Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography by Charles Moore

to Admiral Sir Henry Leach, a request to sink the Argentine carrier, the
25 de Mayo
, was refused because it would have interfered with the progress of the Haig shuttle (interview with Admiral Sir Henry Leach).

* The British decision not to attack the Argentine destroyers after hitting the
Belgrano
annoyed Admiral Woodward; ‘each of them is likely to return with four Exocet,’ he cabled to Fieldhouse. ‘… I request early political recognition that there is a war going on down here.’ (Lawrence Freedman,
The Official History of the Falklands Campaign
, 2 vols, Routledge, 2005, vol. ii:
War and Diplomacy
, p. 302.)

* In that week’s
Spectator
, the political columnist Ferdinand Mount wrote that the sinking of the
Belgrano
made it essential to call a ceasefire. This was a courageous thing for him to say in the circumstances, since he had already accepted an offer to succeed John Hoskyns as head of the No. 10 Policy Unit. Mrs Thatcher raised no protest at Mount’s article, and he took up his new job as agreed.

* The negative Argentine reply to the British proposals had reached Parsons late in the evening of 18 May. ‘It didn’t even address our proposals, it was just a kind of gush of rhetoric,’ Parsons later recalled. ‘I remember saying to Pérez de Cuéllar that as a result of their response a lot of young men who were alive today, in a few weeks’ time were going to be dead, on both sides.’ (Interview with Anthony Parsons,
The Downing Street Years
(BBC), 1993.)

* After the official US tilt towards Britain on 30 April, the supply of US arms and
matériel
increased considerably. It included not just the Sidewinders, but also helicopter engines, thousands of tons of airstrip matting, Stinger ground-to-air missiles, assistance in ship repair and much else besides. ‘I think the full extent of our assistance has never been fully documented,’ recalled Richard Perle. ‘There was
matériel
support on a massive scale.’ (Interview with Richard Perle.) Deliveries were made both to Ascension Island and to the UK mainland, and the British transported them thence to the South Atlantic.
    † In a vain attempt to maintain friendly relations with Argentina, President Reagan sent Galtieri a congratulatory telegram to mark Independence Day. This displeased him, since it seemed hypocritical, and enraged Mrs Thatcher.

* For all Haig’s earlier calls for magnanimity, Kirkpatrick had always believed that he was far too supportive of the British. His suggestion that the US should ease the pressure on Mrs Thatcher as the fighting intensified infuriated her.
Newsweek
reported that she considered Haig and his aides as ‘ “Brits in American clothes … totally insensitive to [Latin] cultures” … Kirkpatrick is said to view Haig’s support of Britain as a “Boys’ Club” vision of gang loyalty – why not just disband the State Department and have the British Foreign Office make our policy?’ (
Newsweek
, 7 June 1982.)

* The blame for Reagan’s ignorance lies with Haig, who had kept knowledge of the UN vote from both the President and Judge Clark to maximize his own room for manoeuvre (see Allan Gerson,
The Kirkpatrick Mission: Diplomacy without Apology
, Free Press, 1991, p. 131).

* One example of Mrs Thatcher’s attention to personal matters, even at the height of the Falklands crisis, was remembered with gratitude by Antony Acland. Learning that his wife was gravely ill with cancer, Mrs Thatcher sent a large bunch of roses from Chequers to her in hospital, with a handwritten note offering ‘the scent of flowers from an English country garden for you’. (Interview with Sir Antony Acland.)
    † Max Hastings (1945–), educated Charterhouse and University College, Oxford; journalist, war correspondent and historian; editor,
Daily Telegraph
, 1986–95; editor,
Evening Standard
, 1995–2002; author
The Battle for the Falklands
(with Simon Jenkins, 1983),
Bomber