An Analysis Of The Relationship Between U.S. And Grenada Based On Deterrence Theory(1979-1983)

Grenada is one of the many small countries in the eastern Caribbean,which was rarely invaded in the history of the United States invasion of the Caribbean since James Monroe up to Jimmy Carter.Unfortunately,owing to the turbulent situation in the Caribbean in the 1970s,the involvement of the USSR in the Western Hemisphere and the geostrategic significance of Grenada,the United States took notice of this region after the New Jewel Movement and took place and put the intervention of the Grenada revolution on the agenda.How to prevent Grenada from being the second Cuba in the Western Hemisphere is the problem that U.S.government must solve.Faced with the defeat of the Vietnam War,the opposition of public opinions and the expansion of the USSR in the Third World in the 1970s,how to handle these severe challenges in the early 1980s,adjust strategies and establish the absolute influence in the Western Hemisphere became the urgent questions that Reagan must solve without delay.Unlike his predecessor,president Carter,Reagan abandoned the Human rights diplomacy and returned to Truman's Containment strategy which based on realism to resist the emergence and spread of the Communism and fully against the USSR.For the purpose of defending the NJM,Grenada took the Deterrence strategy which mainly used propaganda and supplemented by Cuba's and USSR's military assistance.However,due to the disparity in the overall national strength between the two sides and the uncertainty in the behavior of each other in anarchy,Grenada was finally invaded by the United States,NJM and the Deterrence strategy ended in failure.For the United States,the post-war strategy from the end of World War ? to Reagan's first term was quite a twist and experienced such a change as "Containment-Mitigation-Containment".Reagan's first term was just at the turning point of the regression of Mitigation strategy back to Containment strategy.The sign of this change is precisely the invasion of the Grenada.After successfully interfering Grenada,the United States had largely got rid of the Vietnam Syndrome and regained confidence,revolution in the Caribbean had also entered a period of low tide.Thus far,the United States basically achieved its objective of interference and became more invasive in foreign policy.The interaction between the U.S.and Grenada,the increase in mutual hostility and the failure of deterrence are typical manifestations of "spiral of horror"under security dilemma.Revisiting the cause and effect of this event has great significance for the study of Deterrence theory.On the basis of the combination of the model of Deterrence theory as well as the development of Grenada-U.S.relations together with the influence factor of Deterrence theory,this thesis will further elaborate this event.