Who Dares Wins

by Dominic Sandbrook

  41. Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 683–4, 694; New York Times, 15 April 1982.

  42. Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 685–7; Rentschler diary, 8 April 1982, TFW.

  43. Moore, Not for Turning, p. 687; Rentschler diary, 8 April 1982, TFW; and see US Embassy London to State Department, ‘Secretary’s Meeting with Prime Minister Thatcher April 8: Falkland Islands Crisis’, 8 April 1982, TFW.

  44. Haig to Reagan, 9 April 1982, quoted in Rentschler diary, 12 April 1982, TFW. On Haig and Pym, see Moore, Not for Turning, p. 688.

  45. Ibid., pp. 693, 688; Rentschler diary, 12 April 1982, TFW.

  46. Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 691, 695; TNA CAB 128/73, CC (82) 17, ‘Most Confidential Record’, 14 April 1982.

  47. Haig to Reagan, 6 April 1982, TFW; Rentschler diary, 16 April 1982, 17 April 1982, TFW; and see Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 161–2; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 695–6, 698.

  48. Hastings, Going to the Wars, pp. 284–5.

  49. Bramley, Excursion to Hell, p. 10; Parr, Our Boys, p. 114. For the most evocative description of life on the Canberra, see Hastings, Going to the Wars, pp. 275–81.

  50. ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW; Moore, Not for Turning, p. 699; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 221–3, 229–30; Nott, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, p. 297; TNA CAB 148/211, OD (SA) (82) 10, 19 April 1982.

  51. Hastings and Jenkins, Battle for the Falklands, pp. 151–2; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 238–9.

  52. Nott, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, p. 302; Moore, Not for Turning, p. 703; ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW.

  53. ‘Pym Memorandum to OD (SA) Committee’, 24 April 1982, TFW; ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW; TNA CAB 148/211, OD (SA) (82) 15, 24 April 1982; and see Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 700–702.

  54. Ibid., pp. 702–3. See also Christopher Collins’s thoughts at https://www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/1982retpap2.asp.

  55. Hastings and Jenkins, Battle for the Falklands, pp. 153–4; Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 339–40; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 244–9.

  56. ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW; ‘Remarks on the Recapture of South Georgia’, 25 April 1982, TFW.

  Chapter 33. The Day of Reckoning

  1. Daily Express, 26 April 1982; Sun, 26 April 1982; Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands (1983), p. 155.

  2. Keith Britto, ‘Public Opinion Background Note 111’, 4 May 1982, TFW.

  3. The Times, 29 April 1982; The Economist, 1 May 1982, 8 May 1982; Keith Britto, ‘Public Opinion Background Note 112’, 10 May 1982, TFW.

  4. Daily Express, 30 April 1982; Hansard, 29 April 1982; Tony Benn, The End of an Era: Diaries, 1980–90 (1992), pp. 217–18.

  5. ‘National Security Council Minutes: NSC 0048, South Atlantic Crisis’, 30 April 1982, TFW; Reagan to Thatcher, 29 April 1982, TFW; ‘Haig off the Record Briefing to Congressmen’, 29 April 1982, TFW; ‘Haig off the Record Briefing for Press’, 30 April 1982, TFW; Sir Lawrence Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. 2: War and Diplomacy (2005), pp. 176–8; Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, vol. 1: Not for Turning (2013), pp. 707–8; Sun, 1 May 1982.

  6. ‘Speech to Mid-Bedfordshire Conservatives’, 30 April 1982, TFW.

  7. ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW; Moore, Not for Turning, p. 711; Thatcher to Hastings, 8 May 1982, TFW; Hastings and Jenkins, Battle for the Falklands, pp. 169–71.

  8. ‘MT Engagement Diary’, 2 May 1982, TFW; ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 712–13; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 287–8.

  9. Ibid., pp. 256–68.

  10. Martin Middlebrook, The Argentine Fight for the Falklands (Barnsley, 2009), pp. 96–108; Jimmy Burns, The Land That Lost Its Heroes: How Argentina Lost the Falklands War (rev. edn: 2012), pp. 211–12; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, p. 285; ‘No. 10 Record of Conversation: Falklands: Military Decisions’, 2 May 1982, TFW; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 712–13.

  11. Freedman, War and Diplomacy, p. 292; Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, pp. 108–9.

  12. Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 356, 227; Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, pp. 110–16.

  13. Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 284–93, 315, 736–46; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 714–15.

  14. Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 211–12; The Times, 11 August 1994; Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, pp. 115–16; La Nación (Buenos Aires), 2 May 2005.

  15. Paul Theroux, The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey around the Coast of Great Britain (1983), pp. 36–7; MO D156, Falklands Special, 1982; MO S496, Falklands Special, 1982; Ken Lukowiak, A Soldier’s Song (1993: 1999), p. 12; Vincent Bramley, Excursion to Hell: Mount Longdon, a Universal Story of Battle (1991), p. 24.

  16. Sun, 4 May 1982; Robert Harris, Gotcha! The Media, the Government and the Falklands Crisis (1983), p. 13; Roy Greenslade, Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits from Propaganda (rev. edn: 2004), pp. 445–6; Lukowiak, Soldier’s Song, p. 127.

  17. Hastings and Jenkins, Battle for the Falklands, pp. 179–82; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 290–300; Bramley, Excursion to Hell, pp. 25–6.

  18. Harris, Gotcha!, pp. 66–7; Theroux, Kingdom by the Sea, p. 51.

  19. Moore, Not for Turning, p. 716; ‘Telephone Call between the Prime Minister and Sir Anthony Parsons’, 8 May 1982, TFW; John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher, vol. 2: The Iron Lady (2003), p. 140.

  20. ‘Clipping of MT Interview with Woman’s Own’, 3 August 1982, TFW.

  21. Rentschler diary, 4 May 1982, TFW; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 321–2; Campbell, Iron Lady, pp. 145–6.

  22. Reagan to Thatcher, 5 May 1982, TFW; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 315–26; and see, for example, the discussion of the plan in UK Embassy Washington to Foreign Office, ‘Falklands’, 5 May 1982, TFW.

  23. TNA CAB 128/73, CC (82) 23, 5 May 1982; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 718–19.

  24. Ibid., pp. 719–22; ‘MT Draft Letter to Reagan’, 5 May 1982, TFW; Thatcher to Reagan, 5 May 1982, TFW; and see the excellent commentary by Christopher Collins at https://www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/1982retpap2.asp.

  25. Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 329–31.

  26. Henry Leach, Endure No Makeshifts: Some Naval Recollections (1993), p. 217; Harris, Gotcha!, p. 72; Sun, 5 May 1982; Daily Mirror, 5 May 1982; New Statesman, 7 May 1982.

  27. MO S496, Falklands Special, 1982; MO W633, Falklands Special, 1982.

  28. Daily Express, 8 June 1982; and see Harris, Gotcha!, pp. 17, 22–3, 130–34; Max Hastings, Going to the Wars (2000), e.g. pp. 295, 330.

  29. Harris, Gotcha!, pp. 56–7, 70–71, 95, 103–4; Daily Telegraph, 24 March 2002.

  30. Theroux, Kingdom by the Sea, pp. 135–6, 74; MO S496, Falklands Special, 1982.

  31. Hugh Tinker (ed.), A Message from the Falklands: The Life and Gallant Death of David Tinker, Lieut. R.N., from His Letters and Poems (1982), quoted in Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 358, 363.

  32. Theroux, Kingdom by the Sea, pp. 127, 153, 213. For the polls, see the various examples in Keith Britto, ‘Public Opinion Background Note 112’, 19 May 1982, TFW; Keith Britto, ‘Public Opinion Background Note 113’, 17 May 1982, TFW.

  33. Jean Seaton, ‘Pinkoes and Traitors’: The BBC and the Nation, 1974–1987 (rev. edn: 2017), p. 181.

  34. Harris, Gotcha!, p. 72; Michael Cockerell, Live from Number 10: The Inside Story of Prime Ministers and Television (1987: 1988), pp. 270–71.

  35. Harris, Gotcha!, p. 72; Richard Ingrams and John Wells, My Round! (1983), p. 9; Carol Thatcher, Below the Parapet: The Biography of Denis Thatcher (1996), p. 196.

  36. Hansard, 6 May 1982; Harris, Gotcha!, p. 75; Sun, 7 May 1982.

  37. Daily Mirror, 8 May 1982; Harris, Gotcha!, pp. 51–2; Greenslade, Press Gang, p. 446.

  38. Harris, Gotcha!, pp. 77–8; Seaton, ‘Pinkoes and Traitors
’, pp. 183–4.

  39. Harris, Gotcha!, pp. 79–80; Seaton, ‘Pinkoes and Traitors’, p. 184; Sun, 11 May 1982.

  40. Hansard, 11 May 1982; The Times, 12 May 1982; Anthony Meyer, Stand up and Be Counted (1990), p. 95.

  41. Harris, Gotcha!, p. 82; Evening Standard, 11 May 1982; Daily Express, 12 May 1982, 30 May 1982.

  42. The Times, 14 May 1982, 15 May 1982; Seaton, ‘Pinkoes and Traitors’, p. 185; Thatcher to Sally Oppenheim, 17 May 1982, TFW; Harris, Gotcha!, pp. 88–9.

  43. Campbell, Iron Lady, pp. 138–9; ‘Speech to the Scottish Conservative Party Conference’, 14 May 1982, TFW; Guardian, 25 May 1982; and see Christopher Collins’s discussion of the speech at https://www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/1982cac3.asp.

  44. Nicholas Henderson, Mandarin: The Diaries of Nicholas Henderson (1994: 2000), pp. 462–3; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 364–5, 370–71; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 726–7.

  45. Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 445–7, 452–4; TNA CAB 148/211, OD (SA) (82) 37, 18 May 1982.

  46. ‘MT Engagement Diary’, 19 May 1982, TFW; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 729–31; and see TNA CAB 128/73, CC (82) 28, 20 May 1982.

  47. Hansard, 20 May 1982; The Times, 21 May 1982. See also Benn, End of an Era, p. 224.

  48. ‘Press Statement by Peter J. Clark, Consultant Astrologer’, 19 May 1982, TFW.

  49. Bramley, Excursion to Hell, pp. 26, 29–30; and see Hastings, Going to the Wars, pp. 292–5, which is excellent on the atmosphere in the days before landing.

  50. Bramley, Excursion to Hell, pp. 34, 36–8. See also the accounts in Lukowiak, Soldier’s Song, p. 15; Hastings, Going to the Wars, pp. 297–301.

  51. Ibid., pp. 303–4; Guardian, 21 May 2007.

  52. ‘News Wire Report: Fleet to Begin Landings’, 21 May 1982, TFW; Campbell, Iron Lady, pp. 150–51; ‘Speech in Finchley’, 21 May 1982, TFW; ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW; ‘MOD Sitrep at 1645’, 21 May 1982, TFW.

  53. ‘MOD Sitrep at 2100’, 21 May 1982, TFW; Campbell, Iron Lady, p. 151; ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW; ‘Statement by Secretary of State for Defence’, 21 May 1982, TFW; ‘Remarks Returning to No. 10’, 21 May 1982, TFW; The Times, 22 May 1982.

  54. Sandy Woodward with Patrick Robinson, One Hundred Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander (rev. edn: 2012), pp. 374, 377–8.

  55. Daily Mail, 22 May 1982; Sun, 22 May 1982; Hastings and Jenkins, Battle for the Falklands, pp. 258–60; David Hart Dyke, Four Weeks in May: A Captain’s Story of War at Sea (2007), pp. 111, 150–51, 162–5.

  56. Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 734–5; ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW.

  57. Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 482–3; Leach, Endure No Makeshifts, pp. 217–18; Hastings and Jenkins, Battle for the Falklands, p. 250.

  58. Nick Vaux, March to the South Atlantic: 42 Commando, Royal Marines, in the Falklands War (1986), pp. 119, 183; Bramley, Excursion to Hell, pp. 49–51, 59, 67, 53, 61.

  59. Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 554–6; Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 740–42; Helen Parr, Our Boys: The Story of a Paratrooper (2018), pp. 125–6; Hastings and Jenkins, Battle for the Falklands, p. 266; Guardian, 4 May 2007; Julian Thompson, No Picnic: 3 Commando Brigade in the Falklands, 1982 (rev. edn: 1992), p. 71.

  60. Parr, Our Boys, pp. 51–2, 132–47; Hastings and Jenkins, Battle for the Falklands, pp. 276–87; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 565–75.

  61. Daily Mirror, 29 May 1982; Sun, 29 May 1982, 31 May 1982; Alan Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, 1972–1982 (2000), p. 328.

  62. ‘White House Record of Telephone Conversation’, 31 May 1982, TFW.

  63. Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, pp. 230–31, 216–23; Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 380–81, 376, 379, 347–9, 354, 382–3.

  64. Hastings and Jenkins, Battle for the Falklands, pp. 317–18; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 604–7; Daily Express, 6 October 1982; The Times, 5 October 2003; and see Simon Weston, Walking Tall: An Autobiography (1989).

  65. Freedman, War and Diplomacy, p. 607; Lukowiak, Soldier’s Song, p. 117; Sunday Telegraph, 30 April 1989; ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW; Moore, Not for Turning, p. 747; Daily Mirror, 10 June 1982, 11 June 1982; Sun, 10 June 1982.

  66. Hastings and Jenkins, Battle for the Falklands, pp. 331–2; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, p. 617.

  67. Parr, Our Boys, pp. 158–9, 207, 169–70, 172–3, 178–9, 186–7; Bramley, Excursion to Hell, pp. 84–5, 89, 102, 109, 117, 120, 130, 135, 144–5, 148, 177. The final anecdote is from James O’Connell, Three Days in June (2013), quoted in Our Boys, p. 169.

  68. Lukowiak, Soldier’s Song, p. 37, 99–100; Bramley, Excursion to Hell, pp. 119, 121, 125, 144, 177–8. For more such stories, see, for example, Christian Jennings and Adrian Weale, Green-Eyed Boys: 3 Para and the Battle for Mount Longdon (1996).

  69. Lucy Robinson, ‘Soldiers’ Stories of the Falklands War: Recomposing Trauma in Memoir’, Contemporary British History, 25:4 (2011), p. 581; Independent on Sunday, 16 August 1992; Lukowiak, Soldier’s Song, p. 101; Parr, Our Boys, pp. 222, 228.

  70. ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW.

  71. Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 390, 392; Middlebrook, Argentine Fight for the Falklands, p. 270.

  72. Evening Standard, 15 June 1982; Hastings, Going to the Wars, pp. 370–76.

  Chapter 34. We Are Ourselves Again

  1. ‘MT Notes of Telephone Conversation’, 14 June 1982, TFW; Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (1993), p. 235; Alan Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, 1972–1982 (2000), p. 332; The Times, 15 June 1982; Hansard, 14 June 1982. For an audio clip, which is, as always, slightly different from the Hansard transcript, go to https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110952.

  2. Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, p. 333; Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher, vol. 1: Not for Turning (2013), p. 750.

  3. ‘Remarks Returning to No. 10’, 15 June 1982, TFW; ‘Memoir of the Falklands War’, c. Easter 1983, TFW; Thatcher to R. H. Stuart, 17 June 1982, TFW.

  4. ‘Major General Moore Message’, 15 June 1982, TFW; Moore, Not for Turning, p. 750; Hansard, 15 June 1982, 17 June 1982; The Times, 16 June 1982; Gow to Powell, 22 December 1982, TFW.

  5. Reagan to Thatcher, 18 June 1982, TFW; Trudeau to Thatcher, 27 June 1982, TFW; George Price to Thatcher, 28 June 1982, TFW; Lee Kuan Yew to Thatcher, 2 August 1982, TFW; Revolutionary Democratic Front of El Salvador to Thatcher, 1 August 1982, TFW.

  6. Daily Mail, 15 June 1982; Sun, 15 June 1982; Daily Express, 15 June 1982.

  7. Alan Bennett, Writing Home (rev. edn: 2014), p. 168; MO G226, Falklands Special, 1982. On ‘V-F Day’, see, for example, Daily Express, 16 June 1982.

  8. Guardian, 18 June 1982, 15 June 1982; The Times, 17 June 1982; Tony Benn, The End of an Era: Diaries, 1980–90 (1992), pp. 228–9.

  9. Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands (1983), pp. 354–5; Sir Lawrence Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, vol. 2: War and Diplomacy (2005), pp. 655–6; Rex Hunt, My Falkland Days (Newton Abbot, 1992), pp. 298–300.

  10. See Jimmy Burns, The Land That Lost Its Heroes: How Argentina Lost the Falklands War (rev. edn: 2012), pp. 298, 347–7, 354.

  11. Sandy Woodward, with Patrick Robinson, One Hundred Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander (rev. edn: 2012), pp. xvii–xx; The Times, 21 June 1982.

  12. Freedman, War and Diplomacy (2005), pp. 672–3; Helen Parr, Our Boys: The Story of a Paratrooper (2018), pp. 4–5, 273–6, 282; Daily Mirror, 9 July 1982; Daily Express, 9 July 1982.

  13. Ken Lukowiak, A Soldier’s Song (1993: 1999), p. 180; Vincent Bramley, Excursion to Hell: Mount Longdon, a Universal Story of Battle (1991), pp. 200, 156, 187

  14. Parr, Our Boys, pp. 270, 321–3, 328–9; Freedman, War and Diplomacy, pp. 731–2. For the suicide rate and MoD study, see the government press release, 14 May 2013, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/fal
klands-official-statistics-released, and the BBC News report, ‘Fewer Falklands War Suicides than Feared, Study Suggests’, 14 May 2013, at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22523317.

  15. The programme was ‘Back to the Falklands: Brothers in Arms’ (Panorama, BBC One, 5 June 2017). For the accompanying BBC News story, see ‘Falklands War Veterans Return to Face Their Demons’, 5 June 2017, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40131987.

  16. Western Mail, 8 June 2007; Daily Express, 6 October 1982; The Times, 5 October 2003; Guardian, 11 October 1982; Simon Weston, ‘To See Ourselves as Others See Us’, 21 May 2003, https://web.archive.org/web/20040527120059/http://www.adsw.org.uk/documents/conference/Simon%20Weston%202003%20Conference.doc; and see Simon Weston, Walking Tall: An Autobiography (1989).

  17. Guardian, 11 October 1982; Daily Express, 6 October 1982; The Times, 5 October 2003. On Weston and the Argentine pilot, see the interview at https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/16702195.the-man-who-tried-to-kill-me-is-kind-and-compassionate/.

  18. Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, p. 1; John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher, vol. 2: The Iron Lady (2003), p. 157; Simon Winchester, Prison Diary, Argentina (1983), p. 215; La Nación (Buenos Aires), 23 August 1999; Raymond Briggs, The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (1984), n.p.

  19. Burns, Land That Lost Its Heroes, pp. 477–8. See also Hunt, My Falkland Days, p. 378.

  20. Clark, Diaries: Into Politics, pp. 366, 370.

  21. Bramley, Excursion to Hell, p. 210; Daily Express, 6 October 1982; Sunday Times, 20 June 1982; Keith Britto, ‘Public Opinion Background Note 118’, 20 June 1982, TFW.

  22. MO D156, Falklands Special, 1982; MO G218, Falklands Special, 1982; MO R470, Falklands Special, 1982.

  23. Parr, Our Boys, pp. 243, 362–3; Daily Express, 15 June 1982, 16 June 1982; Peter York, Modern Times (1984), p. 11.

  24. Lewin to Thatcher, 1 July 1982, TFW.

  25. Moore, Not for Turning, pp. 753, 758; Scott to Thatcher, 13 October 1982, TFW; Thompson to Thatcher, 15 October 1982, TFW.