Margaret Thatcher’s No-No

Quibbles apart, America’s liberation of Grenada clearly does have much in common with Britain’s liberation of the Falklands. Over the Falklands the American government dithered at first but, in the end, came down firmly on Britain’s side: over Grenada the British government dithered and then declared its uncompromising disapproval of America’s action. This seems ungrateful, imprudent for the future, and uncharacteristic of Mrs. Thatcher.

Why should the Iron Lady, the conqueror of General Galtieri, be so weak over how to deal with a blood-soaked Marxist dictatorship in the Caribbean? This question has exercised a lot of British Conservatives (more than half the Conservative Party at a guess, the others being congenitally “wet,” i.e., soft-liners, themselves) no less than the U.S. and Caribbean citizens who feel that Britain has let them down.

AL

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Anthony Lejeune

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Quibbles apart, America’s liberation of Grenada clearly does have much in common with Britain’s liberation of the Falklands. Over the Falklands the American government dithered at first but, in the end, came down firmly on Britain’s side: over Grenada the British government dithered and then declared its uncompromising disapproval of America’s action. This seems ungrateful, imprudent for the future, and uncharacteristic of Mrs. Thatcher.

Why should the Iron Lady, the conqueror of General Galtieri, be so weak over how to deal with a blood-soaked Marxist dictatorship in the Caribbean? This question has exercised a lot of British Conservatives (more than half the Conservative Party at a guess, the others being congenitally “wet,” i.e., soft-liners, themselves) no less than the U.S. and Caribbean citizens who feel that Britain has let them down.