Quotes from Paul Slansky,
The Clothes Have No Emperor—
10/19 [press conference question] ... what about the safety of the US Marines in Beirut?
"We're looking at everything that can be done to try and make their position safer," [Reagan] says. "We're not sitting idly by."
10/23 A truck bomb at the US barracks in Beirut kills 241 Marines.
10/25 Claiming that US medical students there are in grave danger, President Reagan diverts attention from the Beirut fiasco by launching an invasion of Grenada. Lest there be any doubt about presidential involvement in this decision, photographs are released showing a pajama-clad Reagan—up at 5:15 A.M.!—being briefed on the situation.
Curiously, reporters are prevented from covering the event.
10/26 American medical students from Grenada kiss the tarmac upon landing in South Carolina. Scoffs school bursar Gary Solin, "Our safety was never in danger. We were used by this government as an excuse to invade Grenada." President Reagan says US troops "got there just in time" to prevent a Cuban takeover.
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