The U.S. Military Intervention in Panama (2008) Paperback Book - (Origins, Planning and Crisis Management)

Prior to Operation JUST CAUSE, the December 1989 U.S. intervention in Panama, American leaders had struggled for over two years with the increasingly difficult regime of General Manuel Antonio Noriega. At the time, the Panama Canal was still under U.S. administration with the U.S. Southern Command, based at Quarry Heights, charged with its security. Led by General Frederick Woerner and seconded by Maj. Gen. Bernard Loeffke, the command's Army component commander, American military leaders weathered a series of low-grade crises during 1988-1989, slowly culminating in a growing military confrontation with Noriega's army, militia, and police forces. Detailed in Larry Yates' study are the contingency plans, rules of engagement, and a host of varied operations-security patrols, guard duty, training exercises, shows of force, and police actions-and even the occasional firefight, all of which characterized this trying period.