Thatcher memoirs detail PM's anger at foreign secretary over Falklands

Previously unpublished memoirs reveal that Thatcher thought Frances Pym was combining with the Americans in attempt to outmanoeuvre her.Margaret Thatcher strongly suspected that her foreign secretary, Francis Pym, was combining with the Americans to outmanoeuvre her at the height of the Falklands war, according to her previously unpublished handwritten memoir of the conflict.

The memoir, written a year after the 1982 war with Argentina, details two key crunch points in the diplomatic phase of the conflict when she clashed with her foreign secretary over attempts involving the Americans to end it peacefully.

In the second key moment – over the Peruvian peace proposals – Pym succeeded in outmanoeuvring her and rallying the cabinet against her – much to Thatcher’s fury.

The remarkable Falklands memoir is one of three personal written by the former prime minister that have been “gifted to the nation” by her estate in lieu of £1m of inheritance tax under an Arts Council England scheme.

The bulk of Thatcher’s private papers were donated to the nation in her lifetime and held at the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. Cambridge University said that Thatcher had stressed she had always wanted her archive to stay in the United Kingdom.

The newly released papers include a personal memoir of the 1984 European summit, where she won her battled for a British rebate, her visit to Moscow for a state funeral in 1985, and the text of her “No Turning Back” speech at the Tory party conference.

Arts Council England described the Falklands memoir as “probably the single most significant historical document Margaret Thatcher ever wrote”.

Chris Collins, historian of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, said its main historical value came from laying out her long and detailed case against Pym – the one cabinet colleague she did not cover with praise for his role in the war.

“Peeping through the pages of the memoir is the uncomfortable thought from MT’s perspective that the foreign secretary was combining with the Americans to outmanoeuvre her during the phase of Falklands diplomacy, not without success,” says Collins.

The first clash came on 24 April on the eve of the war, when Pym returned from Washington with American peace proposals, which he supported and tried to urge on his colleagues. Thatcher says: “This was to be one of the most crucial days in the Falklands story and a critical one for me personally. Early on Saturday morning Francis came to my study in No10 to tell me the results of his efforts. The document he brought back was a complete sellout.”

She told him so in the most direct terms, telling him they would rob the Falklanders of their freedom and was angered to discover he still insisted on putting them before the key cabinet committee: “A former defence secretary & present foreign secretary of Britain recommending peace at that price. Had it gone through the committee I could not have stayed,” she wrote. The row was defused by the simple expedient of putting the plan to the Argentinians first, who refused to accept the terms.Read more HERE

(RG)They all stabbed her in the back in the end.

REVEALED: The Falklands war DEATH RAY Margaret Thatcher planned to use on Argentina

Although the weapon was never used, prime minister Margaret Thatcher was so impressed she ordered tests to perfect it for possible use against the Soviet Union.

Governments had been keen to come up with a death ray since the 1920s, when £1,000 was offered for the invention of a ray that could kill a sheep at 100 yards.

During the Second World War Jasper Maskelyne, a conjuror employed by British Forces in North Africa as a camouflage and deception expert, used powerful searchlights to dazzle Luftwaffe pilots targeting the Suez Canal.When the Falkland Islands were invaded in 1982, scientists decided to employ the same trick by using lasers to blind enemy pilots Read more   HERE 


(RG) Ha Ha , the press love to use the words Death Ray and Margaret Thatcher in the same sentence.

Statue honouring Margaret Thatcher unveiled in the Falklands

But the Argentinian ambassador to Britain has slammed the artwork islander's asked for, saying that the UK 'is celebrating war. A statue honouring the memory of Margaret Thatcher has been controversially unveiled in the Falkland Islands.

The tribute to the Iron Lady, who led Britain into the 1982 conflict with Argentina, was revealed yesterday.After Thatcher died in 2013 the residents of the islands were asked how they wanted to remember the Conservative Prime Minister.After deciding to build a statue, the idea was slammed by leading Argentinian politicans.The south American nation's ambassador to Britain Alicia Castro said: "What the UK is doing is celebrating war."Sculptor Steve Masson was commissioned to carry out the work, costing £40,000.Read More   HERE  


(RG)  My message to the ambassador, we are not glorifying War, we are remembering a Prime Minister that fought an Evil Fascist dictatorship and reclaimed our Islands and restored democracy.

Argentina's fury at plans for statue of Margaret Thatcher on Falkland Islands

The planned unveiling of a statue of Margaret Thatcher on the Falkland Islands has sparked a furious new row between Britain and Argentina. The bronze sculpture of the Prime Minister whose forces freed the islanders after the 1982 invasion will be unveiled in the capital Stanley next month. But Argentina's ambassador to London, Alicia Castro, has condemned the statue 'in our Malvinas Islands' as a provocative move, saying: 'What the UK is doing is celebrating war.'Her anger was echoed by veterans' leader Mario Volpe in Buenos Aires. He said: 'The statue is not a symbol of democracy. It's her fault so many died.' He said Mrs Thatcher 'could have avoided the war and the deaths'. The memorial, to be unveiled by her son, Sir Mark Thatcher, at a ceremony on January 10, is seen for the first time in our exclusive photograph.Read More HERE



(RG) As we all know what we do on the Falkland Islands has got nothing whatsoever to do with Argentina, every time a penguin farts they think it is a provocative act. Invading someone else s Country and terrorizing men woman and children is a Provocative act. Great tribute to the Iron Lady.

Memos reveal six months of planning behind Thatcher's top secret visit to the Falklands

Margaret Thatcher’s 1983 visit to the Falklands was akin to a military operation in its own right and followed six months of meticulous planning.The prime minister visited the islands for four days in January to mark the 150th anniversary of the establishment of a permanent British settlement.
The trip, less than eight months after the end of the conflict, had to be kept secret because of the “significant” threat from Argentina, confidential government files show.
The documents, released today by the National Archives under the new 20-year rule, include extensive briefings from the Ministry of Defence marked “Secret UK Eyes A” about travel arrangements.
The prime minister was flown by the RAF to Ascension Island before being taken on a Hercules plane, which had to be refuelled mid flight, to Port Stanley. The flights cost £209,867, an invoice from the MOD contained in the files shows.
Information about the visit was only shared with a handful of staff at Number 10 and press officers were briefed to tell the media that Mrs Thatcher was going to Chequers for the weekend. Read More  HERE 

"LOVE HER OR HATE HER MAGGIE HAD MORE BALLS THAN ALL OF THE WISHY WASHY POLITICIANS WE SADLY HAVE TO PUT UP WITH TODAY."

Ministry of Defence developed laser weaponry to dazzle low-flying Argentinian pilots during the Falklands War

Britain sent a laser weapon to the Falklands to 'dazzle' low-flying Argentine pilots as they attacked Royal Navy ships, secret government papers revealed today.
The secret device was developed quickly and secretly but was never used in action during the 1982 conflict.
Its existence was revealed a year later to Margaret Thatcher in a January 1983 letter, marked 'Top Secret and UK Eyes A,' from Michael Heseltine.Mr Heseltine wrote: 'We developed and deployed with very great urgency a naval laser weapon, designed to dazzle low flying Argentine pilots attacking ships, to the Task Force in the South Atlantic. This weapon was not used in action and knowledge of it has been kept to a very restricted level.'
His briefing on military capabilities also touches on the laser weapon research and development programmes called Raker and Shingle which were 'proceeding at high priority,' according to the papers.
He claims the Soviet Union could field laser weapons by the mid-1980s but it was uncertain whether owning such offensive laser weapons was useful.
By the end of 1979 British interests were in using medium power laser directed against relatively softer targets such as eyes, optic and electro-optic sensors.
His note said: 'the Russians could be in a position to field such weapons by the mid-1980s (in fact, the Russians may already have deployed a laser weapon on the cruiser Kirov)'. Read More  HERE 

Falklands surrender telex fails to sell

A telex sent to Margaret Thatcher informing her of the Argentine surrender and the end of the Falklands War failed to sell at auction today.Although just a simple one page document mounted in a frame, the Telex represents a key moment in British military history and the defining moment of a Prime Minister’s career, Read more HERE

Sadly it seems that Brian Powell paid over the odds for this unique piece of history.

Ex-Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher dies, aged 87

It goes without saying that Margaret Thatcher was still a controversial figure in British politics long after she left office. Some on the left will be popping champagne at the news of her death today. As for me she stands out for her leadership during the Falklands crisis and she stood up to many even in her own cabinet and always got her way. She was the first women Prime Minister and had more `balls` than many of her predecessors. R.I.P

Read more HERE