Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Volume 2

by Charles Moore

  After Daniel Collings, Dr David Shiels, my research associate, has been the most important part of the team. He has continued the Irish research which he contributed to the last volume, but his work has now extended over a much wider field of primary research at Kew, the Churchill Archives and elsewhere. He has also been deeply involved in the preparation and consolidation of the whole volume. His care and diligence are outstanding.

  For Volume II, it fell to Daniel Collings to conduct most of our interviews in the United States (which for this volume number around sixty), as well as taking relevant testimony from former occupants of Whitehall and King Charles Street. More time-consuming was US documentary research. Here we owe a debt to the Presidential Libraries of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. At the Reagan Library we would like to thank Mike Duggan, Steve Branch and, above all, the indefatigable Shelly Williams, our cheerful and extraordinarily wise sherpa for over ten years. At the Bush Library our sincere thanks to Robert Holzweiss, who runs a very tight ship, and Zach Roberts, who dealt with our numerous requests with military precision.

  This book has benefited from FOIA and Mandatory Review requests for documents spanning many thousands of pages. In part we have been guided by the knowledgeable staff at the Presidential Libraries, but we have also submitted numerous requests directly. We would thus like to thank the FOIA staff at the State Department, Department of Defense, CIA, NSA and Exim Bank. Those helping us at Foggy Bottom deserve special mention, especially Lorraine Hartmann, the Appeals Officer, who has so often gone above and beyond the call of duty in search of obscure documents.

  Our research has also relied upon the expertise and documentary collections of a number of US institutions. These include the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington, DC, where we would like to thank Mary Curry and, particularly, Svetlana Savranskaya, who generously shared the fruits of her research at the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow. We also acknowledge with gratitude assistance from the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Lauinger Library at Georgetown University, the Mudd Library at Princeton University, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the archives of the United Nations and the public libraries of the District of Columbia.

  In our efforts to understand Mrs Thatcher’s interlocutors we have benefited greatly from the support of Mrs Nancy Reagan and those who continue to look after the interests of President Reagan, above all Joanne Drake and Fred Ryan. Our debt to them is huge. We are similarly appreciative of the support received from President George H. W. Bush and his office. President Bush receives only a walk-on part in this volume, but will, of course, take centre stage in Volume III. George Shultz has also been a stalwart supporter of this book throughout – generous with his time and unfailingly shrewd in his insights. So has Peter Robinson. Others from whom we have learnt much for this volume include Bud McFarlane, Jack Matlock, Richard Perle, John Poindexter, Roz Ridgway and Colin Powell. Our gratitude to them, and to all our interviewees, is immense.

  I also thank my US publishers, Alfred A. Knopf, and my editor there, Dan Frank. The speakers’ bureau, Leading Authorities, has helped me spread the word about the book in the United States.

  Other institutions whose records have been consulted include the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and the Archives Nationales in Paris. I am, as always, much in the debt of the London Library. Numerous individuals have made documents available to me. I should like to thank Sir David Butler for arranging access to his archive of contemporary election interviews at Nuffield College, Oxford (where Sir David, now over ninety, continues to provide the most active and generous help); the late Lord Deedes, my first editor (to whose memory this book is co-dedicated), for glimpses of his own records; Harry Hart for the use of the papers of his late father, David; Professor Sir Brian Harrison for material relating to Mrs Thatcher’s honorary-degree controversy at Oxford and to her relationships with intellectuals; Graham Turner for the unpublished transcripts from his published interview on the latter subject; Henry Hardy for permission to quote a letter from the late Sir Isaiah Berlin; John Whittingdale for sight of his unpublished diaries of the period; Dame Patricia Hodgson for personal papers; Lady Walters for permission to quote from the notes and diaries of her late husband, Sir Alan; Gerald Bowden for his private article about the Thatchers in Dulwich; Archie Brown for his contemporary notes about Soviet matters; Martin Nicholson for unpublished extracts from his memoirs and assistance rendering obscure Russian phrases into wonderfully approachable English; Azriel Bermant for his thesis on Margaret Thatcher and the Middle East (which is expected to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2016); Lord Burns for his private notes of meetings; Alice Coleman for her contemporary graphological analysis of Mrs Thatcher’s hand; Sir David Goodall for his private memoirs of the Anglo-Irish Agreement and of the character of Mrs Thatcher; Sir John Coles for several private papers; Sir Peter Marshall for the use of his private diaries; the estate of the late Lord Wyatt of Weeford for permission to quote from previously unpublished passages from his journals; Lord Young of Graffham for the use of his private Election Diary of 1987.

  The following have kindly given interviews for this volume. Many of them have never spoken before on this subject. In a few cases, their interviews are not quoted or referred to directly, but the background information provided has been of great use: General Jim Abrahamson; Sir Antony Acland; Kenneth Adelman; Raymond Albright; Rosie Alison; the late Martin Anderson; Lord Armstrong of Ilminster; Jacques Attali; Lord Baker of Dorking; James Baker; HRH Prince Bandar Bin Sultan; Dr Wendy Barron; Lord Bell; the late Lord Biffen; Lord Birt; the late Tony Bishop; Eivind Bjerke; Tony Blair; Sir Kenneth Bloomfield; Lord Blyth of Rowington; Roger Bone; Sir Gerald Bowden; Dame Colette Bowe; Sir Rodric Braithwaite; the late Lord Brittan of Spennithorne; Keith Britto; Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville; Sir Nigel Broomfield; Professor Archie Brown; William Brown; Sir Colin Budd; Vladimir Bukovsky; Lord Burns; Conor Burns; Richard Burt; Lady Butler of Brockwell; Lord Butler of Brockwell; Sir David Butler; the late Sir Michael Butler; Frank Carlucci; Lord Carrington; Sir Brian Cartledge; Bishop Richard Chartres; Charles Clarke; Duane Clarridge; Tyrus Cobb; Professor Alice Coleman; Sir John Coles; Tony Comer; the late Robert Conquest; David Cornwell (John le Carré); the late Sir Percy Cradock; Sir James Craig; Cynthia Crawford; Chester Crocker; Peter Cropper; the late Sir Brian Cubbon; the late Lord Cuckney; Ian Curteis; the late Sir Christopher Curwen; Kenneth Dam; Timothy Deal; Sir Richard Dearlove; the late Michael Deaver; Lord Deben (John Gummer); the late Lord Deedes; Ken deGraffenreid; F. W. de Klerk; Jacques Delors; Carol Dinkins; Lord Dobbs; Noel Dorr; Ken Duberstein; Lady Dunn; the late Lawrence Eagleburger; Lord Egremont; Richard Ehrman; Sir Brian Fall; Sebastian Faulks; Lord Fellowes; Fred Fielding; the late Garret FitzGerald; Marlin Fitzwater; Tim Flesher; Lord Fowler; Charles Freeman; Tessa Gaisman; Nicholas Garland; Sir Victor Garland; Dr Robert Gates; John Gerson; Sir David Goodall; Sir Nicholas Goodison; Oleg Gordievsky; Lord Gowrie; Sir Peter Gregson; Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach; Sir Gerry Grimstone; Lord Hamilton of Epsom; Sir Claude Hankes; Lord Hannay of Chiswick; Sir David Hare; Robin Harris; Professor Sir Brian Harrison; the late Arthur Hartman; Sir Max Hastings; Sir Terry Heiser; Philip Hensher; Lord Heseltine; Sir William Heseltine; Charles Hill; Dame Patricia Hodgson; Sir Michael Howard; Sir Gerald Howarth; Lord Howe of Aberavon; Jonathan Howe; Lord Hurd of Westwell; Angela Huth; Sir Bernard Ingham; Sir Martin Jacomb; Lord Jenkin of Roding; Lord Jopling; John Kelly; Dr Geoffrey Kemp; Lord Kerr of Kinlochard; Robert Kimmitt; Lord King of Bridgwater; the late Lord Kingsdown; the late Bob Kingston; Lord Kinnock; Dr Henry Kissinger; Andrew Knight; Lord Lamont of Lerwick; Sir Tim Lankester; Andrew Lansley; Lord Lawson of Blaby; the late Nelson Ledsky; Dr John Lehman; Dr Ronald Lehman; Sir Mark Lennox-Boyd; Oliver Letwin; Burton Levin; Michael Lillis; Ken Livingstone; Sir Michael Llewellyn Smith; Rachel Lomax; the Marquess of Lothian (Michael Ancram); Josephine Louis;
Lord Luce; Romilly, Lady McAlpine; the late Lord McAlpine of West Green; Sir Colin McColl; Robert ‘Bud’ McFarlane; Lord Maginnis of Drumglass; Gerald Malone; Lord Mandelson; Martin Mansergh; the late Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge; Sir Peter Marshall; Jack Matlock; Lord Maude of Horsham; Lord Mayhew of Twysden; Roger Maynard; Ed Meese; Sir Peter Middleton; Oliver Miles; Frank Miller; Lord Mogg; Chris Moncrieff; David Montgomery; Lord Moore of Lower Marsh; Pierre Morell; the late Lord Moser; Tony Motley; Sir Richard Mottram; Ferdinand Mount; Brian Mulroney; Jane Mulvagh; Rupert Murdoch; Richard Murphy; the late Dermot Nally; Andrew Neil; Martin Nicholson; Thomas Niles; David Norgrove; Oliver North; Sir John Nott; Dr Stanley Orman; John O’Sullivan; Lord Owen; Claire Pakenham; Sir Michael Pakenham; Lord Parkinson; David Pascall; Lord Patten of Barnes; Richard Perle; John Poindexter; Amanda Ponsonby; Lady Powell of Bayswater; Lord Powell of Bayswater; Colin Powell; the late Charles Price; Jonathan Pym; the late Sir Michael Quinlan; Sir Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal; Katharine Ramsay; Mrs Nancy Reagan; John Redwood; the late Lord Rees; Lord Renwick of Clifton; William Rickett; Roz Ridgway; Sir Malcolm Rifkind; Peter Robinson; Jill Rutter; Richard Ryan; Lady Ryder of Wensum; Lord Ryder of Wensum; Lord Saatchi; Wafic Said; Sir John Scarlett; Dr Michael Schluter; Sir Michael Scholar; Raymond Seitz; Lord Sharkey; Sir Nigel Sheinwald; Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury; George Shultz; Jeremy Sinclair; Geoffrey Smith; Sir John Sparrow; Dick Spring; Lord Sterling of Plaistow; Edward Streator; Barry Strevens; William Taft IV; Lord Tebbit; Howard Teicher; Horst Teltschik; Carol Thatcher; the late Sir Denis Thatcher; Sir Mark Thatcher; Lord Thomas of Swynnerton; Sir Derek Thomas; Harvey Thomas; Lord Turnbull; Graham Turner; Sir Brian Unwin; Sir John Ure; Hubert Vedrine; Lady Wakeham; Lord Wakeham; Lord Waldegrave of North Hill; George Walden; the late Lord Walker of Worcester; Sir David Walker; Sir Stephen Wall; Sir Dennis Walters; Peter Warry; the late Lord Weatherill; Sir John Weston; Ron White; the late John Whitehead; Sir Clive Whitmore; John Whittingdale; Sir Nigel Wicks; Philip Wilcox; David Willetts; the late Lord Williamson of Horton; the late Richard Wirthlin; Revd John Witheridge; Paul Wolfowitz; Lord Wolfson of Sunningdale; the late Sir Oliver Wright; Lord Wright of Richmond; Bob Young; Lord Young of Graffham.

  In the last volume, several people were interviewed on the condition that they remained anonymous. For this volume, only one interviewee made this stipulation (though many spoke off the record on some subjects). I am grateful to her/him for her/his contribution too.

  Many others have helped in a variety of ways:

  at Allen Lane, Richard Duguid and Rebecca Lee have (as last time) been the book’s efficient editorial managers; Peter James has again been my meticulous and brilliant copy-editor; Taryn Jones and Sandra Fuller have been the production controllers, Chris Shaw and Stephen Ryan the proofreaders, Lisa Jackson the design manager, Antonio Colaco the jacket designer, Christine Shuttleworth the indexer, Cecilia Mackay the picture researcher, Donald Futers and Ben Sinyor successive assistants to Stuart Proffitt. All of them have worked hard to ensure that the book met its publication date in good order. Chantal Noel has ably organized serialization. I should like retrospectively to thank Liz Sich and Sarah Watson for their cheerful and effective publicity work for Volume I. As the book goes to press, Pen Vogler is doing a similar job for this volume.

  All those who have helped with research. My dear friend Miriam Gross did research to help me understand Mrs Thatcher and the arts. To aid the final, immensely complicated process of getting 3,000 endnotes right, Dan Collings advised me to recruit Foley Pfalzgraf, in Washington, DC. Demonstrating extraordinary precision and determination throughout, she has done a splendid job.

  I am particularly grateful to the owners of the Telegraph Media Group, Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, and Sir David’s son, Aidan, for their warm support for this book. The chief executive, Murdoch MacLennan, and the editor, Chris Evans, have been equally enthusiastic and, in the case of both volumes, have serialized the book. Chris Evans kindly permitted me a sabbatical to get Volume II finished. Other members of the paper’s staff – Ian Macgregor, Richard Preston, Philip Johnston, Harry de Quetteville, Robert Colvile (who has now left the paper) and Sally Chatterton – should also be thanked for their co-operation and patience. In my work at the Daily Telegraph, Pat Ventre is my assistant. The Thatcher book is not part of her duties, but her presence has greatly helped me organize my life. I am much in the debt of Fraser Nelson, the editor of the Spectator, who has tolerated too frequent absences from my column on Thatcher business.

  In the previous volume, I mentioned friends whose conversations over many years about my subject and the age in which she flourished have been particularly valuable. I shall not rename most of them here, but what I said then applies still. One or two should be singled out for special relevance to this volume. They include the late Nicholas Budgen, Richard Ehrman, Christopher Fildes, Nicholas Garland, Dean Godson, Nigel Lawson, Oliver Letwin, Ferdy Mount, Owen and Rose Paterson, Alan Petty, Katharine Ramsay, Norman Tebbit and William Waldegrave.

  On Irish matters, Lord Bew has been essential; Professor Eugenio Biagini has also been most helpful. Jane Mulvagh, Carla Powell, Cynthia Crawford, Amanda Ponsonby and Romilly McAlpine have, in very different ways, explained to me about clothes.

  Among those particularly close to Mrs Thatcher, I am so grateful to Amanda Ponsonby for hospitably bringing together the important but little-known people behind the scenes who often knew her the best; also to Richard and Caroline Ryder, who have helped me at every turn. The person, among the leading cast of Thatcher characters, who has assisted my inquiries most often is Charles Powell (Lord Powell of Bayswater), whose memory is prodigious and range of subjects unique. He must have spent more time with Margaret Thatcher, and certainly knew more of her political mind, than anyone else in the period covered. His co-operation has been unstinting.

  Charles Powell was a distinguished civil servant, if of an unusual kind. Several others from his profession have been vital for this book, contributing the sort of accuracy which politicians, whatever their other virtues, rarely possess. I thank, in particular, Robert Armstrong (Lord Armstrong of Ilminster), Robin Butler (Lord Butler of Brockwell), who served Mrs Thatcher both as principal private secretary and, later, as Cabinet Secretary, and Andrew Turnbull (Lord Turnbull).

  Friends, expertly and kindly, read the manuscript to try to improve it. They were Mervyn King (Lord King of Lothbury), particularly for the bits about money; Richard Ehrman; James Sherr (for everything concerned with the Cold War); Andrew Riley; David Willetts; Sir Noel Malcolm. My father, Richard Moore, also read it most carefully. At home in Sussex, Jackie Ashdown has cleaned round it with the greatest possible tact.

  As with Volume I, Virginia (Ginda) Utley, towards the end of the process assisted by her sister, Catherine, and Kate Ehrman both helped anchor the book. Ginda is in charge of the manuscript, a very arduous task when working with an author who does not get the best out of computers. Kate translated from the French and checked the 2,000 or so quotations from those interviewed. Both, having worked with me on and off for many years, have developed exceptional gifts of patience and humour.

  As in the previous volume, I want to thank Diana Grissell, MFH, and my horse Tommy, for whom she cares. As in hunting, so in writing a book, a good rule is that of Lucy Glitters, ‘Throw your heart over it, and then follow it as quickly as you can,’ though I concede that it may not look to the outside world as if I am being quick at all.

  Finally, I must thank all my family, especially our twins, Will and Kate, who were seven when all this started and are now, as I write, twenty-five. Truly, they have borne a great deal, and have made plenty of jokes (and, in Will’s case, drawn cartoons) to remind me of this. Now my daughter-in-law, Hannah, is an additional victim. To her and them, this book is dedicated.

  My wife Caroline has borne the most. I just do not know how to thank her enough: I hope, by the time I have finished Volume III, I shall have found the answer.

  Charles Moore

  Et
chingham

  August 2015

  THE BEGINNING

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  ALLEN LANE

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  First published 2015

  Copyright © Charles Moore, 2015

  Cover photograph: Margaret Thatcher – Isle of Wight, 1983 © PA Images

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  The poem ‘Mrs Thatcher’ is taken from The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend, copyright © Sue Townsend, 1984, and is reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd

  ISBN: 978-0-241-20126-8

  * Nothing important for the book has been lost in this process. Sensitive matters struck out tend to be operational details of intelligence or military matters which are not central to the Thatcher story.

  * Lady Thatcher did not pay me for my work. The book was contracted by my publishers, Penguin.