Word: thatchers
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...high point of Thatcher's visit was her speech before Congress. The last British Prime Minister so honored was Winston Churchill in 1952. Dressed in a black suit and flowered blouse, Thatcher received a two-minute standing ovation as she stepped onto the podium. After noting that Churchill had enjoyed a "special advantage" because his American mother had given him "ties of blood with you," Thatcher drew laughter by dryly adding, "Alas for me, these are not matters we can readily arrange for ourselves...
...Thatcher then delivered what amounted to a valentine to U.S.-British relations. Her voice at times schoolmarmish but her delivery well modulated, the Prime Minister glossed over the battering of the British pound by the strong dollar, noting that "it is a marvelous time for Americans not only to visit Britain but to invest with us." On East-West relations, Thatcher insisted that the goal of the Soviet Union remained "the total triumph of socialism all over the world...
...Prime Minister gave a qualified blessing to the Reagan Administration's Strategic Defense Initiative, the so-called Star Wars space-based missile defense plan, which the Soviets have angrily denounced. But Thatcher limited her support of the controversial scheme to research, not to actual testing and deployment. According to close aides, the Prime Minister has serious doubts about the scientific feasibility and strategic logic of Star Wars. She cautioned that the Soviets might attempt to use the arms-control talks in Geneva, scheduled to begin March 12, "to sow differences among us." Said Thatcher: "Let us be under no illusions...
...Thatcher's voice took on a harder edge as she attacked the terrorist tactics of the Irish Republican Army. Without referring directly to her own close call last Oct. 12, when an I.R.A. bomb ripped through the Brighton hotel where she was staying, the British leader warned that Americans should not "be misled into making contributions to seemingly innocuous groups," an obvious reference to the Irish Northern Aid Committee (NORAID), a U.S. organization with suspected links to the I.R.A...
Afterward, the Prime Minister lunched at the White House with Reagan. The two friends discussed a range of issues, including the prickly matter of the robust dollar and the weakening pound. But Thatcher refrained from asking Reagan to adopt measures that could remedy what the British view as a crippling exchange rate. "Thatcher knows there isn't that much we can do," said White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan. "The dollar has hurt the pound, but it has also helped British exports...