MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands puzzle for Thatchers.
When Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands on April 2nd, 1982, the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and her husband, Sir Denis, had little idea where the islands were.
This has again been revealed by Sir Denis Thatcher in his first and last substantial public television interview about their time in the Prime Minister's official residence, Number Ten Downing Street.
The interview with his journalist daughter, Carol Thatcher, has been broadcast in Britain a few weeks after his death.
Sir Denis recalled the night of the invasion. "When I arrived back into Downing Street", Sir Denis said, "I won't say it was panic stations, but everybody was running around. I was not too sure where the Falklands were and I did not want to make a bloody fool of myself?But I soon discovered nor did anyone else".
Sir Denis prided himself on his geography, but Carol Thatcher says the invasion caught him out. He looked in the Times Atlas of the World "to find out where the bloody hell they were!"
Margaret Thatcher's knowledge of South Atlantic geography was little better, as the head of the Royal Navy at the time, the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Henry Leach, has revealed. When she asked him how long the British Task Force would take to reach the Falkland Islands and he told her, "About three weeks", Margaret Thatcher replied: "Three weeks. You mean three days?" "No", Admiral Leach told her. "I mean three weeks. The distance is 8,000 nautical miles".
Lady Thatcher has said nothing remains more vividly in her mind than the eleven weeks when Britain fought and won the Falklands War.
Sir Denis Thatcher told of his recollections of the night of the invasion in a television programme entitled "Married to Maggie". In the programme, both he and Lady Thatcher reminisced affectionately about their long partnership and recalled the challenges she faced in her political life. Lady Thatcher, now left very lonely by his death, talked about how much he meant to her and the important part their marriage and his support played in her premiership.
Harold Briley, London
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