Jim Callaghan managed to PREVENT the Argies invading the Falklands five years earlier.
With NO loss of human life and at far less monetary expense.
The Argentine Junta was giving serious thought to an invasion in 1976/77, had ramped up diplomatic efforts at the UN and were intercepting shipping heading to and from the Falklands with their navy on a regular basis. When large scale amphibious 'maneuvers' involving several of Argentina's Southern military bases were announced the Argentine ambassador in London actually proclaimed that 'The Little Lost Sisters will soon be ours once more'. Callaghan ordered the British amabassador in Beunos Aires to 'let slip' that he was ordering a nuclear submarine to the South Atlantic to 'prevent any stupidity'. Sure enough, the Argies backed down and the 'maneuvers' were cancelled
The main reason the Argies felt confident enough to invade in 1982 was that the Thatcher Government, as part of it's massive defence budget cuts, which would have left us without aircraft carriers (like we are now) or Vulcan bombers, was also going to get rid of HMS Edurance, at the time Britain's ONLY intelligence gathering asset in the whole of the South Atlantic. Naval Party 8901 was overstrength at the time of the invasion as it was a handover period between two groups, so instead of only 30 or so Royal Marines on the Islands there were closer to 60. Also, in the run-up to the war the FCO was seriously debating GIVING the Falklands to Argentina, the Islands had been visited by Nicholas Ridley in 1979 and basically told 'You're on your own' while he tried to sell them on the idea of 'Leaseback' whereby the British government would hand over soverignty of the Falklands to Argentina (which was at that time run by a Fascist military junta who were quite happy to throw their political opponents handcuffed out of planes and helicopters into the freezing South Atlantic) but hopefully lease the islands back from them. The islanders responded by singing 'Hang your head in shame Nicholas Ridley, hang your head in shame' at him. He then went on to drepive them of their British Citizenship with the British Nationality Act of 1981.
The only reason Thatcher chose to retake the Islands was that, with the front pages of all the British newspapers showing photos of Royal Marines face down with Argentine guns pointed at them, it would have been political suicide NOT to.
All of the above is historical fact.
Yes, THE WORDS etc.
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Sun 28 Apr 2013, 12:03, 1 reply)

The best thing about Thatcher going is showing how people don't understand politics.
I'm no Thatcher fan, but not because of a blind political bias, but because of information like this.

You can never be absolute about where someone went wrong, because it's far too complex a subject and isn't a definitive art anyway. However, it's depressing to listen to someone saying "Thatcher was great - she took us to the Falklands" without them having the slightest understanding of the events surroudning the situation.

Often a remark about Thatcher brings the " wasn't any better" which, to paraphrase my 14 year old son "Is like saying Hitler was better than Stalin, as he killed fewer people".
I mentioned this to a Thatcher fan, who said "well you shouldn't celebrate anyone's death. And she didn't kill anyone.". So the "Rejoice, Rejoice" remark after hering the death of over 300 crew of the Belgrano, was OK then, was it?? Suddenly they went silent, not having expected to think any further than what they felt.
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Mon 29 Apr 2013, 8:35, closed)