Thatcher and foreign policy (excluding EEC)

Falklands when

1982

Falklands - Thatcher’s stance

• She constantly emphasised that 98% of the islanders wished to remain under the British flag

• ‘Sovereignty is not negotiable’

• Was adamant that it was an issue for Britain to solve, not the UN (Labour idea)

Thatcher’s actions once Argentina attempted to take the islands by force

• Military action

• E.g. airstrikes 1 May against the occupying Argentine forces on the Falklands

• Troop landings later in May

• June liberation of the Falklands capital, Port Stanley

• Argentina then surrendered

Outcome of Falklands crisis for the islands themselves

Britain established a permanent garrison on the islands to guarantee their security - Thatcher had not wanted to negotiate them away

Outcome of Falklands for Thatcher

• POPULARITY

• Leads to her 1983 and 1987 election victories

• ‘Rejoice, rejoice’ cries at the news of the task force’s victory

Falklands outcome - 1983 election

Overwhelming victory - Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock suffered a dip in their personal standing (Labour share of vote fell by nearly 9%)

One bad outcome of Falklands

Naval action caused controversy in Britain – Argentine cruiser Belgrano was sunk by a British submarine – opponents of the war asserted that Thatcher had ordered this to be torpedoed even though it was sailing out of the exclusion zone at the time it was struck.

Accusation that she had done this deliberately to wreck the efforts of the UN secretary general to bring about a negotiated settlement of the conflict.

The challenge of Northern Ireland - examples

• Man who was going to be her Northern Ireland secretary, AIrey Neave, killed in a bomb planted in his car in March 1979

• August 1979 Earl Mountbatten was blown up by a bomb smuggled aboard his holiday yacht - also killed his daughter and grandson and 2 others.

1980 Thatcher and Ireland

Thatcher attended a number of meetings with Charles Haughey, the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister), with a view to establish closer political cooperation between Dublin and Westminster

Bobby Sands - events

• March 1981

• Protest against the refusal of the Maze prison authorities to treat him a political prisoner

• Bobby sands was a convicted bomber

• He went on hunger strike

• Thatcher told authorities to stand firm

• He died after refusing food for 66 days

Brighton Bombing when and what

Thatcher narrowly escaped being assassinated in the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton in October 1984

Later that day Thatcher declared the conference must go on and declared that democracy would never bow to terrorism

Anglo-Irish agreement when

August 1985

Who signed the Anglo-Irish agreement

Thatcher and Irish premier, Fitzgerald

Terms of Anglo-Irish Agreement

• Republic recognised Northern Ireland as being constitutionally a part of the UK

• British government assured that it supported full civil rights for all in Northern Ireland

• British government acknowledged strength of nationalist desires for a united Ireland

• The two governments committed themselves to cooperation over cross-border security matters

How did the Unionists react to the Agreement?

• Unionists objected to the involvement of the Irish government in Northern Ireland’s affairs – feared it encouraged the notion of a united Ireland under the rule of Dublin

• Unionists rally in Belfast a few days after signing (1985)

• Unionist MPs resolved not to attend Westminster

Republican reaction to Agreement

• Republicans rejected it because its terms confirmed the very thing they were fighting against - Northern Ireland’s continuation as a part of the UK

• Pledged themselves to continue the armed struggle

Members of the government reacting to Agreement

-       Some members of Thatcher’s government thought it might be wrongly interpreted as a concession by the government towards the men of violence in Northern Ireland

-       Ian Gow, housing minister, resigned

IRA continues violence even after the Agreement - example

November 1987 exploded a comb in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, 11 people killed

Government reaction to IRA later on

October 1988 government imposed a broadcasting ban on the IRA – blanking out of the voices of terrorists and their supporters, and substituting actors’ voices

Useless as IRA could still be seen/messages heard

Thatcher did impose measures to bring stability - 1987

Central Community Relations Unit – to foster greater contact and understanding between Catholics and Protestants

Thatcher did impose measures to bring stability - 1989

 

1989 Fair Employment Act – required employers who had more than 25 workers on their books not to discriminate when allocating jobs + promotions

Hong Kong as a colony and context

• British colony formed in 1898

• 99-year lease on the Kowloon peninsula/New Territories - would return to China in theory in 1997

• Though island granted on permanent basis and Kowloon harbour itself

Opinion polls on Hong Kong

95% wanted to stay British

When did PRC-UK talks begin?

1979

When was the Joint Declaration

1984

What was the Join Declaration

• Sino-British agreement

• Britain agreed on the expiry on the lease of the New Territories in 1997 - all areas that made up Hong Kong would return to the PRC

• ‘Special Administrative Region’ until 2047 - would leave Hong Kong’s capitalist economic structure unaltered

Allowed for diplomatic cooperation, despite opposition of Hong Kong’s democrats

Thatcher and Reagan/ USA and UK - good

• Thatcher powerfully expressed anti-Communism – fit with prevailing view in the USA

• Presidency of Reagan – special affinity of leaders – Reagan impressed by Thatcher’s resolute handling of Falklands crisis in 1982

USA and UK nuclear missiles

1981 Britain agreed to allow the USA to install its Cruise missiles at the US air force base at Greenham Common – resurgence in CND

Britain’s buying from USA, at an initial cost of £10b, Trident missiles to replace the obsolete Polaris variety - 1982 finalised