox Butterfield of New York Times. Largest number of U.S. soldiers killed in one day in Vietnam was 246 on January 31, 1968, start of Tet offensive. U.S. toll for October 23 blast in Beirut may even exceed that. . . Invasion of Grenada has slightly chilled U.S.-British relations. When Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told U.S. of her opposition to invasion, Secretary of State George Shultz replied: “We responded to the urgent request of the states in the area. . . . The Caribbean is in our neighborhood.” . . . Eugenia Charles, prime minister of Dominica, described it as closer than that. Caribbean, she said, isn’t U.S. back yard; it’s the front yard. . . . Fidel Castro probably wasn’t nearly as upset as he indicated by overthrow of Maurice Bishop. Prime Minister Charles told press in Washington of information showing that Soviets and Cubans were behind Bishop’s ouster and death. Trigger man is said to be Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Lane, a Grenadian. U.S. sources describe him as a “certified terrorist” trained inside Soviet Union. . . . Lieutenant Colonel Desi Bouterse, far-left ruler of Surinam, another neighbor of Grenada, doesn’t want to go way of Bishop. On heels of Grenadian invasion, Bouterse. went on television to announce that he had given Oscar Oswaldo Cardenas, Cuba’s ambassador to Surinam, six days to leave country. “After an evaluation of the relations between Surinam and Cuba,” he said, “we have decided to suspend all the existing agreements temporarily between Surinam and Cuba.”, Cardenas, like Julian Torres Rizo, Cuba’s ambassador to Grenada, is member of Cuban Communist Party’s Central Committee, branch of Cuban government charged with spreading little Cubas throughout Western Hemisphere. . . . Anti-Sandinistas are ecstatic over Grenada. Adolfo Calero Portocarrero, president of Nicaraguan Democratic Force, declared: “We think the United States has finally abandoned its policy of drift and indecision in Central America and is ready to take decisive action to put an end to Soviet expansionism.” . . . When will Marines and Rangers leave? Administration says within a few weeks. Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga says Caribbean nations involved in landing—Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent—will maintain security until elections can be held, in about six months.

“There’s never a cordless telephone around when you need one.”

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After Beirut bombing and Grenada invasion, Ronald Reagan got help from. surprising source: House Speaker Tip O’Neill. House leadership quashed move by some Democrats to force vote on U.S. troop withdrawal from Lebanon. While many Democrats question move on Grenada—Senator Lawton Chiles (D., Fla.): “Are we looking for a war we can win?”—O’Neill said now is not the time for the press and Congress to be critical of U.S. Government, “when our Marines and Rangers are in action down there.” . . . American death toll in Beirut blast exceeded deaths from any similar incident in Vietnam, reports Fox Butterfield of New York Times. Largest number of U.S. soldiers killed in one day in Vietnam was 246 on January 31, 1968, start of Tet offensive. U.S. toll for October 23 blast in Beirut may even exceed that. . . Invasion of Grenada has slightly chilled U.S.-British relations. When Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told U.S. of her opposition to invasion, Secretary of State George Shultz replied: “We responded to the urgent request of the states in the area. . . . The Caribbean is in our neighborhood.” . . . Eugenia Charles, prime minister of Dominica, described it as closer than that. Caribbean, she said, isn’t U.S. back yard; it’s the front yard. . . . Fidel Castro probably wasn’t nearly as upset as he indicated by overthrow of Maurice Bishop. Prime Minister Charles told press in Washington of information showing that Soviets and Cubans were behind Bishop’s ouster and death. Trigger man is said to be Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Lane, a Grenadian. U.S. sources describe him as a “certified terrorist” trained inside Soviet Union. . . . Lieutenant Colonel Desi Bouterse, far-left ruler of Surinam, another neighbor of Grenada, doesn’t want to go way of Bishop. On heels of Grenadian invasion, Bouterse. went on television to announce that he had given Oscar Oswaldo Cardenas, Cuba’s ambassador to Surinam, six days to leave country. “After an evaluation of the relations between Surinam and Cuba,” he said, “we have decided to suspend all the existing agreements temporarily between Surinam and Cuba.”, Cardenas, like Julian Torres Rizo, Cuba’s ambassador to Grenada, is member of Cuban Communist Party’s Central Committee, branch of Cuban government charged with spreading little Cubas throughout Western Hemisphere. . . . Anti-Sandinistas are ecstatic over Grenada. Adolfo Calero Portocarrero, president of Nicaraguan Democratic Force, declared: “We think the United States has finally abandoned its policy of drift and indecision in Central America and is ready to take decisive action to put an end to Soviet expansionism.” . . . When will Marines and Rangers leave? Administration says within a few weeks. Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga says Caribbean nations involved in landing—Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent—will maintain security until elections can be held, in about six months.

“There’s never a cordless telephone around when you need one.”