The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, Volume 1: The Origins of the Falklands War

ISBN-13: 9780415419123 / Angielski / Miękka / 2007 / 254 str.

Freedman

Opis

Drawing on a vast range of previously classified government archives as well as interviews with key participants, this first volume of the official history of the Falklands Campaign is the most authoritative account of the origins of the 1982 war. In the first chapters the author analyses the long history of the dispute between Argentina and Britain over the sovereignty of the Islands, the difficulties faced by successive governments in finding a way to reconcile the opposed interests of the Argentines and the islanders, and the constant struggle to keep the Islands viable. He subsequently gives a complete account of how what started as an apparently trivial incident over an illegal landing by scrap-metal merchants on the island of South Georgia turned into a major crisis. Thanks to his access to classified material, Sir Lawrence Freedman has been able to produce a detailed and authoritative analysis which extends the coverage given by the Franks Committee Report of 1983. This volume is ultimately an extremely readable account of these events, charting the growing realisation within the British government of the seriousness of the situation, culminating in the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands at the start of April 1982.

Spis treści

1. Origins of the Dispute  2. Inconsistent Appeasement  3. Communications and Condominiums  4. Mis-Communication and Non-Cooperation  5. Shackleton  6. Unreliable Defence  7. Reappraisal  8. Undetected Deterrence  9. Marking Time  10. Towards Lease-Back  11. The Rise of Lease-Back  12. The Fall of Lease-Back  13. Micawberism  14. No Plans  15. Alarm Bells  16. South Georgia  17. Crisis  18. Delayed Response  19. The Worst Moment  20. Conclusion: The Quality of Hindsight, Types of Trouble, Crisis Management

O autorze

Sir Lawrence Freedman is Professor of War Studies at King’s College where he is currently Vice Principal. He has written extensively on military strategy, cold war history and contemporary conflict and is a regular newspaper columnist.