
U.S. Invasion of Panama Controversial Yet "Just" to Remove a Corrupt Government Rule of President Manuel Noriega
On December 20, 1989, the United States broke both international law and its own government policies by invading Panama in order to bring its President Manuel Noriega to justice for drug trafficking.
Noriega had seized control of his country back in 1983 when he became head of the National Guard. From this position of power, he was able to build up the military and manipulate elections so that the winning presidents would be his puppet leaders.
Corruption was widespread during Noriega's rule, and he was able to use his power to imprison and sometimes kill any who opposed him. In 1987 a former officer of the Panamanian defense force publicly accused Noriega of cooperating with Colombian drug producers.
The US responded by imposing strict sanctions that took an extensive toll on the country. On December 15, 1989, the Panamanian legislature declared Noriega president and that the US and Panama were in a state of war. Following the shooting of a U.S. Marine, President George Bush ordered Operation Just Cause, an invasion consisting of over 25,000 soldiers. The mission was controversial due to the resulting loss of hundreds of Panamanian lives and the subsequent damage to Panama City and El Chorillo.
The military was able to quickly achieve its goals as Noriega surrendered on January 3, 1990. He was taken to the US, tried, convicted and jailed on drug trafficking charges and is currently serving his 40-year sentence in Miami.
Table of Contents:
Foreword .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
The Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Chapter
1. The Panama Crisis, June 1987–December 1989 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Origins of the Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The Southern Command Reacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Routine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Operation Nimrod Dancer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Road to Just Cause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2. Preparations and Adjustments, 17–19 December 1989 . . . . . . . . . . 37
Sunday, 17 December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Monday, 18 December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Tuesday, 19 December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3. Special Operations at the Outset of Just Cause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Regime Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Task Force White: The Canal, Balboa Harbor, and Paitilla
Airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
The Rescue of Kurt Muse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4. Task Force Gator and the Comandancia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Plans and Preparations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
The Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5. Task Force Semper Fi and Task Force Black Devil . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Task Force Semper Fi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Task Force Black Devil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
6. Task Force Wildcat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Preparations and Initial Movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Team Track and Company C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Company A, 5th Battalion, 87th Infantry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Company B, 5th Battalion, 87th Infantry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
7. Task Force Black and Task Force Red-T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Task Force Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Task Force Red-T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
8. The 82d Airborne Division on D-day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Planning and Preparations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
On the Ground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
The Air Assaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
9. Task Force Red-R at Rio Hato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Plans, Preparations, and Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
The Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
10. Task Force Atlantic: D-day in Area of Operations North . . . . . . . 301
Perceptions, Planning, and Preparations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Coco Solo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Fort Espinar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
The Colón Bottleneck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
11. Task Force Atlantic: D-day in Area of Operations South . . . . . . . 331
Preparations, Deployment, and Prewar Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Madden Dam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Cerro Tigre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Gamboa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Renacer Prison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
12. Loose Ends, 20 December 1989–3 January 1990 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Hostages at the Marriott Hotel and Elsewhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
The Move into Colón . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Counterattack at the DNTT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Ma Bell and Other Operations Outside the Canal Area . . . . . . . . 384
Apprehending the Dictator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
13. The Transition to Stability Operations and Nation Building,
December 1989–January 1990 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
From Blind Logic to Promote Liberty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
The Transition in the Field: The Troops and the People . . . . . . . . 415
Panama City: From Ordered Chaos to the Military
Support Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
14. Follow-Through and Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
A Busy Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Tables
Charts
Maps
Illustrations
The Panama crisis and its military resolution are integral parts of America’s military heritage. The difficult planning that went into Operation Just Cause should be studied by current military strategists and officers, policymakers, and members of government in order to understand the kinds of military strategies and planning that may be needed for future missions of similar complexity.
Product Details
- Yates, Lawrence A.
- Center of Military History Publication 55 3 1
- Contingency Operations Series
- Panama, History, American Invasion, 1989, Causes
- Military planning, United States
- Army History
- United States Military Intervention in Panama: Operation Just Cause
- Unified operations (Military science), Case studies