Eight documentaries by Michael Charlton
6: A General Micawberism
As I understand it, the decision is to have no strategy at all beyond a general Micawberism
(SIR ANTHONY WILLIAMS)
The British Ambassador to
Buenos Aires, describing 1981, the year before the outbreak of conflict, gave British diplomacy a tag which has stuck. As the Foreign Office clamoured for a Cabinet decision either to make concessions or to be tougher, the Defence Secretary, John Nott, found himself 'in a public punch-up with the Conservative Party and the Navy', when the 1981 Defence Review cut a quarter of the Navy's surface ships. Among them was the symbol of commitment to the Falklands, HMS Endurance. With The Rt Hon Sir Frank Cooper, Admiral of the Fleet
Sir Henry Leach, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Lewin,
The Rt Hon Sir John Nott ,
The Rt Hon Sir Michael Palliser and Sir Anthony Williams ProducerCATHY WEARING