Who Dares Wins

by Dominic Sandbrook

  31. McNeil, ‘Old and New Worlds’, pp. 121–2; Hansard, 27 November 1981, 29 July 1982; Guardian, 26 November 1984; The Times, 8 May 1984.

  32. ‘Speech Opening Conference on Information Technology’, 8 December 1982, TFW; Guardian, 20 August 1981, 8 September 1982; and see Blyth, Legacy of the BBC Micro, pp. 29–30.

  33. Spufford, Backroom Boys, p. 75; Lean, Electronic Dreams, p. 132; David Linsley, ‘A Slayed Beast: History of the Dragon Computer’, http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/Dragon/dragon-history.php.

  34. The Times, 28 September 1982, 1 November 1983.

  35. Observer, 27 March 1983; Guardian, 21 March 1984; New Scientist, 4 September 1986.

  36. Guardian, 11 January 1983; The Times, 14 December 1982; and see McNeil, ‘Old and New Worlds’, p. 121.

  37. Guardian, 6 March 1981, 16 June 1981, 17 March 1983; Lean, Electronic Dreams, pp. 65, 67, 69; Anderson and Levene, Grand Thieves, p. 49; The Times, 7 September 1982.

  38. Guardian, 10 September 1981. For interesting and amusing thoughts about the potential uses for home computers, see Anderson and Levene, Grand Thieves, pp. 48–9, 52–3; Lean, Electronic Dreams, pp. 53, 74–9.

  39. Anderson and Levene, Grand Thieves, pp. 48, 53; Lean, Electronic Dreams, p. 113.

  40. The Times, 7 September 1982, 22 February 1983; Observer, 27 March 1983; Guardian, 11 January 1983, 17 March 1983; ‘Conservative General Election Manifesto 1983’, 18 May 1983, TFW. On Britain’s record computer ownership rate, see also Lean, Electronic Dreams, p. 117.

  41. Guardian, 29 April 1983, 16 August 1983, 13 January 1983; The Times, 15 June 1983, 12 April 1983, 17 April 1983, 18 June 1983, 4 February 1984; Observer, 16 January 1983.

  42. The Times, 17 April 1983, 18 June 1983; Guardian, 24 April 1984.

  Chapter 31. Strangers in the Night

  1. Simon Winchester, Prison Diary, Argentina (1983), pp. 13–14, 19, 21–22.

  2. Samuel Johnson, Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands (1771), http://www.samueljohnson.com/falklands.html; Charles Darwin, Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, vol. 3: Journal and Remarks, 1832–1836 (1839), p. 245; Carol Thatcher, Below the Parapet: The Biography of Denis Thatcher (1996), p. 201; Alasdair Pinkerton, ‘“Strangers in the Night”: The Falklands Conflict as a Radio War’, Twentieth Century British History, 19:3 (2008), p. 346.

  3. See Sir Lawrence Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. 1: The Origins of the Falklands War (2005), pp. 1–16.

  4. Jimmy Burns, The Land That Lost Its Heroes: How Argentina Lost the Falklands War (rev. edn: 2012), pp. 6–7; J. C. J. Metford, ‘Falklands or Malvinas? The Background to the Dispute’, International Affairs, 44:3 (1968), p. 463.

  5. Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 41–3, 52, 54, 58; Freedman, Origins of the Falklands War, pp. 24–7; Sunday Times Magazine, 13 August 1978.

  6. Burns, The Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 109–112; Freedman, Origins of the Falklands War, pp. 76–88; Tony Benn, Conflicts of Interest: Diaries, 1977–80 (1990), pp. 184–5, 248–9.

  7. Lord Carrington, ‘Falkland Islands’, OD 79 (31), 12 October 1979, TFW; ‘FCO Letter to No. 10: Falkland Islands’, 12 October 1979, TFW.

  8. Lord Carrington, ‘Falkland Islands’, OD 80 (46), 27 June 1980, TFW; Lord Carrington, ‘Falkland Islands’, OD 80 (66), 4 November 1980, TFW; Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, vol. 1: Not for Turning (2013), p. 659; and see Freedman, Origins of the Falklands War, pp. 103–23.

  9. The Times, 26 November 1980, 27 November 1980; Freedman, Origins of the Falklands War, pp. 124–7; Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, p. 120. On Ridley, see the amusing portrait in Julian Critchley, Some of Us: People Who Did Well under Thatcher (1992), pp. 47–56.

  10. Hansard, 2 December 1980; The Times, 3 December 1980; Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 120–23; and see Freedman, Origins of the Falklands War, pp. 129–30, 134–42.

  11. Hugo Young, One of Us: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher (rev. edn: 1990), p. 270; Andrew Dorman, ‘John Nott and the Royal Navy: The 1981 Defence Review Revisited’, Contemporary British History, 15:2 (2001), pp. 98–9, 106; ‘No. 10 Record of Conversation (MT, Nott, Carrington)’, 10 February 1981, TFW; John Nott, ‘The Defence Programme’, OD 81 (29), 3 June 1981, TFW; TNA PREM 19/416, Clive Whitmore to Brian Norbury, ‘The Defence Programme’, 8 June 1981; Henry Leach, Endure No Makeshifts: Some Naval Recollections (1993), pp. 198–9.

  12. Freedman, Origins of the Falklands War, pp. 59–61, 144–7; Dorman, ‘John Nott and the Royal Navy’, p. 108; TNA PREM 19/416, Carrington to Nott, ‘Defence Programme’, 5 June 1981; Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (1993), p. 177.

  13. ‘Falkland Islands Review (The Franks Report)’, 18 January 1983, TFW; Christopher Lee, Carrington: An Honourable Man (2018), pp. 418–19; Carrington to Thatcher, ‘Falkland Islands’, 15 September 1981, TFW.

  14. Young, One of Us, pp. 258–62; John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher, vol. 2: The Iron Lady (2003), pp. 126, 130; ‘Defence Secretariat Paper for the Chiefs of Staff: Defence Implications of Argentine Action Against the Falkland Islands’, 14 September 1981, TFW.

  15. ‘Speech at Kensington Town Hall’, 19 January 1976, TFW.

  16. The Times, 21 April 1976, 9 July 1981.

  17. Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 102–3, 127–9, 130; Martin Middlebrook, The Argentine Fight for the Falklands (Barnsley, 2009), pp. 1–2.

  18. Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp, 131, 135–6, 139, 143–4; Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, pp. 2–6.

  19. Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 147, 164; Guardian, 25 February 1982; Freedman, Origins of the Falklands War, pp. 154, 159, 162; ‘UK Embassy Buenos Aires to FCO: Falklands Talks – Argentine Press Comment’, 3 March 1982, TFW. See also ‘US Embassy Buenos Aires to State Department: Overview of Argentina’, 3 March 1982, TFW; The Times, 5 March 1982.

  20. Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, pp. 2, 6. On Menéndez, see Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 147–8. On the timing, see Freedman, Origins of the Falklands War, pp. 220–21.

  21. Rex Hunt, My Falkland Days (Newton Abbot, 1992), pp. 177–8, 182, 185–7; Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 151–68; Freedman, Origins of the Falklands War, pp. 168–74.

  22. On the two parallel operations, see Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 154–5, 158, 172; Freedman, Origins of the Falklands War, pp. 171–2. Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, pp. 7–12, gives a very different account of the affair and does not mention Operation Alpha at all.

  23. Hunt, My Falkland Days, pp. 187–8; Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 168–9, 173; Moore, Not for Turning, p. 661; Hansard, 23 March 1982.

  24. Alan Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, 1972–1982 (2000), p. 305.

  25. Hansard, 23 March 1982; Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, p. 306.

  26. Freedman, Origins of the Falklands War, pp. 182–3; Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, pp. 13–14; Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 174, 176–7.

  27. Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, p. 20.

  28. Carrington to Thatcher, ‘Falkland Islands’, 24 March 1982, TFW; TNA CAB 128/73, CC (82) 12, 25 March 1982; Moore, Not for Turning, p. 663; ‘Franks Enquiry Evidence Transcript’, 25 October 1982, TFW.

  29. Moore, Not for Turning, p. 664; The Times, 29 March 1982.

  30. Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, p. 285; Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, p. 21; Hansard, 30 March 1982; Moore, Not for Turning, p. 664.

  31. Thatcher, Downing Street Years, p. 179; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 665–6.

  32. Leach, Endure No Makeshifts, pp. 209–11 (and see also ch. 1); John Nott, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Recollections of an Errant Politician (2002), pp. 258–9; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 666–7; Lee, Carrington, pp. 427–8; Thatcher, Downing Street Years, p. 179. There are several different accounts of Leach’s words: even his own recollecti
ons were not always identical, as is only natural. My version has a bit of all of them.

  33. Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, p. 290; Hunt, My Falkland Days, p. 200.

  34. For Hunt, see ibid., p. 14 and passim, as well the obituaries in the Guardian, 12 November 2012, and Daily Telegraph, 12 November 2012.

  35. Hunt, My Falkland Days, pp. 200, 202.

  36. Ibid., pp. 202–3, 206–7, 211–13; and see Pinkerton, ‘“Strangers in the Night”’, p. 350.

  37. Hunt, My Falkland Days, pp. 215–17.

  38. Ibid., pp. 219–22.

  39. Ibid., pp. 226–7.

  40. Ibid., pp. 232–4.

  41. Ibid., pp. 235–6; Pinkerton, ‘“Strangers in the Night”’, pp. 358–60; John Smith, 74 Days: An Islander’s Diary of the Falklands Occupation (1984), p. 25. I have transcribed the radio exchanges from the long extracts on YouTube.

  42. Hunt, My Falkland Days, pp. 239–40.

  43. Ibid., pp. 252–3, 256; The Times, 5 April 1982; Winchester, Prison Diary, p. 29.

  44. Moore, Not for Turning, p. 669; TNA CAB 128/73, CC (82) 14, 2 April 1982.

  45. Hansard, 2 April 1982; ‘FCO Note: Falklands’, 2 April 1982, TFW.

  46. Smith, 74 Days, p. 28; Pinkerton, ‘“Strangers in the Night”’, pp. 362, 354; Daily Express, 3 April 1982; Guardian, 3 April 1982.

  47. Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 670–71; Thatcher, Downing Street Years, p. 181.

  48. Moore, Not for Turning, p. 670; and see TNA CAB 128/73, CC (82) 15, 2 April 1982.

  49. The Times, 5 April 1982, 3 April 1982; Daily Express, 3 May 1982; Guardian, 3 April 1982; Sun, 3 May 1982.

  50. Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, p. 312; David Owen, Time to Declare (1991), p. 547; Hansard, 3 April 1982.

  51. Ibid.; Tony Benn, The End of an Era: Diaries, 1980–90 (1992), p. 204; Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, p. 312; Kenneth O. Morgan, Michael Foot: A Life (2007), p. 412.

  52. Hansard, 3 April 1982; Benn, End of an Era, p. 204; Guardian, 29 December 1982; Jonathan Raban, Coasting (1986), p. 107.

  53. Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, pp. 313, 333; Moore, Not for Turning, p. 673; Hansard, 3 April 1982.

  54. Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands (1983), pp. 90, 96, 109–14; Sir Lawrence Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. 2: War and Diplomacy (2005), pp. 48–55; The Times, 3 April 1982; Daily Express, 5 April 1982; Daily Mirror, 5 April 1982.

  55. Smith, 74 Days, p. 28; Pinkerton, ‘“Strangers in the Night”’, p. 361; The Times, 3 April 1982, 5 April 1982; Guardian, 5 April 1982; Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, p. 44; Hunt, My Falkland Days, p. 250.

  56. Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. xii, 316–18, 322; Pinkerton, ‘“Strangers in the Night”’, p. 357. See also Sun, 6 April 1982; Daily Express, 5 April 1982; Smith, 74 Days, and Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, passim.

  57. The Times, 5 April 1982; Anthony Barnett, Iron Britannia (1982), p. 48; Roy Greenslade, Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits from Propaganda (rev. edn: 2004), p. 442.

  58. The Times, 5 April 1982; Daily Mail, 5 April 1982; Daily Express, 5 April 1982; Sun, 6 April 1982; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 674–5; Lee, Carrington, pp. 430–32. On the press treatment of the Foreign Office, see Robert Harris, Gotcha! The Media, the Government and the Falklands Crisis (1983), pp. 39–40.

  59. Thatcher to Carrington, 4 May 1982, TFW; Young, One of Us, pp. 266–7; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 675–6.

  60. Nott, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, pp. 278–9; ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW; Michael Pattison to Clive Whitmore, 5 April 1982, TFW; ‘No. 10 Press Release’, 5 April 1982, TFW; Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, p. 316; MO R470, Falklands Special, 1982.

  61. Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, p. 316; Guardian, 6 April 1982.

  62. ‘TV Interview for ITN’, 5 April 1982, TFW; The Times, 7 April 1982; Gow to Thatcher, 8 April 1982, TFW.

  Chapter 32. We’ll Show ’Em We’re British

  1. Daily Express, 6 April 1982; Daily Mirror, 6 April 1982; Jonathan Raban, Coasting (1986), pp. 114–15.

  2. Daily Express, 6 April 1982; Daily Mirror, 6 April 1982; Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands (1983), pp. 112–13, 117; Daily Mail, 6 April 1982.

  3. Hastings and Jenkins, Battle for the Falklands, pp. 109, 118. See also Max Hastings, Going to the Wars (2000), p. 274.

  4. Ken Lukowiak, A Soldier’s Song (1993: 1999), pp. 7, 9; Vincent Bramley, Excursion to Hell: Mount Longdon, a Universal Story of Battle (1991), pp. 4, 6–7.

  5. Keith Britto, ‘Public Opinion Background Note 109’, 19 April 1982, TFW; Keith Britto, ‘Public Opinion Background Note 108’, 12 April 1982, TFW; Daily Mail, 6 April 1982; The Economist, 17 April 1982.

  6. Helen Parr, Our Boys: The Story of a Paratrooper (2018), pp. 4–5

  7. Sue Townsend, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ (1982: 2002), p. 257; MO S496, Falklands Special, 1982; Bramley, Excursion to Hell, p. 4; Lukowiak, Soldier’s Song, p. 6.

  8. Rex Hunt, My Falkland Days (Newton Abbot, 1992), p. 281; Raban, Coasting, p. 97.

  9. Newsweek, 10 April 1982; Stephen Howe, ‘Decolonisation and Imperial Aftershocks: The Thatcher Years’, in Ben Jackson and Robert Saunders (eds.), Making Thatcher’s Britain (Cambridge, 2012), pp. 242, 237–8; Robert J. Wybrow, Britain Speaks Out, 1937–87: A Social History as Seen through the Gallup Data (Basingstoke, 1989), pp. 124, 132.

  10. Raban, Coasting, pp. 101–2, 113; Sunday Telegraph, 23 May 1982; Hansard, 3 April 1982.

  11. Guardian, 21 April 1982.

  12. MO D156, Falklands Special, 1982; MO G218, Falklands Special, 1982; MO S496, Falklands Special, 1982.

  13. MO C108, Falklands Special, 1982; MO W633, Falklands Special, 1982; MO G226, Falklands Special, 1982.

  14. MO R470, Falklands Special, 1982.

  15. Sunday Times, 2 May 1982; Jean Seaton, ‘Pinkoes and Traitors’: The BBC and the Nation, 1974–1987 (rev. edn: 2017), p. 170; Raban, Coasting, p. 219; Matthew Parris, Chance Witness: An Outsider’s Life in Politics (2002: 2013), pp. 305–6.

  16. Ibid., pp. 306–7

  17. John Hoskyns, Just in Time: Inside the Thatcher Revolution (2000), pp. 376–7; Ferdinand Mount, Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes (2008), p. 293; Geoffrey Howe, Conflict of Loyalty (1994), pp. 452–3.

  18. Michael Jopling to Francis Pym, 6 April 1982, TFW.

  19. Alan Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, 1972–1982 (2000), pp. 317–18.

  20. Mervyn Jones, Michael Foot (1994), pp. 485, 488–9; Tony Benn, The End of an Era: Diaries, 1980–90 (1992), p. 207.

  21. Labour Herald, 7 May 1982, quoted in John Carvel, Citizen Ken (1984), p. 156; Mail on Sunday, 30 August 2015; Benn, End of an Era, pp. 212, 202, 205, 213, 219, 221; The Times, 29 April 1982.

  22. Ivor Crewe and Anthony King, SDP: The Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party (Oxford, 1995), pp. 158, 161, 165; The Times, 21 April 1982; David Owen, Time to Declare (1991), p. 514; Bill Rodgers, Fourth among Equals (2000), p. 232; John Campbell, Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life (2014), pp. 598, 600; Roy Jenkins, A Life at the Centre (1991), p. 566.

  23. Guardian, 29 December 1982; Michael Frayn, ‘Festival’, in Michael Sissons and Philip French (eds.), Age of Austerity, 1945–1951 (Harmondsworth, 1964), p. 320.

  24. Cecil Woolf and Jean Moorcroft Wilson (eds.), Authors Take Sides on the Falklands (1982), pp. 10, 15–16, 16–17, 23, 30, 40, 58, 60–61.

  25. Ibid., pp. 25, 32, 92, 105, 96–7.

  26. Ibid., pp. 111–12, 26, 65, 79, 102, 94, 26. For a suitably amused review, see Blake Morrison in the Observer, 15 August 1982.

  27. Roy Greenslade, Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits from Propaganda (rev. edn: 2004), p. 442.

  28. Robert Harris, Gotcha!: The Media, the Government and the Falklands Crisis (1983), pp. 40–41; Greenslade, Press Gang, pp. 339, 322–3; Sun, 3 May 1979; Guardian, 27 April 1981; The Times, 16 May 1981.

  29. Harris,
Gotcha!, pp. 41–2; Greenslade, Press Gang, pp. 419–21.

  30. Sun, 6 April 1982, 7 April 1982, 8 April 1982. Harris, Gotcha!, pp. 43–5, is very good on all this.

  31. Ibid., pp. 40, 45–8; Greenslade, Press Gang, p. 444; Sun, 19 April 1982, 7 April 1982, 20 April 1982, 10 April 1982, 16 April 1982.

  32. Harris, Gotcha!, p. 54; Greenslade, Press Gang, pp. 447, 450; Benn, End of an Era, p. 212; Guardian, 10 May 1982.

  33. Raban, Coasting, p. 200; Guardian, 6 May 1982, 10 May 1982; Owen, Time to Declare, p. 550; Sandy Woodward, with Patrick Robinson, One Hundred Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander (rev. edn: 2012), p. 229.

  34. Sir Lawrence Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. 2: War and Diplomacy (2005), pp. 201–2, 69; and see ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW.

  35. Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 75, 206, 56, 79, 207; Hastings and Jenkins, Battle for the Falklands, p. 147; ‘CIA Directorate of Intelligence Memorandum: Falklands Islands Situation Report No. 2’, 3 April 1982, TFW.

  36. John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher, vol. 2: The Iron Lady (2003), pp. 133–4, 139; Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, vol. 1: Not for Turning (2013), p. 682.

  37. Campbell, Iron Lady, pp. 135–6, 140; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 680–81; Hugo Young, One of Us: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher (rev. edn: 1990), pp. 274, 276; Parr, Our Boys, p. 267; Walters diary, 29 April 1982, TFW.

  38. Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (1993), pp. 182–3, 190–91; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 39–47; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 678–9; Jimmy Burns, The Land That Lost Its Heroes: How Argentina Lost the Falklands War (rev. edn: 2012), pp. xi–xii, 188–9.

  39. Ibid., pp. 193–4; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 390–99; ‘Thatcher Stands by Pinochet’, 26 March 1999, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/304516.stm.

  40. ‘No. 10 Record of Telephone Conversation (MT-Mitterrand)’, 3 April 1982, TFW; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 519–20; Moore, Not for Turning, p. 745; John Nott, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Recollections of an Errant Politician (2002), p. 305; Thatcher, Downing Street Years, p. 182.