Quotes / The Falklands War

"Brezhnev took Afghanistan
Begin took Beirut
Galtieri took the Union Jack
And Maggie, over lunch one day,
Took a cruiser with all hands
Apparently, to make him give it back"

— Pink Floyd, "Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert"

"If you don't think a woman can handle a war, ask the Argentinians."

— Robin Williams, Weapons of Self-Destruction

"The Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb."

—Jorge Luis Borges, Argentinian writer

"I had spent nights with Argentine friends talking of a new Argentina, one that would respect human rights, allow basic freedoms, and perhaps put on trial the generals responsible for the Dirty War. Now such talk was an anathema, even treasonous. On the street any dissent, especially from a foreigner, could mean physical violence. Any suggestion that the invasion was not just and correct and glorious was unpalatable. One never referring to the islands by the English name. Overweening pride and a sense of national solidarity swept through the city like an electric current It was as if I had woken up like one of Kafka's character, and found myself transformed into a huge bug."

—Chris Hedges, War is A Force That Gives Us Meaning

"The fact that the UK won the Falklands War is obscuring here the fact that it was seriously touch and go. A little less covert assistance from the French, a few more Exocets hitting home, and Thatcher could have been going into the election as the author of a bloody and humiliating defeat...The BBC resolutely declined to play the jingo card. This got a lot of Tories very riled — they were particularly exercised about the way the BBC referred to 'British forces' rather than 'our boys' or whatever. This kicks off the modern Tory antipathy towards the BBC — even now there is a substantial strand of Tory politics that regards the BBC as an enemy. Later on in the eighties, this leads to the Tory government trying to shake up, reform and cut down to size the BBC, imposing new and alien styles of management."

—TARDIS Eruditorium on Doctor Who ("Earthshock")

LON (London): HELLO THERE WHAT ARE ALL THESE RUMOURS WE HEAR THIS IS LON

FK (Falklands): WE HAVE LOTS OF NEW FRIENDS

LON: WHAT ABOUT INVASION RUMOURS

FK: THOSE ARE THE FRIENDS I WAS MEANING

LON: THEY HAVE LANDED

FK: ABSOLUTELY

LON: ARE YOU OPEN FOR TRAFFIC

FK: NO ORDERS ON THAT YET ONE MUST OBEY ORDERS

LON: WHOSE ORDERS

FK: THE NEW GOVERNORS

LON: ARGENTINA

FK: YES

LON: ARE THE ARGENTINIANS IN CONTROL

FK: YES YOU CAN'T ARGUE WITH THOUSANDS OF TROOPS PLUS ENORMOUS NAVY SUPPORT WHEN YOU ARE ONLY 1800 STRONG. STAND BY PLEASE.

— The last telex conversation between Port Stanley and London on 2 April 1982, the date of the Argentinian invasion.

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