ABSTRACT
President Ronald Reagan revealed that the US actions had been taken in response to "an urgent, formal request from the five member-nations of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States" plus Barbados and Jamaica "to assist in a joint effort to restore order and democracy" on Grenada. Although the United States formally became a Caribbean power with the acquisition of Puerto Rico after the Spanish-American War, its interest in the region was apparent at a much earlier date. The Caribbean, of course, provides access to the Panama Canal, and US military installations from Puerto Rico to Panama testify to the perceived importance of the sea-lanes, which carry 50 percent of the oil imported to the United States. In comparative terms legal immigration from the Caribbean since the 1960s has been three times greater than immigration from all of South America. Several Caribbean governments began to show sympathy for the agenda known as the New International Economic Order.
