In Grenada, Apocalypso Now

The ebullient beat of calypso music wafted across the crowded field. Some 40,000 Grenadians waiting for their first words from the President of the United States swayed to the lyrics of the country's most popular ballad. The song, which recounts the landing of U.S. troops on the tiny Caribbean island, mimics the drone of helicopters, the "rat-tat-tat" of machine guns and the boom of big guns as it pays exuberant tribute to the island's liberator, "Uncle Reagan."

For his part, Uncle Reagan reveled in the adulation from the singing, bouquet-waving crowds. The President had come to Grenada for a 5-hour visit last week to commemorate the U.S. invasion that swept away the country's ultra-Marxist "revolutionary council" in October 1983. "I couldn't feel closer to anyone at this moment than I do to you," he told the cheering islanders who had been given a national holiday by the government of Prime Minister Herbert Blaize to jam the dusty cricket field at Queen's Park.

But the audience that Reagan was really addressing was back home, in the U.S. Congress--and it was less receptive than the grateful Grenadians. Reagan's extravagant, minutely orchestrated drop-in on Grenada (the White House flew in two limousines, the President's drinking water, two bomb- sniffing dogs and 28 toilets) became the colorful centerpiece of a campaign to sell what has become known as the Reagan Doctrine: U.S. support for "freedom fighters" battling Soviet-backed governments around the globe. Indeed, Reagan's speech at Queen's Park went beyond praise of the newfound freedom in Grenada, and railed against the absence of it in Nicaragua.

With private briefings as well as speechmaking, the Administration last week began the difficult job of persuading congress to authorize $100 million in military and economic aid for the contras seeking to overthrow the Marxist- Leninist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. Administration officials also confirmed in congressional testimony that the CIA will funnel some $15 million in covert aid to rebels fighting the Cuban- and Soviet-backed government of Angola. This week the President will go on national television to plead for public support for his massive defense buildup, which is threatened by the deficit cutters on Capitol Hill. Reagan's tribute to the invasion of Grenada --the one example of the President's use of military force in support of his stand-tall rhetoric--was intended as a symbolic reminder that the U.S. cannot protect freedom around the world without the wherewithal to project force.

"It's encouraging to witness what can happen in an environment where free enterprise is allowed to fluorish," Reagan told the islanders. The praise, however, was premature. Despite some $74 million in U.S. aid over the past two years, the before-and-after picture of Grenada is pretty much the same. The problems that beset the island under Marxist rule persist: high unemployment, minimal foreign investment, primitive communications and electricity systems. Unemployment is 30%, and twice that among youth. Almost 2 1/2 years after the U.S. promised to stimulate foreign investment in the island through tax credits, only two such efforts have been made: a business selling nutmeg kits that failed and a factory making wooden toys that closed after four months. Its owner was sentenced to two years in prison for defrauding the U.S. Government of $350,000.