them that the USSR’s assistance “mustnnever be provocative.” This did notnpreclude the signing of several secretnmilitary and technical assistance treatiesnbetween the two great socialistnnations.nOnly later, as Moscow concludednthat Washington’s reaction to thenCubanization of Grenada would notngo beyond rhetoric, did the Sovietnpresence increase. Ambassador GennadiynSazhenev — a former officer innthe USSR’s long-range bomber forcesnwho reportedly served subsequently innSouth America as an agent of the GRUn(Soviet Military Intelligence) — arrivednin Grenada with two Mercedes and anstaff of 20 to establish an embassy in annexpropriated hotel boasting one of thenbest views on the island.nThe tons of PRG records discoverednon the island after its liberationnamply demonstrate that the USSR hadnbig plans for little Grenada. The Kremlinnwas in the process of giving the PRGnat least one and possibly as many as fivenmilitary aircraft, and had offered to trainnyoung Grenadians as pilots in the SovietnUnion. Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, thenSoviet Army’s chief of staff, told thenPRG’s ambassador to,Moscow thatnRussian specialists were being sent tonGrenada “to conduct studies related tonthe construction of military projects.”nThese probably included the notoriousnPoint Salines airport, a “seaport”nplanned for the island’s east coast, annIntersputnik satellite station, and a navalnfacility on the dependency island ofnCarriacou. A contingent of Russiannteachers and their families arrived innGrenada only weeks before the USnintervention; the Soviet news agencynTASS had opened an office in PrimenMinister Maurice Bishop’s heavilyguardednoffice complex (another expropriatednhotel), and young Grenadiansn— children of the NJM party elite —nwere attending the Lenin School innMoscow.nIt is interesting for students of imperialismnto speculate how far the Sovietninfluence in Grenada would have extendednhad it not been nipped in thenbud by Ronald Reagan. For keen observersnsuch as Geoffrey Wagner—nwho had chosen to settle on Grenadanwhen it had been a sleepy little Britishncolony only a few years earlier—itnseemed barely credible to witness teen-naged members of the Grenada-SovietnFriendship Society giving clench-fistednsalutes while chanting: “Long live thenSoviet Union! Long live ProletariannInternationalism!”nRed-Calypso stands out from othernbooks on Grenada’s revolution becausenits author, Geoffrey Wagner, actuallynlived on the island throughout thenPRG’s reign, and for many years beforenthe 1979 coup d’etat. Unlike thendozen or so other writers who havenanalyzed the “Revo,” Wagner was anneyewitness to Grenada’s Gubanization.nNot only has Geoffrey Wagner analyzednhistory, he has lived it. Soldier,nscholar, and poet, he has seen thendecline of the British Raj and thenexpansion of the Soviet empire, hasnconversed with Cuban intelligence officersnin Grenada and guarded NazinDeputy Fiihrer Rudolf Hess whilenserving as a subaltern in the BritishnArmy. As such, Wagner brings anunique verve and unusual detail to hisnstudy of the Grenadian Revolution.nHis honesty is refreshing, especiallynafter the roseate depictions of MauricenBishop and the PRG by leftists in thenUS and Europe, and their jaundicednaccounts of the American intervention.nThe Western left saw Bishop’s Grenadanas a brave new experiment in socialism.nGeoffrey Wagner shows it fornwhat it really was — a sordid attempt byna collection of Stalinist thugs and incompetentnMarxist ideologues to recreatenwhat Maurice Bishop calledn”the land of Lenin” on a 120-squaremilenpiece of Caribbean real estate.nGeoffrey Wagner’s sense of ironynsurfaces throughout Red Calypso,nespecially in his accounts of thenPRG’s eccentricities. As one who hasnalso written extensively on Grenada’snhistory, I found particularly poignantnhis discussion of Maurice Bishop’snhero-worship of an 18th-centurynFrench-Grenadian revolutionarynnamed Julian Fedon, who is best rememberednfor his cold-blooded murdernof 50 British hostages, includingnthe island’s governor. Bishop namednone of his People’s RevolutionarynArmy (PRA) camps in Fedon’s honor,nand it was here that his body, alongnwith the bodies of more than 50 othernpeople massacred by the PRA, wasntaken to be burned.nRed Calypso is unique in its accountnnnof the 1983 US intervention and itsnaftermath. Wagner corrects the faultynmedia accounts of the time, displayingnan impressive understanding of USnmilitary tactics and hardware. He had angrandstand seat for much of the revolution’snmost important events, for hisnisland home was directly across thenroad from the Pointe Salines airportnand the large Cuban camp surroundingnit. As a result, Wagner foundnhimself in the middle of the US 82ndnAirborne Division’s encampment afternthe “Rescue Mission,” a factor whichngave him access to stories and personalitiesnunavailable to any other journalistnor writer.nRegardless of the revolutionarynmayhem documented so painstakinglynin Red Calypso, the book’s mostndisturbing chapter is one aptly titledn”Through a Glass Darkly: The Pressnin Grenada.” Having also resided innGrenada during the PRG’s reign, andnhaving visited there afterwards, I havennever ceased to be astonished at thenWestern media’s treatment of the Grenadandrama as an unprovoked aggressionnagainst a peaceful Caribbean islandnof no strategic importance. Thenimpression given was that the ordinarynpeople of Grenada resented and resistednthe intervention. In reality, an astonishingn97 percent of Grenadiansnpolled believed that they had trulynbeen “rescued” by “Papa Reagan,”nwhile demonstrations were staged tonprotest the departure of US forces. Anpetition signed by 17,000 Grenadiansn(out of a total population of 89,000)nwas presented to the US Embassy,nasking that Grenada be annexed by thenUnited States. An estimated half oi thenisland’s entire population came to hearnPresident Reagan’s speech during hisn1984 visit to Grenada.nEven as Grenada recedes intonAmerican history with the passing ofnthe Reagan administration, the “Revo”nand its aftermath will never be forgottennby the people of Grenada. In thensame way that elderly pensioners innFrance and Belgium preserve fondnmemories of the American boys whon”rescued” them from Nazi tyranny,nGeoffrey Wagner and his friends andnneighbors on Grenada know why thenpower of the US is a force for good innthe world. This is the true lesson ofnGrenada. <^nAPRIL 1989/31n