On Course for War
Two years ago today the Royal Naval Task Force had passed Ascension Island on its way to the Argentine-occupied Falklands. US Secretary of State Alexander Haig was back in Buenos Aires on the second stage of his shuttle diplomacy, seeking a peaceful solution. His plan failed, as did the shortlived Peruvian proposals which followed. On 2 May the General Belgrano was torpedoed. Two days later HMS Sheffield was lost and the war was on in earnest. Exactly when did military imperatives overtake diplomacy? Fred Emery reports from Buenos Aires and Washington with new evidence on the orders and actions that led to war, and interviews General Haig, who gives his first television account of the mission that was to be his own 'Waterloo'.
Producer david WICKHAM
Associate producer MARSH MARSHALL Editor PETER IBBOTSON