Word: galtieri
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Thatcher exults, Galtieri falls and Reagan faces Latin anger...
...hardly had the white flags of surrender been hoisted over the island capital of Port Stanley when a set of new, potentially more formidable problems emerged. Three days after Britain's triumph, Argentina's top generals ousted President Leopoldo Fortunate Galtieri. He was temporarily replaced as President by yet another general, Interior Minister Alfredo Oscar Saint Jean, and as army chief by Major General Cristino Nicolaides. Said Galtieri, following his removal from power: "I am going because the army did not give me the political support to continue." In fact, Galtieri's fall may have been hastened...
...leaders had only belatedly prepared the country's population for the impending defeat. Upon getting news of the surrender, knots of angry Argentines gathered on the Plaza de Mayo in front of the country's presidential Casa Rosada to hear a scheduled balcony speech by Galtieri. As evening fell, the mood of the crowd turned ugly. "They lied to us," said a student. "We went to war with our hearts full, and now they are empty." Said an airplane mechanic: "We have been cheated, and our young conscripts have died for nothing." Finally riot police armed with shotguns...
...next night, Argentina's army commanders convened in their Buenos Aires headquarters. During the heated midnight-to-6 a.m. meeting with his top 14 generals, Galtieri insisted on pursuing the war with Britain as if Argentina still had something left to fight with. When the others demurred, Galtieri offered to resign. "O.K.," he said, "I can't count on the army." With that, he retired to Campo de Mayo, the sprawling barracks of the First Army Corps on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. There he remained until the head of the army's general staff...
...Argentines appeared to miss their deposed leader, who had been President only since December. Said the English-language Buenos Aires Herald: "Galtieri lasted not quite six months and managed to plunge the nation into a farcical war which besmirched the honor of the military." Proclaimed a prominent businessman: "He should be hung. No, drawn and quartered. No, it is better to let him live with his dishonor, 24 hours a day for the rest of his life." That outraged judgment seemed far from fair in a country that has been teaching its children for more than a century that...