Red Calypsonby Geoffrey WagnernChicago and Washington, DC:nRegnery Gateway; 264 pp., $12.95nGrenada’s Communist interiudenhas become the subject of annintense postmortem by scholars of varyingnideological hues. Historically, thensmall island is destined to be a symbol ofnthe Reagan years. However much thenUS intervention of October 25, 1983 isnvilified by the left, objective observersnwill remember it as the only successfulnmanifestation of the Reagan administration’snpolicy towards Latin America andnthe Caribbean. Whatever your perspectivenon the “Grenada Rescue Mission,”nthere can be no doubt that thenvast majority of the island’s inhabitantsnfelt that the United States had trulynliberated them from a Marxist-Leninistntyranny. A pluralistic political system,nregardless of its many foibles, is todaynthriving in Grenada. Grenada representsnthe only proven demonstration ofnthe Reagan Doctrine — rolling backncommunism through force of arms.nAdmittedly, the arms in this case werencarried by American soldiers and notnindigenous “freedom fighters,” but thenpolicy was the same.nTimothy Ashby is director of thenOffice of Mexico and the CaribbeannBasin at the Commerce Department.n30/CHRONICLESnThe Lessons of Grenadanby Timothy Ashbyn’To conquer tumult, nature’s sodin force, War . . . was Hrst devis’d.”n— Sir William D’AvenantnGrenada offers other lessons,nthough. The “Revo” of Marchn13, 1979 that brought to power thenPeople’s Revolutionary Governmentn(PRG) was a classic case of a communistncoup d’etat. In fact, the takeovernwas staged in such a textbook fashionnthat a Soviet cruise ship was anchorednoff the Grenadian capital of St. George’snthroughout the single day it took tonrender the island safe for socialism,ngiving the KGB operatives aboard angrandstand seat to this Marxist revolutionnwith a Caribbean beat.nCuba played the role of subversivenvanguard for this revolution, establishingnstrong ties with Maurice Bishopnand Bernard Coard’s New JewelnMovement (NJM) years before then1979 coup. Cuban commandoes supportednthe NJM in its ridiculously easynhijacking of the island and its government,nand Fidel Castro quickly sentnhundreds of military trainers, technicians,nand intelligence agents to Grenadanin the “Revo’s” aftermath.nCastro obviously attached great importancento his relations with Grenada.nnnHis friendship with Maurice Bishop,nthe PRG’s prime minister, was genuine,nand stemmed in large measurenfrom Bishop’s unabashed hero-worshipnof Cuba’s maxima lider. The man sentnas Havana’s ambassador to Grenadanwas Julian Torres Rizo, a senior intelligencenofficer from the Cuban CommunistnParty’s own intelligence arm,nthe Departmento America. After beingnbooted out of Grenada by the USn82nd Airborne Division, Torres Rizonreturned to a hero’s welcome in Havananand subsequent promotion to benan alternate member of the CubannCommunist Party’s Politburo. Such anfate was not shared by Colonel PedronTortolo Comas, the Soviet-trained officernsent to defend the island againstnYankee imperialist aggression: the haplessncolonel was broken to private andnshipped to Angola.nMoscow’s relations with Grenadanwere deliberately kept low-key for thenfirst two years following the coup. NonSoviet subversion or covert politicalnmaneuvering was necessary to win influencenwith the PRG, for the Grenadiansnactively wooed the Russians,npressuring Cuba to champion Grenada’sn”cause” with the Kremlin whilenseeking to enhance Grenada’s “importancenin the Soviet scheme of things.”nFor their part, the Russians seemednwary of provoking a US backlash,ncounseling the PRG to present a moderatenface to the woHd, and tellingn