Invasion of Panama
Introduction
The invasion of Panama occurred in 1989 when the United States of America invaded the place. The invasion of Panama occurred during the presidency of George H. W. Bush Senior. The reason for the invasion was because the President of Panama by then called Manuel Noriega was claimed to be a dictator and was known for drug trafficking. The government of US wanted to bring Noriega to justice. Noriega became the head of the National Guard in 1983 thus becoming a powerful person in Panama. The fact that he had this position of power he was then able to have control over the military and thus was able to make it easy to manipulate the elections. When Noriega was the President, corruption became widespread and he was able to kill or arrest anyone he thought was opposing him. When the United States of America heard that Noriega was working with some drug producers caused them to make sanctions on the country (Harding). This angered Noriega because the sanctions were affecting the economy of the country.
When Noriega was declared to be the president he made it clear that the US and Panama were at war. The war started when an American Marine was shot dead by someone from Panama. This action caused the American president Bush to declare war on Panama by the name of Operation Just Cause. In the operation, Panama lost the fight and had Noriega surrendering in 1990. The aftermath of the invasion saw the deaths of so many Panamas’ people who were innocent or had no connections to Noriega (Harding). This is what has caused many people to have outrage over the actions America took over the matter. There were key players that took part especially in decision making in the invasion of Panama by the United States and they are the military, the intelligence, the president, the presidential advisors and the National Security Council. Some of the people who took part in the decision making of the invasion of Panama wrote memoirs about the events.
The president and his advisors are primarily the people who are in charge of a country and whatever events that might, happen. They are the ones who make or break a country. In looking at the invasion of Panama, it is clear that the president’s decision to let it occur was influenced by many people who surround him. This therefore, means that if the decision was the wrong one then many people especially his advisors should be blamed.
The Presidential Advisers
The presidential advisers are very important people in America and the world as a whole. The reason for stating this is that they are usually involved in most decisions made by the president affecting the nation. The presidential advisers are claimed to be the people who help the president in making certain decisions about some matters in the nation. Some of the notable president advisors during the Bush administration are the secretary of defence Dick Cheney and some of his friends whom he had appointed as senior officials in the government. They were the ones who encouraged and suggested some of the decisions that were made during the invasion of Panama. There are some policies, which they also suggested that were used in the fight and invasion.
The president
The most powerful person in a nation is stated to be the president. This is because he is the one who is responsible n making decisions that are considered to be extremely difficult and complex both domestic and international. Most of the decisions made by the president sometimes are influenced by the team of experts that are surrounding the president. The personality of the president especially towards the experts is what makes up the decisions that they make. According to some researches, it is stated that president Bush was a navigator therefore, he listened for more ideas on what to do before coming up with a good decision on the invasion of Panama. After President Bush took over as the President, he assigned most of the people he worked with as the experts that he would use to make decisions about the country. The President Bush of United States has had earlier interaction with Noriega when he was the director of CIA (Harding).
Noriega was the informant of the United States of America especially about the drug trafficking problems that are occurring in Panama and its surrounding. President Bush was the one who worked closely with him and thus they were able to be friends. When Noriega was acting as a spy and informant for the United States of America, he was given immunity for so many things. This caused him to do whatever he wanted. As an informant, he had shady deals with some of the drug lords whom he did business with in Panama (Lindsay-Poland). At the time Bush was in office at the CIA, he should have captured him at that time before he ended up being the powerful man in Panama. There were many things the American government could have prevented the events that led up to the invasion.
The President is the one who has the last word in decision he can overrule all the advisors or policy makers and pass a decision that he wishes. The president agreed to the Invasion of Cause when the American state was declared to be in a state of war by Panama as declared by president Noriega. The reason that made the President come to war with Panama was because of the lives of the Americans that were in Panama whose lives were in danger. A marine from America was killed as a statement from Panama. This action caused many advisers for the President and other people in the nation especially those in the National Government to pressure the President to take serious actions as America as whole was been targeted. This made President Bush to sign the necessary papers in order to give consent that the war should push through. Before the Operation Just Cause pushed through there had been previous operations that were formulated in order to take down Noriega. This was when Noriega was very powerful in that he was able to rig the elections in order to have a puppet President that he could control. If these operations had been carried before then it would have been easier to prevent the aftermath of the invasion in 1989. The president did not let the operation occur because he did not want any problems with the state of Panama.
The military and defence forces
The military and the defence forces were the ones who carried out the invasion of Panama. In the military and defence personnel, is made up of a hierarchy of command. The president is considered to be the chief commander of the armed forces. This therefore, means all military and defence personnel are under the president. The meaning in this statement is that all the orders that were carried out in the invasion came directly from the president. The fact that the president and the military and defence personnel work together has caused them to be part of the decision-making before the invasion (Fishel).
It has been claimed the military personnel had intensive preparations before the invasion even took place. In the preparations, the troops practiced and had intense training. This made is easy for the troops while they were on the ground to fight and achieved what they achieved in Panama. In the invasion, it has been stated that the military personnel that took part in the invasion were from the southern command of the United States, which had the 82nd Airborne division, the 7th infantry division, the navy, the aviation brigade, the marine corps and the special forces of the united states of America. The first troops that were taken to panama were done in 20th December 1989 with the troops estimated to be over 2700 (Fishel). There were many operations that were conducted by the military and defence forces in the invasion. These operations were spearheaded by the commanders of the troops. Most of the operations was done with communication between the commanders he president and the troops before any decision was done on the ground. General Brent Scowcroft is considered to one of the key decision makers in the invasion of Panama (Yates). He communicated with the troops from the white house. There are some operations that were done with the troops because of the spar of the moment or because they had to think and act immediately. These actions are done when there is immediate danger or the lives of the soldiers were in danger.
The decisions for this action are usually done by the troop’s leader (Brent & Zbigniew). Some of operation that are known are the operation of Nifty Package in which the SEALs were to destroy any route or vessel that Noriega would use to escape the nation and also they were supposed to capture him. These actions are what led to the capture of Noriega who surrendered to the US military people. The reason that caused to be captured is that the intensive training that the troops had made it easy for them to know all the routes that Noriega would use. The operation was also well organized by the commanders and the troops were dutiful in all their actions.
The operation Acid Gambit was formulated in order to help rescue Kurt Muse. Kurt was a broadcaster from the US living in panama. In his broadcast, he was known to be providing speeches, which were anti-Noriega. The other notable operations were the Raid at Renacer Prison, which is stated that about 64 prisoners were rescued and the operation Purple Storm in the American freedom was to be asserted, displayed and exercise especially when it comes to movement of the people (Lindsay-Poland). The operations were created in order to help in the invasion and make it easy to defeat Noriega and his troops.
National Security Councils
The national Security Council are the ones who are responsible in responding to any national threat of a nation, therefore, they make decisions that will benefit the nation (Rothkopf). In looking at the case of Panama, it proved to be a national threat. Some of the well-known NSC who made decisions on the invasion of Panama is Brent Scowcroft, Robert Gates, Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, secretary of state James Baker, Chief of Staff, John Sununu and defence secretary Dick Cheney (Brent & Zbigniew). The reason for stating this is that the dictator Noriega had already declared that there was a war between the United States and Panama.
The declaration of war always sends red flag to the National Security Council who will then fear for their country. Secretary Baker was among the members of NSC who commented that the Government should intervene in Panama. This will make them take actions in, which they will inform the president and come up with a solution such as the one made in the invasion of Panama. The United States national security is made up of different agency such as the president, the vice president, the National Secretary of Defence, the Secretary of States, National Security Adviser and Chief of Staff. These are just but few of the people make up the National Security Council.
The National Security Council was the one responsible in most of the actions that were carried out in Panama (Brent & Zbigniew). They made the decisions and agreed upon the actions that were taken by the military and defence personnel’s in the invasion. This shows how the council is powerful for a nation because they are the ones who are responsible in making the decisions about how the nation should handle some matters. It has been claimed that the national security had the mandate to take actions against anyone who seems to be a problem especially for a nation. In the mandate, they have a right to kill the individual without any question. However, in the invasion the council only wanted the dictatorship brought on by Noriega to stop and the people to be free. The council also took this initiative because of the ties that Noriega had with the nation as an informant.
Histories of the foreign policy of the particular president,
President George H. M. Bush was very conscious about the foreign policy therefore, he took his sweet time to analyse all policies regarding international community. Once he was able to make a decision then it was with determination and conviction. He sorted the advice from his close advisers such as Brent and James Baker before he made a decision. He has worked with international communities and thus he had experiences with foreign policies. President Bush did not involve himself and the nation by not taking serious actions on china when they killed hundreds of people who were protesting in 1989.
The policy that he sure got involved with was in Panama when Noriega was considered to be a drug baron and a dictator. He accented for troops to invade Panama and apprehend Noriega. Bush improved the soviet-US relationship. This was done when he did not show any emotion when the Berlin Wall collapsed. Many conservatives did not like this reaction and were comparing him to Ronald Reagan who would have celebrated. Bush also signed a broad arms reduction agreement with Gorbachev where the two countries will reduce the nuclear arsenals. The Bush administration was involved in the Persian Gulf War where they assemble a number of people in order to oppose Iraq. This occurred in 1990 when he sent a number of troops in Kuwait to help the nation from Iraq.
Memoirs of the actual decision-makers in the invasion of panama
The memoir of General Brent Scowcroft showed the position he had in the presidency of George H.M. Bush. Brent was one of the most trusted people for Bush because he was among the people who remained loyal to him. He was a member of the NSC who was claimed to have showed so much strength in the council. He was good at voicing his opinions and pointing out the mistakes of another opinion stated. Most of the decisions that were made during the invasion of Panama was due to him. In the memoir it showed how actively, General Brent was in the decision making because he was involved in the communication between Panama and the white house (Brent & Zbigniew). According to the records, it showed that, he was the communicating for 53 times for the 69 times the communication was done.
Work cited
Brent Scowcroft, Zbigniew Brzezinski. America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy. Basic Books, 2008. Print
Fishel, John T. Civil Military Operations in the New World. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997. Print
Harding, Robert. The History of Panama. Greenwood Publishing, 2006. Print
Lindsay-Poland, John. Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama. Duke University Press, 2003. Print
Rothkopf, David J. Running The World: the Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power. PublicAffairs, 2006. Print
Yates, Lawrence. The U.S. Military Intervention in Panama: Origins, Planning and Crisis Management, June 1987 – December 1989 (First ed.). Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. CMH Publishers, 2008. Print
