What Was the Point of Invading Grenada?

The early 1980s were not good years for the United States. The decade started with the yet unresolved Iranian hostage crisis. For 444 days, American personnel of the US Embassy in Tehran were held hostage. The matter was resolved only after President Carter was out of office (the Iranians waited until President Reagan took the oath of office to allow the plane carrying the hostages to leave Tehran's Mehrabad Airport) and the Reagan administration agreed to unfreeze billions in Iranian assets. 1983 was a particularly hard year for American morale. In that year, a suicide bomber blew up the US embassy in Beirut. Of the almost 70 dead, 17 were were Americans. Later that year, an even bigger blow. Literally. The largest man-made, non-nuclear explosion in history destroyed the American Marine barracks in supposedly safe west Beirut. It was the largest single loss of life for the Marines since the Second World War. Needless to say, America could use a boost. It got one right before Halloween.