Read Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography Online
Authors: Charles Moore
Tags: #Non-Fiction, #Biography, #Politics
Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography (155 page)
Interview with Sir Robert Wade-Gery.
137
.
Ibid.
138
.
THCR 4/3.
139
.
Thatcher,
The Downing Street Years
, p. 226.
140
.
Ibid.
141
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
142
.
Interview with Sir Denis Thatcher.
143
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
144
.
Interview with Sir David Goodall.
145
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
146
.
FO Sitrep, 24 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
147
.
Pope John Paul II to Thatcher telegram, 22 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
148
.
Thatcher to Pope John Paul II, 22 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
149
.
Interview with Lord Renwick of Clifton.
150
.
Henderson telegram, 24 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
151
.
Pym to PM, 25 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
152
.
Interview with Lord Armstrong of Ilminster.
153
.
Interview with Sir Brian Fall.
154
.
Henderson,
Mandarin
, 30–31 May 1982, pp. 465–6.
155
.
Pym to Haig, 26 May 1982, released by the US State Department under FOIA Case #200600788.
156
.
Haig to President, ‘Falklands Crisis’, 26 May 1982, Falklands Crisis 1982, Box 90224, Dennis Blair Files, Reagan Library.
157
.
Interview with Jeane Kirkpatrick.
158
.
Henderson telegram, 24 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
159
.
Interview with Jim Rentschler.
160
.
Records of this conversation were leaked years later and the gist appeared in the
Sunday Times
on 8 Mar. 1992. This account, however, draws on the official US transcript now available at the Reagan Library (Telephone Conversation, Reagan/Thatcher, 31 May 1982, UK (04/26/1982–09/29/1982), Box 20, Exec Sec, NSC: Country File, Reagan Library).
161
.
Ibid.
162
.
Rentschler, diary, 3 June 1982.
163
.
Interview with Jim Rentschler.
164
.
Henderson,
Mandarin
, 31 May 1982, pp. 467–8.
165
.
Thatcher,
The Downing Street Years
, p. 230.
166
.
Henderson,
Mandarin
, 31 May 1982, pp. 466–7.
167
.
Interview with Sir Clive Whitmore.
168
.
Washington Post
, 3 June 1982. This was the first of two instalments published by the paper of an interview conducted on 2 June.
169
.
Interview with Sir Clive Whitmore.
170
.
Ibid.
171
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
172
.
Woodward,
One Hundred Days
, p. 239.
173
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
174
.
Ibid.
175
.
Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands, 10 May 1982 (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
176
.
Speech to Conservative Women’s Conference, London, 26 May 1982 (
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104948
).
177
.
Washington Post
, 4 June 1982.
178
.
Speech to Conservative Women’s Conference, 26 May 1982 (
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104948
).
179
.
See Freedman,
The Official History of the Falklands Campaign
, vol. ii, p. 557.
180
.
Interview with Lord Bramall.
181
.
Interview with Major General Julian Thompson.
182
.
THCR 4/3.
183
.
Interview with Lord Parkinson.
184
.
Interview with Major General Julian Thompson.
185
.
Interview with Sir David Goodall.
186
.
Interview with Tom Brokaw, NBC News, 9 June 1982 (Collins, ed.,
Complete Public Statements
).
187
.
OD(SA) minutes, 45th meeting, 27 May 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Handling of the Falklands Invasion (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
188
.
Interview with Sir Denis Thatcher.
189
.
Interview with Lord Armstrong of Ilminster.
190
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
191
.
See Freedman,
The Official History of the Falklands Campaign
, vol. ii, p. 576.
192
.
Rentschler, diary, 4 June 1982.
193
.
Draft message, Reagan to Thatcher, 2 June 1982, Trip: President’s European: June 1982 (2), Box 7, William Clark Files, Reagan Library.
194
.
Rentschler, diary, 3 June 1982.
195
.
Interview with Sir Nicholas Henderson.
196
.
Henderson,
Mandarin
, 8 June 1982, pp. 471–2.
197
.
President Mitterrand’s statement to the press at the conclusion of the Versailles summit (
http://www.g7.utoronto.ca/summit/1982versailles/statement_english.html
).
198
.
Interview with Hubert Vedrine.
199
.
Ibid.
200
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
201
.
Parsons telegram, 4 June 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
202
.
Pym to UK delegation at Versailles, 5 June 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
203
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
204
.
Press conference after Versailles summit, 6 June 1982 (
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104955
).
205
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
206
.
Ronald Reagan, address to members of the British Parliament, 8 July 1982, The Public Papers of the Presidents, The American Presidency Project, University of California.
207
.
Freedman,
The Official History of the Falklands Campaign
, vol. ii, p. 597.
208
.
Ibid.
209
.
THCR 1/20/3/1. In fact, Mrs Thatcher visited Northwood over the weekend of 12–13 rather than on the Wednesday immediately following the attacks.
210
.
Pattison to PM, 10 June 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
211
.
Scholar to Whitmore, 19 June 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
212
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
213
.
Ibid.
214
.
Ibid.
215
.
Freedman,
The Official History of the Falklands Campaign
, vol. ii, p. 650.
216
.
THCR 4/3.
217
.
Freedman,
The Official History of the Falklands Campaign
, vol. ii, p. 652.
218
.
Interview with General Sir Michael Rose.
219
.
Hansard, HC Deb 14 June 1982 (
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104967
).
220
.
Alan Clark,
Diaries: Into Politics
, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000, 15 June 1982, p. 332.
221
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
222
.
Interview with Sir Antony Acland.
223
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
224
.
Sir Robert Armstrong, Cabinet Secretary’s notebooks, 15 June 1982.
225
.
Interview with Sir David Goodall.
226
.
Hansard, HC Deb 17 June 1982 (
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104970
).
227
.
Notes on a meeting between the Secretary-General and Prime Minister Thatcher, 14 June 1982, S-1043-0002-05, UN Archives.
228
.
Palliser to PM, ‘The Falklands Repossessed’, 21 June 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
229
.
Interview with Major General Julian Thompson.
230
.
Interview with Sir John Coles.
231
.
Interview with Sir Clive Whitmore.
232
.
Interview with Lord Armstrong of Ilminster.
233
.
Thatcher to Muldoon, 11 June 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Position of the Falkland Islands (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
234
.
Speech to Conservative Party rally in Cheltenham, 3 July 1982 (
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104989
).
235
.
THCR 4/3.
236
.
Interview with Lord Renwick of Clifton.
237
.
See Thatcher,
The Downing Street Years
, pp. 173–4.
238
.
Interview with Sir David Gillmore, 17 Mar. 1996, British Diplomatic Oral History Project, Churchill College, Cambridge.
239
.
Draft Presidential remarks at the end of his 23 June 1982 meeting with UK Prime Minister Thatcher; papers of Jim Rentschler.
240
.
‘President’s Meeting with UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’, 23 June 1982, UK (04/26/1982–09/29/1982), Box 20, Exec Sec, NSC: Country File, Reagan Library.
241
.
Henderson,
Mandarin
, 20–27 June 1982, p. 480.
242
.
Clark,
Diaries: Into Politics
, 15 June 1982, p. 336.
243
.
Coles to Whitmore, 2 July 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Falkland Islands Thanksgiving Service (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
244
.
Ridley to Stephens, 15 July 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Falkland Islands Thanksgiving Service (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
245
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
246
.
Ibid.
247
.
Coles to Whitmore, 14 July 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Falkland Islands Thanksgiving Service (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
248
.
Interview with Sir David Goodall.
249
.
Ibid.
250
.
OD(SA), note by the Secretaries, 9 July 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Falkland Islands Thanksgiving Service (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
251
.
Ridley to Coles, 16 July 1982, Prime Minister’s Papers, Argentina: Falkland Islands Thanksgiving Service (document consulted in the Cabinet Office).
252
.
Interview with Sir David Goodall.
253
.
Interview with Lord Runcie of Cuddesdon.
254
.
Ibid.
255
.
THCR 1/20/3/1.
256
.
Interview with Major General Julian Thompson.
257
.
Text of Falklands dinner speech, 11 Oct. 1982, THCR 1/20/3/29B.
258
.
Interview with Sir David Goodall.
259
.
Interview with Lord Bramall.
First, I must thank the late Lady Thatcher for giving me the opportunity to write this book. The offer to be her authorized biographer came as a complete surprise, but it was an honour which I could not refuse. She was as good as her word in providing me the complete access, in so many forms – including interviews and the sight of all her papers – which she had promised.
From her offer, help from all other members of her family flowed. I talked extensively to the late Sir Denis Thatcher. Sir Mark Thatcher and Carol Thatcher have both been interviewed for the book and have kindly helped me with information whenever asked.
Lady Thatcher’s elder sister (her only sibling), Mrs Muriel Cullen, had never spoken publicly before, beyond one brief press interview many years ago. We met for two substantial conversations before she died. In addition, and with assistance from her son Andrew, she allowed me to read the large and previously completely unknown collection of letters which Margaret wrote to her as a young woman. From the way the letters were piled in old cases and bags in the attic, I formed the impression that no one had re-read them since Muriel first received them. This collection is a treasure trove which gives a unique account of the private life of Margaret Roberts. I was further helped by talk with Mrs Cullen’s daughter Jane Mayes, who also furnished me with family photographs. At all times, the Cullen family have shown me great kindness. I particularly appreciate it, because they are people who dislike publicity. Andrew Cullen would much rather be working on his farm. After so much time amid the clashing egos of Westminster, I found this very sympathetic.
