Tilting toward Britain

Jesse Helms was out front early in opposing the abandonment of U.S. neutrality in the Falklands conflict, and he has begun to look prescient to a lot of people in this town, even those members of Congress and the State Department who had urged siding with Britain. Reassessments of the tilt are under way, triggered by the grisly turn of events in the South Atlantic, beginning with the sinking of the Argentine General Belgrano and the British Sheffield, and the consequent large loss of life.

From the outset of the crisis, Helms gave it as his view that Britain should stay out of the South Atlantic lest her presence there drive a wedge between our NATO allies and our OAS allies. The United States should broker the dispute, he stressed, not take sides. Other senators, notably John Warner and Ted Stevens, and Representatives Toby Roth (Wis.) and Eldon Rudd (Ariz.)—all Republicans–also showed early discomfort with our “ill-timed and ill-advised’’ pro-British stand.

JM

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John McLaughlin

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Jesse Helms was out front early in opposing the abandonment of U.S. neutrality in the Falklands conflict, and he has begun to look prescient to a lot of people in this town, even those members of Congress and the State Department who had urged siding with Britain. Reassessments of the tilt are under way, triggered by the grisly turn of events in the South Atlantic, beginning with the sinking of the Argentine General Belgrano and the British Sheffield, and the consequent large loss of life.

From the outset of the crisis, Helms gave it as his view that Britain should stay out of the South Atlantic lest her presence there drive a wedge between our NATO allies and our OAS allies. The United States should broker the dispute, he stressed, not take sides. Other senators, notably John Warner and Ted Stevens, and Representatives Toby Roth (Wis.) and Eldon Rudd (Ariz.)—all Republicans–also showed early discomfort with our “ill-timed and ill-advised’’ pro-British stand.