The Falklands sting

Of all the books written on the Falklands War, none has dealt with the central issue: Argentina's rapidly developing nuclear weapons program. This supposed secret was known to the U.S. government, which was strongly opposed to nuclear proliferation. A second, but seemingly unrelated, American foreign policy problem was how to strengthen Margaret Thatcher, who was on the verge of being toppled as British prime minister.

President Ronald Reagan needed his ally Thatcher in power to maintain Britain's commitment to his reinvigoration of Soviet containment. Dr. Richard C. Thornton contends that Reagan's solution to the two problems was found in the Falklands War.