From the archives: Defending the Falklands

To mark the 30th anniversary of the start of the Falklands War, here’s Ferdinand Mount’s column from the time:

The last armada, Ferdinand Mount, 10 April 1982

A debacle speaks for itself. All things that inescapably follow — the humiliation, the indignation, the ministers hurrying in and out of Cabinet, the spectacular sitting of Parliament on a Saturday, the calls for the resignation of Mr John Nott, Lord Carrington and anyone else standing in the line of fire — are not only themselves part and parcel of the debacle; they help to explain why it happened.

The Falkland Islanders are the last victims of our refusal to be honest with ourselves; we have clung to the rhetoric of empire long after we have lost the desire or the ability to maintain its reality. The easy refuge in these circumstances is to blame the ‘appeasers’ in the Foreign Office. It was undoubtedly the Foreign Office which is to blame for the misreading of Argentina’s intentions and for Britain being caught napping.