Word: argentinas
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...last, the climactic battle for the Falklands was on. Just ten weeks after Argentina seized the desolate South Atlantic islands, the 9,000 British troops encamped on the hills above Port Stanley launched an all-out assault on the 7,500 Argentines dug in around the capital. The intention was, as an official in London put it, to hit the Argentine garrison "with...
...attack came after an unnerving pause of more than one week. The delay may have been partly tactical (to allow time to move in additional men and materiel), partly wishful thinking (the hope that Argentina would avert a bloodbath by capitulating), partly humanitarian (to forestall casualties among the civilian residents of Port Stanley). The pause may have served its purpose. British intelligence reportedly overheard an unscrambled conversation last week between Brigadier General Mario Benjamin Menendez, commander of the Argentine troops on the islands, and his superiors on the mainland. Menendez is said to have described the low morale...
Still, the failure to attack sooner cost Britain's fighting men dearly. With no warning, Argentina's air force roared across the skies southwest of Port Stanley last week to deal the British their worst casualties of the campaign. Demolished on that disastrous Tuesday were two landing ships, the Sir Galahad and the Sir Tristram, carrying members of the Fifth Infantry Brigade who were establishing a second British beachhead only 17 miles from Port Stanley. That brought to seven the total of major British ships lost since a Royal Navy task force reached the wintry South Atlantic archipelago...
...Buenos Aires, the military junta led by President Leopoldo Galtieri defiantly portrayed Argentina as the ultimate win ner of the conflict despite the precarious position of the embattled garrison at Port Stanley. Declared Galtieri: "We will fight for weeks, months or years, but we will never give up sovereignty over the is lands." He seemed to be warning that even if his soldiers were eventually driven off the Falklands, he would wage a long-term war of attrition against the British...
...aggression must not be allowed to succeed and that people must participate in the decisions of government under the rule of law." Privately, both the President and Secretary of State Alexander Haig continued to worry over Thatcher's rejection of a negotiated solution that would, by ultimately involving Argentina in the future of the Falklands, help repair the damage in U.S.-Latin American relations...