Killing Reagan (25 page)

Yet Thatcher has no intention of altering her policies. “This lady's not for turning,” she has publicly announced. “People are prepared to put up with sacrifices if they know those sacrifices are the foundation of future prosperity.”

British press secretary Bernard Ingham would later describe Thatcher as “macho in a man's world, determined to work men under the table; fierce in argument, asking no quarter and giving none; in the back row when tact was handed out; impetuous; secretive; inspirational, and utterly dedicated, with a constitution as tough as old boots.”

Now that constitution will be sorely tested. On the surface, Margaret Thatcher appears ill suited to lead Great Britain into battle. But lead she must.

With little political opposition, the Iron Lady launches a most audacious scheme to get the Falklands back. She orders the head of the navy, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Leach, to prepare an attack.
3
Within a day, an armada of British warships will set sail for the Falklands.

*   *   *

Four days after Margaret Thatcher's combat force sets sail from southern England, Ronald Reagan tiptoes into the Caribbean Sea. American warships are anchored offshore. The aquamarine ocean in Barbados is churning, with waves crashing onto the beach. Reagan begins to swim, though cautiously, knowing that he is not at full strength. It has been almost a year to the day since his release from the hospital after the assassination attempt. Part of Reagan's fitness regime now includes weightlifting and stretching, and as he emerges from the surf after the brief swim, he is proud of the five pounds of muscle he has added to his upper body.

There are indications, however, that Ronald Reagan's health is not what it used to be. Reporters noted earlier in the week that he was completely exhausted by just two days of meetings with Caribbean leaders. And while Reagan made a point of venturing into the water for his swim, aware that photographers down the beach were capturing the moment, his vigorous session of backstroke and freestyle alongside his Secret Service bodyguard was brief.

Ronald Reagan walks up the white sand to where Nancy sits with their hostess, former Hollywood actress Claudette Colbert.
4
Nancy wears a strapless green-and-black bathing suit with a straw hat, while Colbert is clad in a white beach outfit. The actress did her own swim this morning, preferring thirty minutes of backstroke in the pool at the estate she has named Bellerive.
National Review
editor William F. Buckley Jr. and his wife, Pat, have joined Colbert and the Reagans for lunch.

Despite the state of world affairs, the president considers this a day off. He and Nancy flew to Barbados on official business, but the weekend is to be a time of sun and relaxation. Their get-together with Colbert and the Buckleys will stretch from just past noon until almost midnight. First, a cocktail hour, and then a dinner of curried chicken in Colbert's turquoise-colored dining room. Later, the Reagans will return to a private residence six miles away to sleep.

Yet world matters do not simply vanish because Reagan is in the mood to relax. Those warships anchored within view of Colbert's two-story villa are American navy communications ships, along with a hospital vessel standing by to treat Reagan should something once again go horribly wrong. Secretary of State Alexander Haig is currently in London, meeting with Margaret Thatcher about the Falklands, and Reagan is waiting on a report. While pretending to be neutral, the president is a firm backer of the British and has little sympathy for the Argentine dictator Galtieri, whom he considers a drunk. However, Reagan does believe the Argentine leader to be an ally in the war against communism. Evidence of this can be found in Argentina's military and financial support for a group known as the Contras, who are currently fighting the Marxist regime in Nicaragua. Since 1979 the United States has also backed the Contras. It is a policy that will soon lead to the greatest scandal of Reagan's presidency.

But there is another reason Reagan is adopting a tone of neutrality in the Falklands situation. The Soviet Union is courting Galtieri by threatening to join Argentina in the conflict against the British. Reagan does not want this to happen, so he is cautious in his public statements.

Secretary of State Haig's report from London is flashed to the White House Situation Room shortly after the Reagans finish lunch in Barbados. “The Prime Minister has the bit in her teeth, owing to the politics of a unified nation and an angry parliament,” Haig reports. “She is clearly prepared to use force.”

Reagan spends part of the afternoon thinking of his response. He finally writes back to Haig just before dusk. The larger problem facing the president is not the Falklands crisis but that he is still in the process of formulating his own foreign policy. In his one year in office there have been stirrings of unrest in Poland, delicate communiqués with the Soviet leadership, and an escalating crisis between Israel and Lebanon that now threatens to blossom into full-scale war.

“The report of your discussions in London makes clear how difficult it will be to foster a compromise that gives Maggie enough to carry on, and at the same time meets the test of ‘equity' with our Latin neighbors,” Reagan responds to Haig. “There isn't much room for maneuver in the British position.”

Then, knowing his words mean war, Ronald Reagan gets dressed for happy hour.

*   *   *

On April 25, less than three weeks after sailing from England, British Special Forces and Royal Marines retake South Georgia Island.
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The weather is terrible, a combination of force-ten gales and driving snow. Two British helicopters crash while attempting to rescue a group of commandos stranded on a glacier in the severe weather, and initial reports back to London indicate the loss of seventeen British soldiers. Thatcher weeps at the news, only to be told hours later that all the men survived. South Georgia Island is taken without a single casualty. “Rejoice!” she urges the citizens of Great Britain as the news breaks. “Just rejoice!”

But the Argentines are resolute. They still hold the islands' main city, Stanley, even as a full-scale British invasion looms. Argentine president Galtieri's nation, like Great Britain, is engulfed in patriotic fervor. Galtieri, the silver-haired former combat engineer, refuses to back down. He's been in office just four months, and this test of his administration will be either his greatest triumph or his political undoing.

On April 30 the British declare a “total exclusion zone” around the Falklands. Any vessel found within a two-hundred-nautical-mile radius around the islands will be considered a ship of war and will be subject to immediate attack. Three days later, with Margaret Thatcher's complete approval, the Argentine cruiser
General Belgrano
is sunk by a British torpedo. Its two escort vessels refuse to stay and rescue the survivors, cowardly fleeing back to the mainland. Three hundred twenty-three sailors are sent to their graves in the icy South Atlantic waters.

Two days after the
Belgrano
is sunk, Argentina gets its revenge. The HMS
Sheffield
is part of a British task force patrolling seventy miles off the Falklands. “Shiny Sheff,” as it is known for its highly polished stainless-steel fittings, is a state-of-the-art Type 42 destroyer.

At 7:50 a.m. on May 4, an Argentine patrol aircraft picks up the
Sheffield
on its radar. Two hours later, a pair of Super Etendard Argentine fighter jets take off from an air force base at the tip of South America. With French-made Exocet antiship missiles affixed to the bottom of their fuselages, the jets home in on the unsuspecting
Sheffield
.

Argentine pilots Lt. Armando Mayora and Lt. Cmdr. Augusto Bedacarratz use caution when approaching the ship, flying just a few feet above the ocean to avoid being detected.

Despite their stealth, radar operators on board the aircraft carrier HMS
Invincible
pick up the Etendards when the planes are 180 miles away. But the British fleet has undergone a number of false alarms in the past few days, thinking they see planes where none exists. The officer in charge of
Invincible
's electronics ignores the sighting, telling his radar operators that they are “chasing rabbits.” No warning is sent to
Sheffield
or any other British vessel in the vicinity.

On board the
Sheffield
, the mood is calm. The crew is not at battle stations, and the ship's officers are chatting with their superiors in London via satellite phone. The electromagnetic effects of the phone interfere with the ship's Type 965 radar, making it all but useless.

So it is that both Argentine planes fly within twelve miles of the
Sheffield
before launching their Exocets. Pilots Mayora and Bedacarratz fire their missiles and then split up to avoid detection. The Exocets' rocket propellant ignites both missiles one second after launch. The missiles drop to just six feet above the Atlantic and race toward the unsuspecting ship at seven hundred miles per hour.

“The sea was very calm,” British sublieutenant Steve Iacovou will later remember. “We were looking out to sea and I thought it looked like a torpedo was on its way because the sea was shimmering and shaking.”

With no time to undertake defensive measures, the crew takes cover. “Missile attack. Hit the deck!” is quickly broadcast throughout the ship.

One Exocet lands harmlessly in the sea.

The other does not.

The missile pierces the
Sheffield
's hull on the starboard side. Quickly, a fifteen-foot hole opens up and the seawater pours in. Luckily for the men of the
Sheffield
, the missile is a dud, and the 165-kilogram warhead does not explode. However, flames from the rocket propellant ignite everything in the Exocet's path. Diesel fuel stored in the Forward Auxiliary Machine Room detonates, sending thick clouds of acrid black smoke throughout the vessel. The heat is so intense that all efforts to fight the fire are in vain. The blaze rages unabated, asphyxiating and burning all those trapped belowdecks. Amazingly, the
Sheffield
remains afloat, and the crew struggles to guide her into port. The order to abandon ship is given six days later, and the empty ship is towed into port. The
Sheffield
becomes the first British vessel sunk in combat since World War II.

“Twenty officers and ratings [enlisted men] died,” the official report will read. “Some personnel, in the Galley area, were killed on impact.”

This is the message that is read aloud to the House of Commons at 10:56 p.m. on May 4. Margaret Thatcher sits with her head bowed as British defense secretary John Nott tells the members of Parliament the sad news. The one thing she has feared more than any other was the loss of a ship. Now that has come to pass.

The prime minister does not reveal her emotions until she returns to 10 Downing Street, whereupon she breaks down. Margaret Thatcher weeps. Going to war was easy. But knowing that her decisions cost young men their lives, and that mothers throughout Great Britain are now learning the news that they have lost a son, is devastating. Her own boy, twenty-two-year-old Mark, and her husband, Denis, comfort Thatcher in the sitting room at 10 Downing Street as she sobs.
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“What are you making all this fuss for?” Denis asks bluntly as the prime minister's crying continues. He is not always fond of being a politician's spouse, having suffered a nervous breakdown and abandoned his wife for two months early in her career. Fond of a large drink and a laugh, Denis was unsure of whether to divorce Margaret Thatcher or remain married to this workaholic woman with the buckteeth and frizzy hair who talks politics nonstop. In the end, he came back home, but Denis Thatcher is not one to mince words. “When there's a war on you've got to expect things to not go right all the time.”

*   *   *

The next morning, the Iron Lady is stunned to get a message from Ronald Reagan, who once again suggests that the British consider leaving the Falklands to the Argentines. Reagan believes the conflict is not worth the price.
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Margaret Thatcher's mourning is replaced by rage. British soldiers and sailors are dying due to her decisions. Hundreds more are being wounded. In a scathing response, she makes one thing very clear: Great Britain is not backing down.

The men of the
Sheffield
will not have died in vain.

*   *   *

It is Memorial Day in Washington, DC. Ronald Reagan started his day at Arlington National Cemetery, in a moment of remembrance for the many Americans who lost their lives in war. Now he places a phone call to Margaret Thatcher.

“Margaret?”

“Yes, Ron?”

“Could you hear me all right?

“We could hear you very well. Can you hear me?”

“Yes, seems a little echo, but I guess that goes with the line we're on.”