MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Mad about Malvinas, but that's it”

Malvinas/Falklands, vindication of war veterans, the two British-Argentine armed conflicts, Argentina's cornucopia and corruption, Guido di Tella and current British-Argentine relations are some of the issues addressed by The Buenos Aires Herald Andrew Graham-Yooll in a long interview with La Nacion.

"We know we should be mad about Malvinas, but we don't know what line of action we should adopt with the United Kingdom; it's ridiculous" says Argentine born Graham-Yooll but with a distinguished journalist career both in Argentina and UK. "Whether we liked it or not, (former Foreign Affairs minister) Guido Di Tella had a clear idea of what he wanted for Malvinas. Today Argentina has no foreign policy".

The BAH director completely agrees with former Argentine Ambassador Carlos Ortiz de Rozas who recently stated to La Nacion that if Galtieri hadn't invaded the Islands, "Malvinas today would be under Argentine rule".

The interview was actually done in Madrid, Spain where The BAH director launched the Spanish edition of a book he wrote about the dark, dictatorial years of Argentina, which forced him to leave in exile for Britain in 1976, and didn't return until the early nineties. While in Britain he worked for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and lectured in Cambridge.

"I returned to Argentina when Carlos Menem had begun contacts with Britain which a few months later enabled the re-establishment of diplomatic relations. I think Argentina's foreign policies then and now couldn't be more different because today we have no foreign policy: we know we should be mad about Malvinas, but that's it".

In the interview Graham Yooll praises Guido Di Tella for his commitment and clear idea of objectives regarding the Falklands although he described his paraphrasing "pathetic", but that was "his idea of humour, which not everybody understood".

However he said that Argentine President Nestor Kirchner's speech of last April 2 was "moderate" and had several positive aspects particularly recognition of Malvinas veterans because "what was done with them in 1982/83 was infamous, it was like receiving a defeated team: hurrah, hurrah when they left for war and get lost I don't remember you, when they came back".

And as with the Malvinas veterans, "Argentina as a society must recognize that what happened in the seventies didn't go all rotten suddenly and cruelty suddenly emerged in March 1976 (the last military coup). We still have the good dead and the evil dead; it shouldn't be that way, the only way to understand what happened is acknowledging what we did as a society".

Graham-Yooll suggests Britain's experience in Crimea as a model to follow in the vindication of Malvinas veterans.

"Lord Cardigan was stone drunk when he ordered the charge of the light brigade which was then massacred by the Turks. However even poetry remembers the valor and courage of those extraordinary soldiers".

"We know the history of that time (1981/82) and what happened; now what's left is to acknowledge the error and vindicate all those youngsters that were sacrificed", underlines Graham-Yooll.

And the history of that time is, as "so brilliantly" recalled by Argentine Ambassador Carlos Ortiz de Rozas, that "if there had been no occupation of Malvinas by the Argentine forces (in 1982), Malvinas today would be Argentine". "In 1981, Margaret Thatcher and the Foreign Office were not at all interested in the Islands. Galtieri forced them to take an interest!".

But Graham-Yooll's interest in Argentine politics is not limited to modern times: it goes back two centuries ago when British forces taking advantage of the European continent ravaged by Napoleon tried on two occasions to conquer the River Plate from the Spanish crown.

The book, "Occupation and re-conquest" recently launched in Buenos Aires which describes the first "historic armed conflict between Argentines and British" has become a best seller and somehow helps to understand the character of Argentina and Britain's long standing attraction for Argentina's cornucopia.

The commander who was defeated and humiliated in the second British attempt to conquer Buenos Aires (1807) was John Whitelocke who faced a court martial on his return to England and later ignominiously demoted. "Whitelocke's plea is an irony of history; it helps to understand why Argentina is so corruptible", argues Graham-Yooll.

Apparently the defeated general declared that "as (British) soldiers are more in touch with the abundance of this country and the easiness with which it can be acquired, greater is the evil, since the temptation of this land is irresistible".

Following on Whitelocke's premonitory words Graham-Yooll says that "everything is so accessible in Argentina that people become easily corruptible. As the popular proverb goes, "What a generous country"; we are a corrupt society, always looking for the short cut. The villain Whitelocke in those few lines anticipated history, which we preferred to ignore".

And why did Graham-Yooll return to Argentina?

"England gave me privileges I would have never come across in life. I was treated marvelously, I educated three of my four children, I had a beautiful house in Hampstead, London; I was a member of the Labour party and participated in electoral campaigns and even was bestowed by the Crown".

However, "I was born in Argentina; I belong to this country and was kicked out in 1976. And it's my duty to return to where I was forcibly evicted to see if I'm again accepted. I think I have been accepted".

Furthermore, "one belongs to a place because they love you and understand you with your weaknesses, your depressions, drunkenness and unpredictable situations".