Word: belgrano
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Ever since a Royal Navy submarine torpedoed the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands war, killing 368 crewmen, the British government has maintained that the action was taken in self-defense. Information surfaced last week, however, indicating that the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had other motives for the sinking, and even considered using nuclear weapons in the conflict...
Labor M.P. Tarn Dalyell sent documents to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons suggesting that the government had withheld information about the Belgrano affair from the committee. Dalyell also alleged that British forces were not in immediate danger when they attacked the Belgrano. Clive Ponting, 38, a Defense Ministry official, told the Sunday Observer that he has been charged under the Official Secrets Act with giving the documents to Dalyell...
...submarine H.M.S. Conqueror sank the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano; at least 300 men were lost in a crew of some 1,000. Two days later, an Argentine Exocet missile struck the British destroyer Sheffield, which was abandoned with the loss of 20 men. British troops stormed the Falklands on May 21, and the badly overmatched Argentine force surrendered 3½ weeks later...
...single episode in the 74-day Falklands war so upset world opinion as the seemingly heartless British sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, in which a total of 321 Argentine sailors perished...
...Britain, the episode was a monumental public relations disaster. Ironically, TIME learned last week, the damage to British prestige was largely self-inflicted-a direct result of the Ministry of Defense's penchant for supersecrecy. Soon after the Belgrano was hit, London sent a top-secret communication to the Argentine high command in Buenos Aires assuring it that the Belgrano's two escort vessels would have free passage to begin rescue operations...