The Wrong War in the Wrong Place
In the opinion of General Wallace Nutting, head of the U.S. Southern Command, the South Atlantic war was "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong participants."" The...
...Navy vessels stopped calling at Simonstown in 1968 when black sailors were subjected to abuse by South African whites...
...In the past, Argentina has received intelligence information from South Africa's famed Silvermine surveillance and communications center...
...The whole issue of arms transfers is complicated by the fact that arms deals between Argentina and South Africa (and other key suppliers such as Israel) were often directly or indirectly encouraged by the Western powers...
...On the other hand, it enabled Argentina to challenge the British militarily and consider sustaining that challenge after the Port Stanley surrender through further purchases of more advanced weaponry...
...In early June Thatcher "told an American television interviewer something she had not said before-that the Falklands had to be defended because they could become strategically vital if the Panama Canal were to fall into unfriendly hands...
...Make New Friends and Keep the Old...
...4 7 Nicaragua has been one of Argentina's staunchest supporters at the OAS over the islands and Cuban-Argentine relations have warmed considerably...
...Ocean Venture 82, the largest military exercise ever held in the Caribbean, took place in May-on land, sea and air in and around Florida and Puerto Rico-as war raged in the South Atlantic...
...The war was already underway when reports came out about the Defense Department's five-year guidance plan (FY 1984-88...
...The notion of a 600-ship Navy has come under new scrutiny...
...military and multinational corporations, could fundamentally reorient the country away from the United States and toward the Soviet Union...
...When push came to shove in the South Atlantic, Haig drew the line at support for the NATO ally...
...6 Talk of the strategic importance of the Malvinas/Falklands-the Cape route, Antarctica, oil-was heard in the early days of the war, but quickly faded as Britain insisted it was fighting for the principles of nonaggression and self-determination...
...News reports proliferated about Israeli arms shipments and technical assistance to Argentina during the fighting...
...The day will indeed come when the sun will set on the colonial and neocolonial empires of Britain and the United States...
...As for Argentina, South Africa and other arms suppliers outside the NATO alliance are essential if it is to renew military action against Britain without becoming dependent upon the Soviet Union...
...In 1975 Britain bowed to public pressure and formally terminated the agreement but London and Pretoria Stated that such action did not preclude future joint operations...
...military has stepped up preparations against such an eventuality, planning to "go to the source" against Soviet/Cuban "subversion" in the so38 NACLAReportMaylJune 1982 Z 'D a' aSoweto children showing signs for equality and victory...
...Others suggest building a NATO naval base at Port Stanley "to compensate for the loss of Simonstown...
...Costa Mendez, known as a "worldly" and strongly pro-West diplomat, shed Argentina's elite Europeanism for a third world and Latin identity...
...See box...
...Argentina has reportedly withdrawn its military advisers from Honduras, where they were training and arming bands of antiSandinista exiles, and from El Salvador and Guatemala...
...As Carlos Fuentes put it: the Argentine people "don't have sovereignty over their own country, let alone the Malvinas...
...He linked the fighting in the Malvinas/Falklands to other struggles "against colonialism," expressed support for the Palestinians, and praised the "liberation" struggles of Cuba, Vietnam, Algeria and India...
...Transatlantic alliances between the right-wing regimes of South Africa and the Southern Cone assault the peoples of both continents-however autonomous those ties are vis t vis the Western powers...
...The South African Navy took over the Simonstown naval base from the British in 1957, upgrading it significantly, and Britain and South Africa continued joint military activities under the Simonstown Agreement...
...Oct...
...On June 3 Argentine foreign minister Nicanor Costa Mendez made an out-of-character appearance before the nonaligned meeting in Havana...
...But, as many observers have pointed out, the "alliance against communism" was the first casualty of the South Atlantic war...
...policy-makers fear that faced with a lasting Western arms embargo Argentina may turn to the Soviet Union more by necessity than by choice...
...Argentina is said to be close to building an atomic bomb...
...s Senator Gary Hart, a neoliberal presidential aspirant, calls for smaller, more widely dispersed aircraft carriers...
...5 9 Of course, Costa Mendez neglected to mention Argentina's ongoing relations with South Africa and its historical role in promoting SATO...
...Norman Podhoretz argues that the United States rightly sided with Britain "because just as we should favor authoritarianism over totalitarianism where those are the only alternatives, so in any conflict between a democratic and nondemocratic country, our proper place is with the democracy...
...Defiant support for the outlawed African National Congress and its historic Freedom Charter is increasingly evident...
...Argentina will try to build a more self-reliant and advanced military complex and Chile, Brazil and other nations are expected to follow suit, in a rapidly escalating Latin American arms race...
...The real and potential relevance of ties among South Africa and the Southern Cone regimes-and within the so-called Pariah International generally-is highlighted by the Argentine scramble for arms in the face of the Western embargo...
...And, of course, the threat is perceived in Cold War terms, events to the contrary notwithstanding...
...6 ' In all likelihood, South Africa was and is trying to play both sides of the conflict to its own advantage...
...Today Argentina is blaming its battlefield defeat on U.S...
...Some neoconservatives have given the authoritarian/totalitarian thesis a new twist to accommodate the Argentine-British conflict...
...Konrad Ege, "NATO Intervention in Africa," Counterspy Aug...
...Subsidiaries of U.S...
...South Atlantic Future The Anglo-Argentine war has derailed the prospect of a South Atlantic pact as originally envisioned...
...It also denied reports that South Africa had been helping Argentina acquire the French-made Exocet missile (the missile made famous with the sinking of the British destroyer Sheffield...
...In 1980 Argentina became the Soviet Union's top third world trading partner...
...5 3 The State Department is more concerned that if the Argentine military regime is a reluctant renegade from the U.S...
...As a result, "Pretoria has been able to inform ArgenSouth Africa's Silvermine and Simonstown The Silvermine underground surveillance complex, designed to monitor ship and air movements in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, is located near the Simonstown naval base near the Cape of Good Hope...
...John Prados, "Sea Lanes, Western Strategy, and South Africa," in U.S...
...6 7 The idea of the Soviet Union taking over the Panama Canal-through Cuba presumablymakes the idea of a Soviet blockade of the Cape route seem sane by comparison...
...She brushed off criticism of her action with such rationalizations as "if the Argentines own the islands, then moving troops into them is not armed aggression'.'" 6 New Right leader Jesse Helms, who calls himself a strong admirer and personal friend of Margaret Thatcher, accuses Britain of violating the Monroe Doctrine, and argues that "our obligations under the Rio Treaty antedate our obliga36 NACLA ReportM.yIJunelB82 37 tions under the NATO treaty, and are of equal importance to our national interest...
...The islands have a very enormous strategic value...
...But it has made the South Atlantic a focus of mainstream Western strategic concern and it has underscored the advantages of autonomous ties among right-wing regimes...
...But the U.S...
...Some analysts, such as retired Admiral Gene Laroche, head of the Center for Defense Information, see the effective use of smart missiles like the Exocet as the "great equalizer," spelling the end of gunboat diplomacy...
...It is not certain, however, whether Argentina (or the British, who are also tied into Silvermine) relied on South African intelligence during the Malvinas/Falklands war...
...At the start of the Malvinas/Falklands conflict a Soviet delegation was in Buenos Aires signing a four-year bilateral trade agreement...
...support for the establishment of a strong British military base...
...And that's not all...
...According to a 1978 South African report, Argentina, Britain and France were among the governments which regularly received Silvermine's intelligence information...
...South Africa is believed to have tested an atomic weapon...
...While in Havana, Costa Mendez signed a $100 million trade agreement with Cuba...
...Indeed, the Rand Daily Mail of April 6 reported from London that "Conservative MPs sympathetic to South Africa are taking the opportunity [of the Argentine takeover] of urging that renewed consideration be given to using Simonstown...
...They are also to some extent the gateway to the Antarctic, which will become progressively more important in terms of resources to the world.' "66 British political and military leaders are floating different schemes to meet their newly emphasized objectives of South Atlantic security and Antarctic development...
...Silvermine was installed in part by the West German AEG Telefunken Corporation, and by 1973 was linked to NATO communications channels...
...s 5 Not all his neoconservative colleagues agree...
...And Chile is more fearful than ever that Argentina will attempt to regain its lost honor by trying to take over the disputed Beagle Islands...
...Some U.S...
...The liberation movement grows stronger, militarily and politically...
...4 If there was a right war for the hemisphere before the Malvinas/Falklands conflict, it was U.S.-sponsored intervention in Central America, with the Argentine junta in the role of senior surrogate...
...And that protest was not co-opted as former President Galtieri had hoped...
...Michael Klare observed that the exercise, which involved an assault on "Brown" (this year's name for Cuba), "looked like a dress rehearsal for the British landing at San Carlos...
...Brazil is trying to hold the middle ground...
...intelligence training centre in Panama" and banned arms sales to Argentina...
...The Soviet Union has reportedly used the British-Argentine war to pressure the financially strapped junta-so far unsuccessfully--to barter grain for arms...
...To show solidarity with its host nation, the American Chamber of Commerce in Buenos Aires, representing 500 U.S...
...4 South Atlantic Security Revisited The Malvinas/Falklands conflict has left the United States and Britain more concerned than ever about South Atlantic security...
...5 2 Yet it is unrealistic to think, as some rightwingers do, that the current Argentine ruling bloc, comprised of military and business elites with strong ties to the U.S...
...General Nutting insists that the Soviet Union considers Latin America "the strategic rear" of the United States, and he advocates using "the extensive personal relations between United States and Latin American military officers" to restore hemispheric cohesion...
...On May 29 the OAS voted 17 to 0 to condemn the British attack, and it urged the United States to halt aid to Britain and respect the principle of "inter-American continental solidarity" under the Rio Treaty...
...2 Numerous documented violations of the arms embargo against South Africa represent only the tip of the iceberg of illicit transfers from the West.83 But the international arms traffic cuts two ways...
...MaylJune1982 3738 MACLA Rewt tina that it is 'under the spotlight' and will have to suspend arms shipments...
...Couching its recommendations for Latin America in the oft-heard language of security for the Caribbean Basin and South Atlantic sealanes, the plan said the United States should "broaden regional military-to-military contacts and seek active military cooperation of key countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia...
...Botha's Government is thus able to adhere to its public posture of complete neutrality in the Falklands war...
...and South American participation...
...Haig reportedly accused Kirkpatrick of being "mentally and emotionally incapable of thinking clearly on this issue because of her close links with the Latins...
...Moscow offered credits for purchases of up to $500 million in Soviet industrial equipment, agreed to enrich uranium for an Argentine nuclear plant and received joint fishing rights off the southern Argentine coast...
...The Malvinas/Falklands crisis has shattered the "for or against us" categories of U.S...
...She derided Haig's "belief that 'eventually the Latins will come whoring after us because they are, for the most part, rightwing juntas, and right-wing juntas don't rest well in bed with communists.' "" But, throughout the fighting, Haig's views prevailed...
...One proposal is to reach a political accommodation with Argentina such that a multinational presence can be established on the islands with U.S...
...And Foreign Minister Pik Botha stated there was no formal defense agreement with Argentina, only "military cooperation" entailing an exchange of military personnel for training and occasional small-scale joint naval exercises...
...And that is precisely the significance of linkages among the right-wing regimes: the ability to wield some leverage over the Western powers by virtue of autonomous ties to other pariah regimes...
...On the day of the Argentine takeover, Jeane Kirkpatrick attended a dinner in her honor at the Argentine embassy (along with Deputy Secretary of State Walter Stoessel...
...72 But just as it was the Angolan revolution which last heightened concern over the South Atlantic, it was popular protest in Argentina that propelled the current crisis forward...
...the United States was said to have stopped using the facility...
...Pariah International At the nonaligned meeting in Havana Costa Mendez accused Britain and the United States of seeking to convert the Malvinas/Falklands into a military base as'part of a South Atlantic alliance with South Africa...
...In the wake of the defeat at Port Stanley, then President Galtieri, in a desperate search for scapegoats, called the United States the "surprise enemy of the Argentine people...
...Referring to Western economic and military sanctions against Argentina, he queried: "Have these same countries applied these same measures against South Africa...
...banks...
...Kirkpatrick-who wrote her doctoral dissertation on Peronist Argentina and bills herself as the Administration's top Latin America expert-was said to have called Haig and his aides "amateurs" and "Brits in American clothes...
...An enduring symbol of the Argentine-U.S...
...Sources: Carel Birkby, "The Cape Sea Route," Africa Institute of South Africa, Vol.16, no.2 (1978), p.50...
...The Johannesburg Star of May 24 reported that South Africa was using Uruguayan cargo planes to send ammunition, Israeli-designed Gabriel missiles (manufactured under license in South Africa) and spare parts for Frenchdesigned Mirage jet fighters to Argentina...
...Venezuela is supporting Argentina...
...Even now, you know, some very big oil tankers have to go around Cape Horn to get to Alaska,' she said...
...bond is the more than $9 billion which Argentina owes to U.S...
...policy in Central America never could...
...7 0 But Navy Secretary John Lehman argues that aircraft carriers must be even bigger, and better protected with electronic gadgetry, jet fighters and warships...
...Thus, ironically, the Soviets would stand to gain the long-feared "foothold" on the South American mainland through a conflict among "free world" allies...
...6 According to a report in the South African Sunday Times (April 18, 1982), "intelligence training started after President Jimmy Carter expelled Argentinian military personnel from a U.S...
...See box...
...camp, a Peronist government would be even more nationalistic-militarily, politically and economically...
...Now, however, Prime Minister Thatcher is embellishing her government's renewed commitment to British control of the islands with strategic imperatives...
...5 7 Haig's views took a sharp turn as he shuttled back and forth between London and Buenos Aires in a fruitless attempt to mediate...
...called Caribbean Basin...
...On the contrary, even in the jubilant early days of the Argentine takeover, Peronist slogans abounded and a new refrain was heard from the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo: "the Malvinas are ours--and so are the disappeared...
...On the one hand, it has enabled a regime like South Africa to evade the arms embargo and build up a powerful domestic militaryindustrial complex (which can in turn supply other pariah states...
...policy and boosted Argentine military readiness...
...The United States abstained on the resolution, as did 3536 NACLA Report Chile, Trinidad and Tobago and Colombia (which recently signed an agreement on military bases with the United States...
...A recent article in the British press speculates that reports of South African arms shipments were leaked by the British government to give South Africa an "escape hatch" to avoid "fulfilling contractual obligations to Argentina...
...Across the ocean in South Africa it is clear that while ties to South American dictators help prolong apartheid's survival, they cannot save it...
...5 1 Ever since President Carter's grain embargo against the Soviet Union that country has been the leading purchaser of Argentine grain (and, more recently, of beef...
...Military Involvement in Southern Africa (South End Press, 1978), p.69...
...Whatever the future course of South AfricanArgentine relations, their pre-war mutual aid nourished the Argentine regime through the ups and downs of U.S...
...Now Administration efforts to resume military aid to Argentina (and Chile) have been suspended...
...e Next year's Ocean Venture and other military exercises will surely incorporate lessons learned in the South Atlantic fighting...
...support for Britain...
...South Africa seems to be trying to use the crisis to help reestablish itself as a strategic ally of Britain, with which it has close economic relations, but without sacrificing its budding ties with Argentina...
...1981...
...corporations such as Ford Motor Argentina and Union Carbide Argentina donated money and materials to the Argentine war effort...
...4 9 Latin nationalism gained new life with Washington's support for Britain, seen as an Anglo-Saxon alliance against Latin America...
...The South African government denied the reports about missiles and spare parts (neglecting to mention ammunition...
...Dictatorship The South Atlantic war has deepened fissures in the Reagan Administration and opened new cracks in the conservative camp...
...Thatcher's present plan is to get U.S...
...Reagan Aides at War" was the headline of a Newsweek story on the Kirkpatrick-Haig policy battle...
...Democracy vs...
...companies, sent a telegram to President Reagan condemning the "perfidious intervention by a European power in this continent...
...Moreover, both South Africa and Argentina have utilized an overlapping network of Western corporate and governmental sources to build up an increasingly independent nuclear capacity...
...foreign policy in a way that Mexican diplomacy and popular protest around U.S...
Vol. 16 • May 1982 • No. 3
