Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography

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Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography Page 112

by Charles Moore


  CHAPTER 24: VICTORY

  1. Henderson to Haig telegram, 27 Apr. 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 2. Margaret Thatcher’s manuscript account, The Thatcher Papers, Churchill College, Cambridge, THCR 1/20/3/1. 3. Panorama (BBC1), 26 Apr. 1982 (Christopher Collins, ed., Complete Public Statements of Margaret Thatcher 1945–90 on CD-ROM, Oxford University Press, 1998/2000). 4. Interview with Lord Parkinson. 5. Interview with Sir John Nott. 6. Hansard, HC Deb 27 Apr. 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104925). 7. THCR 1/20/3/1. 8. Thatcher to Haig, 26 Apr. 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 9. Pym to Henderson, 28 Apr. 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 10. All quotations from Sir Robert Armstrong, Cabinet Secretary’s notebooks, 29 Apr. 1982. 11. Thatcher to Reagan, 29 Apr. 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 12. Reagan to Thatcher, 29 Apr. 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 13. THCR 1/20/3/1. 14. Reagan to Thatcher, 29 Apr. 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 15. National Security Council Minutes, 30 Apr. 1982, NSC 00048, Box 91284, Exec Sec, NSC: NSC Meeting Files, Reagan Library, Simi Valley CA. 16. Ibid. 17. Ibid. 18. NSDD 34, 14 May 1982, Exec Sec, NSC: NSDDs, Reagan Library. 19. ‘Next Steps on Falklands’, 29 Apr. 1982, NSC 00048 04/30/1982 [Falkland Islands], Exec Sec, NSC: NSC Meeting Files, Box 91284, Reagan Library. 20. Reagan, Remarks and a Question-and-answer session with Editors and Broadcasters from Midwestern States, 30 Apr. 1982, The Public Papers of the Presidents, The American Presidency Project, University of California. 21. See Lawrence Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, 2 vols, Routledge, 2005, vol. ii: War and Diplomacy, p. 359. 22. Ibid. 23. Interview with Lord Parkinson. 24. THCR 1/20/3/1. 25. Speech to Mid-Bedfordshire Conservatives, Shuttleworth Agricultural College, 30 Apr. 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104929). 26. THCR 1/20/3/1. 27. Ibid. 28. Ibid. 29. Ibid. 30. Quoted in Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, p. 285. Chapter 21 of this book contains the fullest account of the Belgrano incident yet written, benefiting from official papers. 31. Ibid., p. 287. 32. Interviews with Lord Bramall and Sir Henry Leach. 33. Interview with Sir John Coles. 34. Interview with Sir Clive Whitmore. 35. THCR 1/20/3/1. 36. Interview with Sir Antony Acland. 37. See Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, p. 288. 38. Papers relating to the compilation of Lady Thatcher’s memoirs, THCR 4/3. 39. THCR 1/20/3/1. 40. Ibid. 41. See Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, p. 293. 42. Hansard, HC Deb 4 May 1982. 43. See Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, ch. 21. 44. Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries Unabridged, 2 vols, HarperCollins, 2009, vol. i: January 1981–October 1985, p. 129. 45. Henderson to FO telegram, 2 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 46. Transcript of Pym press conference in Washington, 2 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 47. Henderson to Pym telegram 1575, 3 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 48. Ibid. 49. Henderson to Pym telegram 1574, 3 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 50. Interview with Alexander Haig. 51. Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, HarperCollins, 1993, p. 216. 52. THCR 4/3. 53. Henderson to Pym telegram 1572, 3 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 54. Hansard, HC Deb 4 May 1982. 55. THCR 1/20/3/1. 56. Interview with Barry Strevens. 57. Interview with Sir Clive Whitmore. 58. Lord Lewin, quoted in Richard Hill, Lewin of Greenwich, Cassell, 2000, p. 370. 59. Atkeson to DCI, ‘What’s Next in the Falklands?’, 7 May 1982, CREST database, US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). 60. Reagan, The Reagan Diaries Unabridged, vol. i, p. 129. 61. Jim Rentschler, diary (unpublished), 4 May 1982. 62. Ibid. 63. Quoted in Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, p. 326. 64. 041130z May 82, ‘Falklands Dispute: Rules of Engagement unchanged as British ponder next move’, 4 May 1982, UK (04/01/1982–07/31/1982) [6], Box 20, Exec Sec, NSC: Country File, Reagan Library. 65. Reagan to Thatcher, 5 May 1982, THCR 3/1/21. 66. All quotations from Sir Robert Armstrong, Cabinet Secretary’s notebooks, 5 May 1982. 67. Ibid. 68. Prime Minister’s Papers, Cabinet minutes, 5 May 1982 (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 69. Thatcher to Reagan, 5 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 70. Clark to Reagan, ‘PM Thatcher’s Reply on your Falklands Demarche’, 5 May 1982, ‘Falklands War (UN/Kirkpatrick/Haig) 05/13/1982–06/04/1982’, Box 3, William Clark Files, Reagan Library. 71. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, p. 217. 72. Draft Thatcher letter to Reagan, 5 May 1982, THCR 1/20/3/11. 73. Interview with Sir Antony Acland. 74. Interview with Sir John Coles. 75. Interview with Sir Clive Whitmore. 76. Interview with Lord Parkinson. 77. Thatcher to Reagan, 5 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 78. Ingham digest, 6 May 1982, THCR 3/5/14. 79. Henderson to Pym telegram, 6 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 80. Henderson to Pym telegram, 8 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 81. Parsons to Pym telegram, 3 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 82. Letter to PM from Cardinals Hume and Gray, 8 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 83. Parsons to Pym, telegram 686, 8 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 84. Telephone conversation between PM and Parsons, 8 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 85. Ibid. 86. THCR 4/3. 87. Parsons to Pym telegram, 10 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 88. Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, HarperCollins, 2007, 12 May 1982, p. 84. 89. Draft message from Thatcher to Reagan, 12 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 90. Ingham digest, 8 May 1982, THCR 3/5/14. 91. Ibid., 13 May 1982. 92. Daily Telegraph, 13 May 1982. 93. Hansard, HC Deb 13 May 1982. 94. THCR 1/20/3/1. 95. Telephone conversation between Thatcher and Reagan, 13 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 96. Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, 13 May 1982, p. 84. 97. THCR 1/20/3/1. 98. Admiral Sandy Woodward, One Hundred Days, HarperCollins, 1992, p. 230. 99. Nicholas Henderson, Mandarin: The Diaries of an Ambassador 1969–1982, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994, 17 May 1982, pp. 461–2. 100. Interview with Sir Robert Wade-Gery. 101. Ibid. 102. THCR 1/20/3/1. 103. Ibid. 104. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, p. 222. 105. Interview with Sir Anthony Parsons, The Downing Street Years (BBC), 1993. 106. THCR 1/20/3/1. 107. Parsons to Pym telegram, 17 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 108. THCR 1/20/3/1. 109. Ibid. 110. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, p. 223. 111. Wade-Gery to PM, 17 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: The Handling of the Falklands Invasion (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 112. Ibid. 113. THCR 4/3. 114. OD(SA) minutes, 18 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: The
Handling of the Falklands Invasion (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 115. Interview with Sir Michael Palliser. 116. THCR 1/20/3/1. 117. Ibid. 118. ITN News, 19 May 1982. 119. See Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, p. 372. 120. Ibid. 121. Parsons telegram, 19 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 122. See Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, pp. 373–4. 123. ‘UK–Argentine War’, United Kingdom – 1982 (05/01/1982–07/31/1982), Box 90223, Dennis Blair Files, Reagan Library. 124. Sir Robert Armstrong, Cabinet Secretary’s notebooks, 20 May 1982. 125. THCR 1/20/3/1. 126. Ibid. 127. Hansard, HC Deb 20 May 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104943). 128. Interview with Jeane Kirkpatrick. 129. Interview with Lord Bramall. 130. Quoted in Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, p. 429. 131. Woodward, One Hundred Days, p. 250. 132. THCR 1/20/3/1. 133. Ibid. 134. See Woodward, One Hundred Days, pp. 269–70. 135. Ibid., p. 263. 136. Interview with Sir Robert Wade-Gery. 137. Ibid. 138. THCR 4/3. 139. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, p. 226. 140. Ibid. 141. THCR 1/20/3/1. 142. Interview with Sir Denis Thatcher. 143. THCR 1/20/3/1. 144. Interview with Sir David Goodall. 145. THCR 1/20/3/1. 146. FO Sitrep, 24 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 147. Pope John Paul II to Thatcher telegram, 22 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 148. Thatcher to Pope John Paul II, 22 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 149. Interview with Lord Renwick of Clifton. 150. Henderson telegram, 24 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 151. Pym to PM, 25 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 152. Interview with Lord Armstrong of Ilminster. 153. Interview with Sir Brian Fall. 154. Henderson, Mandarin, 30–31 May 1982, pp. 465–6. 155. Pym to Haig, 26 May 1982, released by the US State Department under FOIA Case #200600788. 156. Haig to President, ‘Falklands Crisis’, 26 May 1982, Falklands Crisis 1982, Box 90224, Dennis Blair Files, Reagan Library. 157. Interview with Jeane Kirkpatrick. 158. Henderson telegram, 24 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 159. Interview with Jim Rentschler. 160. Records of this conversation were leaked years later and the gist appeared in the Sunday Times on 8 Mar. 1992. This account, however, draws on the official US transcript now available at the Reagan Library (Telephone Conversation, Reagan/Thatcher, 31 May 1982, UK (04/26/1982–09/29/1982), Box 20, Exec Sec, NSC: Country File, Reagan Library). 161. Ibid. 162. Rentschler, diary, 3 June 1982. 163. Interview with Jim Rentschler. 164. Henderson, Mandarin, 31 May 1982, pp. 467–8. 165. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, p. 230. 166. Henderson, Mandarin, 31 May 1982, pp. 466–7. 167. Interview with Sir Clive Whitmore. 168. Washington Post, 3 June 1982. This was the first of two instalments published by the paper of an interview conducted on 2 June. 169. Interview with Sir Clive Whitmore. 170. Ibid. 171. THCR 1/20/3/1. 172. Woodward, One Hundred Days, p. 239. 173. THCR 1/20/3/1. 174. Ibid. 175. Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands, 10 May 1982 (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 176. Speech to Conservative Women’s Conference, London, 26 May 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104948). 177. Washington Post, 4 June 1982. 178. Speech to Conservative Women’s Conference, 26 May 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104948). 179. See Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, p. 557. 180. Interview with Lord Bramall. 181. Interview with Major General Julian Thompson. 182. THCR 4/3. 183. Interview with Lord Parkinson. 184. Interview with Major General Julian Thompson. 185. Interview with Sir David Goodall. 186. Interview with Tom Brokaw, NBC News, 9 June 1982 (Collins, ed., Complete Public Statements). 187. OD(SA) minutes, 45th meeting, 27 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Handling of the Falklands Invasion (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 188. Interview with Sir Denis Thatcher. 189. Interview with Lord Armstrong of Ilminster. 190. THCR 1/20/3/1. 191. See Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, p. 576. 192. Rentschler, diary, 4 June 1982. 193. Draft message, Reagan to Thatcher, 2 June 1982, Trip: President’s European: June 1982 (2), Box 7, William Clark Files, Reagan Library. 194. Rentschler, diary, 3 June 1982. 195. Interview with Sir Nicholas Henderson. 196. Henderson, Mandarin, 8 June 1982, pp. 471–2. 197. President Mitterrand’s statement to the press at the conclusion of the Versailles summit (http://www.g7.utoronto.ca/summit/1982versailles/statement_english.html). 198. Interview with Hubert Vedrine. 199. Ibid. 200. THCR 1/20/3/1. 201. Parsons telegram, 4 June 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 202. Pym to UK delegation at Versailles, 5 June 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 203. THCR 1/20/3/1. 204. Press conference after Versailles summit, 6 June 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104955). 205. THCR 1/20/3/1. 206. Ronald Reagan, address to members of the British Parliament, 8 July 1982, The Public Papers of the Presidents, The American Presidency Project, University of California. 207. Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, p. 597. 208. Ibid. 209. THCR 1/20/3/1. In fact, Mrs Thatcher visited Northwood over the weekend of 12–13 rather than on the Wednesday immediately following the attacks. 210. Pattison to PM, 10 June 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 211. Scholar to Whitmore, 19 June 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 212. THCR 1/20/3/1. 213. Ibid. 214. Ibid. 215. Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, p. 650. 216. THCR 4/3. 217. Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. ii, p. 652. 218. Interview with General Sir Michael Rose. 219. Hansard, HC Deb 14 June 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104967). 220. Alan Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000, 15 June 1982, p. 332. 221. THCR 1/20/3/1. 222. Interview with Sir Antony Acland. 223. THCR 1/20/3/1. 224. Sir Robert Armstrong, Cabinet Secretary’s notebooks, 15 June 1982. 225. Interview with Sir David Goodall. 226. Hansard, HC Deb 17 June 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104970). 227. Notes on a meeting between the Secretary-General and Prime Minister Thatcher, 14 June 1982, S-1043-0002-05, UN Archives. 228. Palliser to PM, ‘The Falklands Repossessed’, 21 June 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 229. Interview with Major General Julian Thompson. 230. Interview with Sir John Coles. 231. Interview with Sir Clive Whitmore. 232. Interview with Lord Armstrong of Ilminster. 233. Thatcher to Muldoon, 11 June 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 234. Speech to Conservative Party rally in Cheltenham, 3 July 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104989). 235. THCR 4/3. 236. Interview with Lord Renwick of Clifton. 237. See Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, pp. 173–4. 238. Interview with Sir David Gillmore, 17 Mar. 1996, British Diplomatic Oral History Project, Churchill College, Cambridge. 239. Draft Presidential remarks at the end of his 23 June 1982 meeting with UK Prime Minister Thatcher; papers of Jim Rentschler. 240. ‘President’s Meeting with UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’, 23 June 1982, UK (04/26/1982–09/29/1982), Box 20, Exec Sec, NSC: Country File, Reagan Library. 241. Henderson, Mandarin, 20–27 June 1982, p. 480. 242. Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, 15 June 1982, p. 336. 243. Coles to Whitmore, 2 July 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Falkland Islands Thanksgiving Service (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 244. Ridley to Stephens, 15 July 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentin
a: Falkland Islands Thanksgiving Service (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 245. THCR 1/20/3/1. 246. Ibid. 247. Coles to Whitmore, 14 July 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Falkland Islands Thanksgiving Service (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 248. Interview with Sir David Goodall. 249. Ibid. 250. OD(SA), note by the Secretaries, 9 July 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Falkland Islands Thanksgiving Service (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 251. Ridley to Coles, 16 July 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Falkland Islands Thanksgiving Service (document consulted in the Cabinet Office). 252. Interview with Sir David Goodall. 253. Interview with Lord Runcie of Cuddesdon. 254. Ibid. 255. THCR 1/20/3/1. 256. Interview with Major General Julian Thompson. 257. Text of Falklands dinner speech, 11 Oct. 1982, THCR 1/20/3/29B. 258. Interview with Sir David Goodall. 259. Interview with Lord Bramall.

 

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