"Don't embarrass me," he replied. "I didn't fire a shot."

Nonetheless, Grenada's prime minister, Herbert Blaize, declared a national holiday for Reagan's visit. He said the president did "the thing that helped us get out of a hole when we needed it most" by sending U.S. troops after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was overthrown and assassinated.

On Oct. 25, 1983, a 6,000-member U.S. force invaded Grenada and removed a military junta that had seized power six days earlier. Reagan described it as a rescue mission for about 600 American students at St. George's University Medical School campus.

Air Force One landed at Point Saline International Airport, scene of some of the strongest resistance to the invading U.S. Army Rangers and Marines from Cuban soldiers and construction workers armed with automatic rifles. Twenty-four Cubans were killed in the fighting.

In his speech, Reagan portrayed Cuba as an international menace and said President Fidel Castro's "tyranny still weighs heavy on the shoulders of his people and threatens the peace and freedom of the hemisphere."

Reagan announced that U.S. funds for training and scholarship programs for the Caribbean will be increased threefold. In addition, he said a new program is being initiated to guarantee access to the U.S. market for Caribbean-produced clothing made from cloth woven and cut in the United States.

Reagan also said the tax bill pending in Congress would permit funds in Puerto Rico's Development Bank to be used for investment loans elsewhere in the Caribbean. And finally, he said the United States will help underwrite a $5.5 million program to modernize the judicial systems of Caribbean islands.