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Did Anyone Follow the Falklands War?

MacLeod said:
^But for example could Langholm hold it's own referrendum on whether or not to remain part of Scotland or become part of England?
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No, just like Derry and Newry wouldn't be able to vote to join the Republic of Ireland even though both are border cities with majority nationalist communities. The right to self-determination doesn't normally apply on such a level, and it's why the UK's claim to the Falklands is weaker than it first appears.
 
I followed it at the time as a Yank who was curious. I do remember Jay Leno (back when he was funny) on the Tonight Show talking about it. Off top of my head..."The British have sent out several ships to fight for the Falklands. They told Argentina, 'we are in our way, hold on, we'll get there. We are coming.' "
 
Deckerd said:
This is what Brits remember. Brian Hanrahan, reporting genius. A great loss.
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I was just coming into the thread based on the title to make a "I didn't just follow it, I counted them all out and then all back in again" gag. Yes, much missed. We have very few eloquent TV reporters today; they're too busy trying to show off their petty and frequently hostile debating skills to score points against their interviewees to actually use language to paint a picture to the viewer. The current paucity of intelligent and witty - but not snide - TV reporters was painfully obvious during the recent Jubilee celebrations, for example.

Anyway, back to the Falklands, I was a kiddie, but I still watched it on TV. I think it must have been the first war I watched, come to think of it. And yes, when I first heard about it, I was young enough to have no clue where the Falklands actually were!
 
I was serving in Germany at the time. We all paid attention to the details wondering if it would escalate. It has been interesting to see it crop back up in the news.
 
BTW, the real British failure in the Falklands War falls squarely on the shoulders of Bond. James Bond. He not only didn't stop the Argentine invasion, he didn't even see it coming. All he need to do was shoot a couple generals in Buenos Aires and bang some highly-placed hot chick and the whole war would've been averted.
 
I wasn't exactly a supporter of Thatcher - we are still suffering from many of the social changes she inflicted on us, and she jumped at the chance of a war to bolster her popularity, which is ironic as that is exactly why the Galtieri regeime invaded the Falklands.

With regards to who has the legitimate claim to the islands, Argentina have geographical proximity on their side but little else. Britain's claim is by long term settlement (oddly, not always a strong case - ask the Palestinians), and it should be noted that the inhabitants were not full British citizens at the time - they are now. The UK and Argentina were feeling their way towards negotiations regarding shared sovereignty, which the Argentines effectively scuppered by invading.

I very much doubt that Britain would ever enter into such negotiations now, and that is the Argentinians own fault. The bottom line is that it has to be down to the inhabitants to decide, and they are pretty unanimously pro-Britain.
 
The Falklands War was the first war I was old enough to follow in the news and understand. At the time, I (living in California) happened to have a teacher who was from London and she was understandably quite upset over the war. She talked to us about it regularly and it made quite an impression on me... so much so that ever since I've devoured nearly every book and documentary on the Falklands I've come across, which used to be not many but publishing picked up towards the 25th anniversary. My collection is something like 50 books on the war and the islands themselves. I've also been fortunate enough to have actually visited the Falklands on two separate trips (port calls on cruises). On the second visit, I managed to get out to some of the battlefields and saw some of the memorials. Having been there and met the residents, I know they're proudly British and want to stay that way. Lest anyone think I'm biased, I've been to Argentina twice on vacation and love it. I just think they're wrong, both historically and politically, on the Falklands.
 
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I was about one year old at that time, so my interests were mainly limited to eating, sleeping and drooling.
 
I was only seven and a half when the war happened. My only contemporaneous memory of the conflict was seeing some TV reports and footage on the network news of the time. I read a lot about the war when I got older, though, and learned about America's and President Reagan's background roles in the whole affair.
 
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