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Life and death in the South Atlantic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Alex Danchev
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Extract

Hold hard. Ten years on, the second wave is about to break. The ultimate Channel 4 documentary series is already in the can. It seems that the tributary of personal reminiscence from high and low (but chiefly high) has not run dry after all Recollected in tranquillity, it turns turbulent once more—as witness the fascinating collective testimony elicited by Michael Charlton in The Little Platoon (1989), at once pointer and landmark for the new wave. Already we have the Carrington memoirs, the Whitelaw memoirs, and even that most unlikely artefact, the Tebbit memoirs. From Washington come the Haig memoirs and the Weinberger memoirs, not to mention a shoal of smaller fry. Our man in Buenos Aires author of a prophetic complaint about the typical British approach to the Falklands, that is, ‘to have no strategy at all beyond a general Micawberism’ talked at length to Michael Charlton and to Peter Kosminsky (for the excellent Yorkshire TV documentary ‘Falklands—The Untold Story’). Our men in Washington and at the UN, both writers of distinction, have published revealing accounts of their stewardships. These British accounts can now be matched against the waspish reflections of Jeane Kirkpatrick, the dissentient US Representative at the UN, an exercise full of interpersonal and international interest. The generals and admirals of each side continue to be remarkably forthcoming, in one case from prison, in the other from retirement—such are the spoils of war.

Type
Review Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , July 1991 , pp. 305 - 312
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1991

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References

1 Charlton, Michael, The Little Platoon (Oxford, 1989Google Scholar), a book based on interviews recorded in late 1985 and early 1986 and originally broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Cf. the penetrating commentary by Hugo Young, ‘Falklands Retrospect’, London Review of Books, 17 August 1989.

2 Carrington, Lord, Reflect on Things Past (London, 1988Google Scholar); Whitelaw, Lord, The Whitelaw Memoirs (London, 1989Google Scholar); Tebbit, Norman, Upwardly Mobile (London, 1988Google Scholar).

3 Haig, Alexander, Caveat (London, 1984Google Scholar); Weinberger, Caspar, Fighting for Peace (London, 1990Google Scholar). See also Gompert, David, ‘American Diplomacy and the Haig Mission’, in Coll, Alberto R. and Arend, Anthony C. (eds.), The Falklands War (London, 1985Google Scholar); Lehman, John, Command of the Seas (New York, 1988Google Scholar); Woodward, Bob, Veil (New York, 1987Google Scholar) [for William Casey]; and the interviews in Charlton, Little Platoon, ch. 7.

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7 See, for example, Admiral Lewin, Lord, Evidence to House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, Third Report, Session 1984–85, Events Surrounding the Weekend of 1–2 May 1982 (London, 1985Google Scholar); General, Major Sir Moore, Jeremy and Admiral, Rear Sir Woodward, John, ‘The Falklands Experience’, Journal of the Royal United Services Institute, 128 (1983Google Scholar); General, Major Thompson, Julian, No Picnic (London, 1985Google Scholar). Freedman and Gamba-Stonehouse, and Middlebrook, amongst others, make extensive use of high-level Argentine military testimony, as does the Channel 4 TV documentary series produced by Hugh Scully.

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23 Franks Report, para. 65.

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29 Lord Callaghan, letter to the author, 7 June 1990.

30 Interview with Merlyn Rees, 5 February 1990.

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33 Franks Report, para. 66 and annex A, assertion 5.

34 I have benefited from discussions with Virginia Gamba-Stonehouse on the Argentine evidence. Cf. Charlton, , Little Platoon, p. 116.Google Scholar