Operation Just Cause – The Incursion Into Panama (English Edition)

Operation JUST CAUSE, one of the shortest armed conflicts in American military history, is also one of the most relevant to cam-paigns as we anticipate them in the twenty-first century. Launched in December 1989—only six weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall— JUST CAUSE was extraordinarily complex, involving the deployment of thousands of personnel and equipment from distant military installations and striking almost two-dozen objectives within a 24-hour period of time. The surgical precision and decisive maneuver employed by these U.S. forces minimized casualties on both sides of the conflict and avoided excessive damage to Panamanian property. JUST CAUSE represented a bold new era in American military force projection: speed, mass, and precision, coupled with immediate pub-lic visibility, concern for collateral damage, and early anticipation of postcombat mandates