Episode 3 – Argentina’s junta cranks up the heat on the frigid Falklands but then cry wolf in 1977

This is episode three and we’re dealing with the period up to the invasion of the islands by the Argentinians on 2nd April 1982. Had it been a day earlier, most people across the world would have thought that the news was a horrendous April Food Joke – but it wasn’t.  As we heard last episode, by 1971 negotiations between the British and the Argentinians had vascillated between good intentions and terrible breakdowns. Throughout the 1960s, the British were trying to figure out how to offload the Falklands without causing political condemnation at home. That changed by the 70s. The British were becoming more hesitant about the whole idea despite pressure from the United Nations and other international agencies. At the same time, the Argentinian right-wing dictatorship had made the Falklands Malvinas their main target to instigate international anger – and to placate their own citizens. Foreign Minister Costa Mendes was leading the communication – he vocal and urbane, and a devout Argentinian nationalist.The British parliament and then successive cabinets became instinctively hostile to Whitehall’s determination to pursue negotiations. The technocrats just saw rising costs at a time of economic fragility, but politicians were equally uncomfortable throwing the 1800 Falklanders under an Argentinian bus. As Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins ask in their excellent book The Battle for the Falklands, why didn’t the Foreign Office just simply give up? Instead they kept ploughing on, trying to find a negotiated solution. In January 1972 an Albatross flying boat landed off Port Stanley to commence a twice-monthly service to Comodoro Rivadavia – and soon, it was hoped, an airstrip would be hewn out of the heath. 350 Argentine tourists arrived onboard the first major cruise liner called the Libertad. That single visit emptied Port Stanley of its entire stock of souvenirs. All seemed swanky, but then the backsliding began and it began with the British.  Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Om Podcasten

This podcast series will endeavour to cover the story from both the British and Argentinian points of view.It was an odd war, fought with the same weapons, NATO weapons. But bullets don’t recognize nationalities, neither do torpedoes and missiles and both sides were going to brutalise each other with western arms. That was only one of many unusual facts about this short sharp war that has left the veterans on both side wondering what it was all for. As we watch Russia invade Ukraine claiming ownership, this is surely a moment to reflect on the Falklands where 255 British military personnel died, along with 649 Argentinians and 3 Falkland Island civilians.  In comparison and after 5 days of fighting in the Ukraine, Russia has admitted to at least 500 deaths and thousands of casualties. As I put together this show the numbers in Europe were startling – a million refugees have fled the Ukraine and the war is going to lead to millions more.  GK Chesterton wrote once that “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”  For the Argentinian’s there was a lot of military historical water under the bridge and that bridge was built on the Malvinas. We must investigate these because they all add up to a crescendo that became a war. For the British it was the same motivation. The 200 islands in the Falkland Group lie 480 miles north east of Cape Horn straddling the line of 52 degrees latitude and comprising around 4 700 square miles of land. The theme music "Devastation and Revenge" is composed by Kevin MacLeod and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.For more details head off to www.abwardpocast.com and select Falklands War from the main menu. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.