Forty years have passed since the end of the Falklands War with the liberation of the islands after they had been captured by a brutal invasion launched by a militarist authoritarian regime in Argentina. As a child that invasion and the ensuing War made a deep impression.
It followed years of unrest at home and decline abroad. For those schooled in the then British mode of decline the likely result seemed both inevitable and disastrous.
What transpired was very different – a British fleet sailed 8,000 miles and returned the islands to the Government desired by their inhabitants through extraordinary acts of courage and endurance,
The ripples of that conflict were enormous. For Argentina it heralded the end of the military junta and its “Dirty War” and the prospect of a democratic future. For the U.K. we regained our national self confidence and our reputation as a nation that not only tried to do the right thing but was prepared to take huge risks to carry it through.
On the broader stage the victory was also significant. The number of democracies globally was then vanishingly small, central Europe remained in thrall to a rearming Russia, Vietnam just seven years previously had sucked the confidence from America. The Falklands conflict showed the West was prepared to make a stand to do what was right: this had a deep impression on the modernisers in the Kremlin as we edged towards the end of the Cold War and the liberation of Eastern Europe.
It was a privilege to be in Port Stanley to visit U.K. forces and to represent the U.K. Government at the Commemorations of the Liberation and to witness it being granted City status. The islands, which are just as beautiful as one imagines, have created a new economy bursting with life and purpose. The growing population of islanders are wonderful and as determined now to maintain their right to self determination as they were in 1982. They remember in huge gratitude, as do we all, those whose lives were lost in restoring their freedom – a sacrifice in our minds as war continues to be inflicted by another brutal aggressor on the people of Ukraine.
