Reagan's Last-Ditch Falklands Plea Revealed

Sky News ^ | 28th December 2012 | Alistair Bunkall

[the scotsman]

'Ronald Reagan issued a last-ditch appeal to Margaret Thatcher to abandon her campaign to retake the Falklands and to hand over the islands to international peacekeepers, according to official documents made public today.

Files released by the National Archives at Kew, South West London, under the 30-year rule show that as British troops closed in on final victory, the US president made a late-night phone call to Mrs Thatcher urging her not to completely humiliate the Argentines.

However, his request fell on deaf ears as a defiant Prime Minister insisted that she had not sent a British task force across the globe just "to hand over the Queen's islands to a contact group".'

[FR_addict]

Yes, Thatcher was right and Reagan was wrong. He wasn't perfect, but close to it.

If I remember right there were a lot of conservatives that backed Argentina at the time, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, US Ambassador to the UN, being one of them.

Jeanne Kirkpatrick: “She was one of the strongest supporters of Argentina's military dictatorship following the March 1982 Argentine invasion of the United Kingdom's Falkland Islands, which triggered the Falklands War. Kirkpatrick had a “soft spot” for Argentina's President Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri,[1] and favored neutrality rather than the pro-British policy favored by the Secretary of State Alexander Haig.[5] The administration ultimately decided to declare support for the British, thus forcing her to vote yes to UN resolution 502.”

When it came down to it, he backed Thacher. Since there wasn't anyone recording the call, we may not have the call completely right.

[Las Vegas Ron]

It shows that even though he did not agree with an ally he stuck with that ally.

Good post.

That's one of the problems on our side, we'll kick our guys to the curb for the slightest infraction.

The Dems otoh will stick together through thick and thin.....no matter what.

[Little Ray]

Doesn’t turn me against Reagan, It is just disappointing.

Dunno what we could get from Argentina that would be worth making such a call.

The Monroe doctrine is dead, at least since the French took Mexico and put Maximilian on the throne and supported him with the French Foreign Legion. We didn’t do anything about that. Then, of course, there was Cuba. Based on that I don’t see how we could enforce it against Soviets.

I am not disappointed that he wanted to settle it peacefully; I am disappointed by his call for a UN intervention. They were just as corrupt and incompetent during the Reagan Administration as they are today. Why should the British subjects of the Falklands be subjected to them?

[Forgotten Amendments]

Let’s keep in mind a context of the times. Argentine was actually an allay of America’s also. America has a special duty to ensure peace reigns in this hemisphere.

I totally agree. Central America looked really bad back then and Argentina was helping us in what looked like an uphill battle. The Falklands (or as Jesse Helms said, "The Malvinas") was a brutal sideshow and at the time, a lot of conservatives opposed Thatcher or were neutral. And to top it off, after we alienated our hemisphere, she trashed us on Grenada, which may have been Reagan's greatest move.

[VanDeKoik]

The Monroe Doctrine didn’t make sense when Monroe chucked it out there, especially seeing the wreck 95% of everything south of the Rio Grande became... ironically outside of the areas that the Europeans still control today.

[ifinnegan]

Oswald killed Kennedy.

[ifinnegan]

Oswald killed Kennedy.

[VeniVidiVici]

Something’s not right with this. We were helping the Brits, but we didn’t make it known.

And with the Brits so close to the Falklands at the time it makes no sense for Reagan to have asked Thatcher to back-off and “give peace a chance”.

Sorry. This is BS.

[Wuli]

Here’s where U.K. hypocrisy shows itself, today.

They can continue to claim legitimacy for their OCCUPATION of a colonial possesion thousands of mile away, while belittling little Israel for defending the defensible borders it has come to have in defense against the many threats to its existence.

[SoConPubbie]

3) The real Reagan, who was an impressive person, but who wasn’t either 1) or 2).
Coming from you, given your posting history, this lopsided and biased opinion of Reagan doesn't surprise me one bit.

Reagan, in spite of his minor flaws, stands head and shoulders above every other President of the last Century and those we have endured this century.

[staytrue]

It’s BUSH’S FAULT !

[1rudeboy]

Dunno what we could get from Argentina that would be worth making such a call.

Are you kidding? Another unabashedly pro-Soviet state in S. America? We're playing chess here, not checkers.

[Strategerist]

Reagan, in spite of his minor flaws, stands head and shoulders above every other President of the last Century and those we have endured this century.

My point wasn't that he wasn't a great President, it's that he was hardly the ideologically pure anti-RINO that a lot of people on here vaguely mis-remember him as.

[Lancey Howard]

I am disappointed by his call for a UN intervention. They were just as corrupt and incompetent during the Reagan Administration as they are today.

And the State Department was as loaded with communists, appeasers, and scum during the Reagan Administration as it is today. Who knows what hand they had in the whole thing? What I find interesting is that Reagan did not make his alleged request of Thatcher publicly through the media, but rather with a private phone call that wasn't made public for 30 years. Keep your eyeballs peeled - - there will be more about this story coming shortly, I'm sure.

[Lancey Howard]

Nice try, but no sale.

Reagan was a genuine leader in every sense of the word.
That is WHY he is hated by the left and idealized by normal human beings.

Nobody ever claimed he was perfect, and nobody ever had to.

[the scotsman]

We FOUGHT alone.

And other allies gave us support: Chile, South Africa, Australia, NZ.

[the scotsman]

Sorry, I think its no BS.

[ansel12]

Reagan ended the Cold War, earning a place as one of a handful of the greatest men in history.

The world was in hell before Reagan, every moment was shadowed with apocalypse and the instant end of Western Civilization.

Thank God for Ronald Reagan’s vision and skills.

Reagan surpassed the greatness of Emperors and war time presidents, and did it with almost no loss of life.

[djf]

Yup. Who'd a thunk...

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"We FOUGHT alone.

That's not what the article talked about. It is not what I commented on. It talked about Britian getting no outside help (or support is the term you use) to go into the islands. It never uses the word fought. By your own post, you tacitly admit that what the article says is wrong. We provided support (your word) or help (their word). If you are going to comment to me and dispute what I say, stick to what I was commenting on in the article. Save your editorials for someone else.