TV Interview for NBC (1215-1245Z) [Falklands]

Interviewer

Prime Minister, I wonder if you can bring us up to date on the military situation in East Falkland. There has been some speculation that your forces would not move until President Reagan left London, so that would spare him the political embarrassment of that. Is there anything to that?

Mrs. Thatcher

The position is governed by the practical considerations and it is for the military commanders to decide when they're ready to move.

Interviewer

What are the chances, as of today, of some kind of a political settlement, making a military battle for Stanley not necessary?

Mrs. Thatcher

We've been trying for a political negotiated settlement for eight weeks, for eight weeks the Argentines could have withdrawn at any time. They haven't withdrawn. It is now beyond a negotiated settlement. When you've got a highly complex position, with soldiers, sailors and airmen about, you simply cannot say&em;we're still going for yet another negotiated settlement. I would have no grounds whatsoever to think that we would get one now when we didn't have one for eight weeks. The way to do it now is for anything like that to be arranged between the military commanders in the field and there is nothing to prevent President Galtieri instructing his commander on the Falklands to try to arrange a withdrawal. Then it would be arranged with safety, dignity and despatch.

Interviewer

I like to think that it's not bloodthirsty curiosity but there is a considerable amount of curiosity now about why the British troops have not moved on Stanley, they seem to be in excellent positions, the weather has improved there, reinforcements are in place and there seems to be some question about why they are not moving on Stanley.

Mrs. Thatcher

You can't fight a battle around a Cabinet table, in the columns of a paper or even on television. We have very very highly professional people, we must leave it to their judgment when they've got everything ready for the battle to commence. We have good professionals, all our forces are professionals. They are superb. I leave that particular judgment to them. [end p1]

Interviewer

But from here it does seem likely that there will be a major military battle for Stanley does it not?

Mrs. Thatcher

Indeed I would expect so, unless by any chance we were able to succeed in procuring a comparatively early surrender such as happened at Darwin and Goose Green after the initial very hardly fought, very tough opening rounds of the battle. Then our forces didn't go on, if they thought they could get a surrender and they were successful in getting one. That I think saved a lot of lives.

Interviewer

During your conversations with President Reagan, or during the conversations at the ministerial level that have occurred here in London in the past few days, was there any suggestion at all from the American side that they … you should forestall a military battle for Stanley because it might be too costly in political terms, it would humiliate the Argentines and it would only polarise Latin America in terms of its relations with the United States and Great Britain ....?

Mrs. Thatcher

None.

Interviewer

No suggestion whatsoever?

Mrs. Thatcher

None.

Interviewer

Was military strategy raised at all in your conversations with the President?

Mrs. Thatcher

Military strategy is left to the commanders in the field, any wise politician knows that. They have certain latitude within which to operate, the rest is left to them. A wise politician is well aware of that and of course Mr. Secretary Haig in particular is very familiar with the military problem.

Interviewer

Did you have any specific request of President Reagan or of Secretary Haig for additional political or military support in that area?

Mrs. Thatcher

Did I have a request from them for additional ....?

Interviewer

To them.

Mrs. Thatcher

They are being absolutely marvellous in their support, staunch, as one would expect from an ally like America to Britain, absolutely staunch. We are anxious that if we need any help, after the surrender, that they would be in a position to receive a request for help. It could be very difficult if there are a lot of prisoners of war because we obviously have to look after them and we're a long way away from the supply lines, we have certain supplies there but we would like to think that those prisoners of war are looked after as well as possible. [end p2]

Interviewer

Did you get into any discussion with the President or with Secretary Haig about the possibility of the presence of American troops in the Falklands after your expected military victory?

Mrs. Thatcher

No, we are all very much aware that we might need to try to arrange a multinational force for the security of the Falklands later but, you know, it is going to take some time. The people on those islands have gone through an absolutely traumatic experience. Their whole way of life has been uprooted and changed. They've always rejected the overtures, well, there weren't any overtures, they've always rejected any idea that there'd be any question of sovereignty going even in the very long term to the Argentines. Then they were punished for that view by the Argentine invader, then they've had a battle over their territory. Their houses vandalised, some of them ... some of the leaders of the community taken away to West Falkland and I cannot think what's happened to their farms and their wool supplies and wool stocks. You can imagine if that happened in a part of the United States, the first thing is rehabilitation and reconstruction and to help them in every way possible and to see what we can do to develop the other resources, for that again we might need help. And in the long run you'll need the co-operation of the Argentinians, that doesn't necessarily mean anything with sovereignty. After all there are many international business organisations and arrangements that don't imply having an interest in sovereignty or in someone else's territory.

Interviewer

But there has been some speculation in the past 48 hours or so that there is a difference that has developed between Great Britain and the United States on the future political role or Argentina, however that is defined, once Great Britain achieves what is expected to be a military victory there.

Mrs. Thatcher

Yes. We're always at odds with this because I don't quite understand the view which you are putting. Look, let me put it this way, before the invasion, the people on the Falklands, some of whom have been there for seven generations, far longer than some of the Spanish and Italian people in the Argentine, they have their own legislative council, some of the elected members on the executive council, so they have ... they were coming to self-government. They had self-determination, freedom and justice under British law. After the invasion they want self-determination, freedom and justice and neither you, who have all of those things, nor I, who have all of those things and who are responsible for seeing that they have those things, could stand back and watch it taken away from them. They do not have many of those things in the Argentine. Do you really think that we'd hand them over to the Argentine? No, and neither would you, because we are trying to extend those human rights and that liberty and that justice and that self-determination. It's all in your constitution, which is the most marvellously written document I have ever read and it's not for you or for us to lessen what they had. Gradually each year we were reporting to the United Nations which also supports self-determination and what we were doing to get self-government in those islands. It is for the people there to have their say over their future. The same thing happens in the United States and to those islands which the United States administers and she has a number, to have self-government and that's exactly what we would wish to do in the Falkland islands. [end p3]

Interviewer

But once you've seized the Falkland once again militarily ....

Mrs. Thatcher

Seized?

Interviewer

Or take back ....

Mrs. Thatcher

Once we've repossessed that which is ours …

Interviewer

Once you take back militarily the Falklands, how can you possibly sustain a protracted presence on those islands, given the enormous cost of this military operation thus far and the economic difficulties which you already face at home?

Mrs. Thatcher

If we cannot get any other arrangement we shall have to arrange for the defence of those islands. It will mean that we will have to make a number of quite considerable expenditures. Freedom is expensive to defend, it is worth defending. We shall have to extend that airstrip so that we can have major aircraft of a kind that have never been able to land there before, we shall have to have Rapier there to defend it, we shall have to have submarines, we shall have to have some ships. Yes, we shall have to defend freedom, I hope we'll be able to get some help in it, those islands are strategically important, as well as being important in democratic and political terms and I hope everyone will realise that ... even now, you know, that some very big oil tankers have to go around Cape Horn to get round to Alaska, they have a very enormous strategic value, they are to some extent also the gateway to the Antarctic which will be progressively more important in resource terms to the world as a whole.

Interviewer

Prime Minister this is a difficult question ....

Mrs. Thatcher

I'm used to them, don't worry ....

Interviewer

I understand that, from a political point of view, your countrymen obviously admire your resolve during this crisis. Your reputation as the Iron Lady, the ice queen, a very tough politician has only been enhanced by what is going on down there, but I wonder if there isn't a moment in your personal or private life when sometimes that resolve wavers and from a human point of view if you don't have sleepless moments when you see the young men on the beaches or making a landing or engaged in some kind of combat which costs the lives of men on both sides ....

Mrs. Thatcher

Many efforts have been made by our predecessors so that we had liberty and justice, we must make the same effort for our friends, for those who rely on us and for our successors, to see that we pass on what has been bequeathed to us. Yes, I have the reputation as the Iron Lady and of great resolve, that resolve is matched by the British people. It is, if I might say so, matched I believe by the staunchness of the United States. Does not the United States and almost every person there put on the armour of liberty and carry the sword of justice?

Interviewer

Prime Minister thank you very much.