Operation Just Cause

\n Operation Just Cause was the U.S. military invasion of Panama which deposed Manuel Noriega in December 1989, during the administration of U.S. President George H. W. Bush. The name "Just Cause" has been used primarily by the United States military for planning and historical purposes and by other U.S. entities such as the State Department. Panamanians usually refer to it simply as The Invasion (la invasión).

Table of contents

1 General information 1.1 Origin of the name 2 Aftermath 3 American units involved in the operation 4 Related operations 5 External links 6 References

General information

Just Cause D-Day and H-Hour was December 20, 1989, 0100 local time. Following over a year of diplomatic tension between the United States and Panama and several of months of U.S. troop buildup in military bases within the canal zone, twenty-four thousand U.S. troops and over three hundred aircraft, including the F-117A stealth aircraft used for the first time in combat, were deployed against the sixteen thousand members of the Panama Defense Force. The command and control structure of the Panamanian Defense Force was quickly destroyed; senior officers were killed or captured and in some instances, officers abandoned their command. The attack touched off several fires one of which destroyed much of the Chorillo neighborhood, adjacent to the headquarters of the Panamania Defense Forces, located in downtown Panama City. Military operations continued for several days targeting decentralized resistance by isolated PDF units, attempting to restore law and order and searching for Noriega. Noriega turned up in the Vatican Diplomatic Mission and eventually surrendered. By January, combat forces had begun to withdraw and reconstruction of the Panamanian government began under the moniker Operation Promote Liberty. The Americans lost twenty-three soldiers killed in action (KIA) and 324 wounded (WIA). The U.S. Southern Command at that time based in Panama, estimated at 50 the number of Panamanian military casualties, lower than its original estimate of 314. There has been considerable controversy over the number of Panamanian civilian casualties resulting from the invasion. The Southern Command estimated that number at two hundred. A U.S.-based independent Commission of Inquiry, headed by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, estimated at more than 3,000 the number of Panamanian civilian casualties. Americas Watch, a human rights group, estimated that number at three hundred.

Origin of the name

\nIn recent years, the naming of U.S. military operations has been the source of some controversy, both internationally and domestically (see Operation Enduring Freedom). At the time operations to depose Noriega were being planned, U.S. military operations were given randomly-generated names. Just Cause was planned under the name Blue Spoon, and the invasion itself incorporated elements of the Nifty Package and Acid Gambit plans. The name Blue Spoon was later changed to Just Cause for aesthetic and public relations reasons.

Aftermath

The Guillermo Endara government designated the second anniversary of the US invasion a "national day of reflection.". Agence France Presse reported that hundreds of Panamanians marked the day with a 'black march' through the streets of this capital to denounce the U.S. invasion and the Endara economic policies. It also echoed claims that U.S. troops had killed 3,000 people, and buried many corpses in mass graves or had thrown them into the sea, though these claims are disputed in Panama. One notorious aftereffect of the invasion was nearly two weeks of widespread looting and lawlessness, a contingency which the United States military apparently had not anticipated. This looting inflicted catastrophic losses on many Panamanian businesses, some of which took several years to recover. Some businesses attempted unsuccessfully to sue the United States government in American courts. Residents that lost property in the Chorillo fire were later compensated by the United States, according to American officials. After Noriega's ouster, Panama has had three presidential elections, with candidates from opposing parties succeeding each other in the Palacio de las Garzas. Panama also has an unforgiving, if not rowdy press. While Panama's GDP recovered by 1993, very high unemployment remained a serious problem. This could be attributed to numerous other causes unrelated to its political environment post-Noriega, including the debt crisis of Mexico in 1994-1995, severe recession in Latin America throughout the 1990s, and the Asian financial crisis.

American units involved in the operation

\n* 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized)\n* 7th Infantry Division (Light)\n* 75th Ranger Regiment\n* 82nd Airborne Division\n* 193rd Infantry Brigade\n* CSAR\n* Delta Force\n* Marine Corps Light Armored Infantry (LAI) Company\n* Military Police\n* Navy SEALs\n* Night Stalkers\n* Special Forces (Green Berets)\n* XVIII Airborne Corps

Related operations

\n* Operation Blade Jewel - initiative to exercise U.S. freedom of movement rights by reinforcing the forward deployed U.S. forces.\n* Operation Nimrod Sustain - continued augmentation with rotating units.\n* Operation Purple Storm\n* Operation Prayer Book\n* Operation Sand Flea

External links

• 1989 REPORT ON THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN PANAMA by Inter-American Commission on Human Rights describes human rights violations by the Noriega regime before Operation Just Cause
• "The Panama Deception" - Academy Award-winning documentary (1993)\n* How Television Sold the Panama Invasion - Extra!, January 1990; a publication of the media watch group, FAIR.\n* Panama: Background of U.S. Invasion of 1989 - historical timeline\n* Operation Just Cause - an excerpt from Deterring Democracy, by Noam Chomsky.\n* Tactical map of Operation Just Cause

References

\n# Hagemeister, Stacy & Solon, Jenny. Operation Just Cause: Lessons Learned – Volume I, II & III (Bulletin No. 90-9). Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Center for Army Lessons Learned – US Army Combined Arms Command. October, 1990. Category:U.S. military history\nCategory:Operations involving special forces