Manuel Noriega

Reagan actually did say to Noriega right before HW became president, right at the very end of Reagan's term, second term, he said to Noriega, he's like, dude, you need to leave Panama.

You need to stop doing this.

If you want to live, you got to get out of there.

He's like, you got to stop what you're doing and get out of there.

And Noriega said, F you.

You know what I mean?

He said, F you.

His ego got so big.

HW comes into power in 1988.

There's no democracy in Panama.

All of the elections are BS.

All of Noriega's guys and the dictatorship are running the country.

So HW decides to launch Operation Just Cause.

which is the invasion of Panama, happened on December 20th, 1989.

The US sent 27,000 troops to Panama with the intention of extracting Manuel Noriega to take him back to the US to stand trial.

Three different charges, racketeering, money laundering, drug trafficking.

No, I think it's pretty obvious that he was.

But they didn't have a lot of proof.

Super ballsy, didn't need, like, it was, up until that point, it was the largest military exercise since Vietnam.

Like, it was huge.