ANALYSIS: Falklands War killed Argentine regime, revived Thatcher By Veronica Sardon, dpa Eds: updated version of package item that moved March 27, Falklands War ran April 2 to June 14, 1982, infographics No. 6092, epa photo 00000401009463 available =
Buenos Aires (dpa) - The Falklands War of 1982 had opposite effects on the governments of Argentina and Great Britain, signalling the demise of the last Argentine dictatorship and adding wind to the sails of Margaret Thatcher's historic rule.
Conscious that support was waning fast for a military regime initiated in 1976, Argentine ruler Leopoldo Galtieri used a traditional claim to sovereignty of the Falkland Islands - known locally as the Malvinas - as an emergency raft.
However, defeat brought about the end of the bloody military dictatorship, which has been blamed by families and human rights groups for the death or disappearance of 30,000 people. Within days after Argentina lost the conflict, the regime stepped down and gave way to free elections.
The 74-day conflict, in turn, gave prime minister Thatcher (1979- 90) the chance to show her leadership qualities. The swift military victory went a long way to secure her re-election in 1983.
The Falklands victory gave her added political capital to push forward with her radical reform of British society, from the transformation of the post-war Welfare State to the defeat of the powerful trade unions that had proved so rebellious for governments over the previous decade.
Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins, a Thatcher expert, recently mused about how differently Britain would have developed if Argentine forces had not invaded the archipelago in the icy waters of the South Atlantic 480 kilometres off its shore.
'Margaret Thatcher would have resigned or been defeated at the polls. Old Labour would have returned to power. There would have been no Thatcherism, no British revival, no Tony Blair, no Gordon Brown,' wrote Jenkins.
On the Argentine side, things unravelled in the opposite direction. The dictatorship was going through a political and economic crisis in 1982 and facing increasing opposition. On March 30, 1982, just three days before the war, regime opponents launched their first major demonstration on the central Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires.
The propaganda value of the claim to sovereignty was 'a cause that has historically had a profound emotional and sentimental impact on Argentine society,' said journalist Eduardo van der Kooy in an interview.
To this day, Argentina stands by its ancient claim to sovereignty of the Malvinas, what Van der Kooy calls a 'collective feeling' passed on from one generation to the next. Buenos Aires still insists that the islands were illegally occupied by Britain in 1833, despite the current will of the local residents to remain British.
Thus, when General Galtieri returned to the Plaza de Mayo to rally the population after initial occupation of the islands, he generated excitement with his proclomation: 'If they want to come, let them come. We will fight them!'
By June 14, however, 649 Argentine soldiers, many of them young, untrained and underequipped, and three civilian Falklanders lay dead. The British lost 255 soldiers.
The defeat and deceit forced upon the Argentine population by the dictatorship's propaganda machine led to Galtieri's resignation three days afterwards. Free elections were held the next year.
Galtieri was initially absolved of civil charges of human rights abuses, but later was placed under house arrest. A military court sentenced him to 12 years in prison for his actions around the Falklands War, and he served five years in jail before being pardoned in 1991.
On April 2, Argentine Vice President Daniel Scioli travelled to the southern town of Ushuaia, in the province of Tierra de Fuego, to commemorate the anniversary of the 'recovery' of the islands.
'Neither war nor time change reality. The Falklands are Argentine, always were and always will be,' Scioli stressed, in accordance with the country's constitution.
But Argentina's elected governments have insisted on diplomacy as the only admissible means to pursue the goal.
As if to mark the radical differences in the legacies of the war in Britain and Argentina, British Prime Minister Tony Blair - whose public currency has fallen with growing opposition to the war in Iraq - recently called Thatcher's decision to go to war over the Falklands the 'right thing' and said it 'took a lot of political courage.'
Like Galtieri's, Thatcher's popularity was at an all-time low in early 1982. But with victory in her sails, her Conservative Party won the 1983 elections by a landslide - a public mandate for the large- scale, profound reform she carried out. = The Falklands War had winners and losers beyond the battlefield. Indeed, while many in Argentina were able to hail the onset of democracy, critics in Britain express regret over the lasting legacy of Thatcherism - two phenomena that emerged from the battle over the remote archipelago in the South Atlantic.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
Your Talkback on this Story