Fallout From the Falklands

...Stories began to circulate about the poor Argentinean draftees, plunked down in the Falklands without enough food and totally unprepared for combat...

...But that was soon diluted by very serious differences over Britain's share of the Common Market budget and Market farm prices...

...Naipaul declared that the Argentineans are remote from reality: "If they succeed in their present ad-venture they will beoverbearing...

...The news was announced dispassionately by Ministry of Defense spokesman Ian McDonald, a man described by one London newspaper as a "mournful and laconic speak-your-weight machine...

...Nevertheless, the public remained little inclined to hunger for the blood of what they viewed as a deluded, unhappy and excessively emotional people who had already suffered so much from their own government of kidnappers and tor-turers...

...Yet the Conservatives came out with a net gain of City Council seats, while Michael Foot's Laborites registered a sharp loss...

...The UN tends to excite little confidence here...

...support for their stand—since Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr.'s mediation efforts failed—has been unequivocal...

...Henry Kissinger, visiting London to promote the latest volume of his memoirs, commented that if during the Vietnam War he had received the positive press Thatcher was enjoying, he would have been a much happier man...

...Much attention is also being devoted to the international consequences of the conflict...

...Rarely does the party in power do well in British midterm elections, and never when the economy is in as much of a mess as at present...

...The English worried that more Argentine sailors might have been lost than the initial reports indicated...

...The paper also seemed to be trying to frighten less gung-ho news organizations into greater bellicosity by throwing around accusations of treason...

...THERE WILL no doubt be changes in public and official attitudes as the conflict wends its dismal way toward a full and final settlement...

...But the government's criticism has been overdone...

...Naipaul, who wrote The Return of Eva Peron, astudy of Argentina's politics in the early 1970s...

...I wanted the Navytorush out there and sort those villains out...

...For economic reasons, Britain had been in the process of phasing out much of its Navy and investing in nuclear weapons...

...The newly formed Social Democratic Party (SDP), for whom the vote was the first real test of national appeal, was humiliated...

...At the very least, therefore, by the time the Falklands have sunk again into obscurity, a variety of new important factors will have emerged onto the international stage...

...The Falklands' ultimate significance for European unity is still to be spelled out...

...Left-wing guru Tony Benn, meanwhile, won few British hearts when he and a handful of followers split from the bulk of the Labor Party to demand that the Royal Navy flotilla be immediately recalled, and that the Falklands matter be completely turned over to the United Nations...

...Not because their cause was unjust or their military actions have been incompetent...

...Albeit not as strident as the Sun in sniping at the British media's coverage of the Falklands developments, Thatcher and other Conservatives have waded in with complaints about the BBC treating both sides "almost as equals," as if both were guilty parties...

...It was generally recognized—even by the United Nations—that Argentina had improperly seized a territory that did not belong to it, whose inhabitants were as devoutly British as Queen Elizabeth...

...neither has been the case...

...If they fail, their response will be a servile attempt to laugh the whole thing away...

...Thus the worry that as the full implications sink in, U.S...

...The British are understandably relieved that U.S...

...When the Belgrano went down, the Sun's, front page proclaimed, ""Gotcha...

...When word arrived that perhaps three downed Harrier jet pilots and 20 crew members of the fatally hit HMS Sheffield had been lost, the grief generated neither cries for vengeance nor any great desire to commence with the battle proper...

...The absence of any substantiation notwithstanding, London newspapers have every few days reported rumors of in-depth rethinking at the White House and a subtle backing away from the British position elsewhere in Washington...

...Once reports of actual military successes began filtering back from the storm-tossed South Atlantic, however, the British grew distinctly uncomfortable...

...This has raised questions about Britain's future military planning, and its contribution to the alliance...

...But while the British glowed with pride and heroism in withstanding the onslaught of German bombers, they are for the most part emotionally ill-equipped to watch themselves take on a weaker power, even for unimpeachable motives...

...In the European Economic Community, the speedy, strong backing of Britain's partners was reassuring...

...It has not had time to build efficient local organizations, and the publicity essential to the SDP's making any inroads on its two established rivals went instead to the action in the South Atlantic...

...Finally, there may be an effect on NATO defense strategy...

...Indeed, the confrontation has dominated the country's interest from day one, and is likely to be an important issue for some time to come...

...A report from Buenos Aires that Argentine journalists had applauded the rescued commander of the Bel-grano for saying he had no sympathy for his counterpart on the Sheffield, deepened British perplexity about what sort of foe they were up against...

...Now that it's there, the thought of it actually shooting anyone gives me goose bumps...

...If Argentina had invaded a year later, it is unlikely that a Royal Navy capable of patrolling the 200 mile Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands would have existed...

...An English friend's first comment to me after the Belgrano sank was, "This certainly will cause you Americans a lot of bother...

...NORMAN GELB, the NL's regular London correspondent, is author of The Brit-ish, now due to be published in July...

...And Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made all the proper noises about the country's determination to right this wrong, so that her most stalwart opponents had trouble finding arguments against her...

...NO JOY IN BRITAIN The Fallout from the Falklands BY NORMAN GELB LONDON IF, AS CHURCHILL said, the Britons' defense of their island nation during World War II was their finest hour, the Falkland Islands dispute has undoubtedly been one of their worst moments...

...Everything went swimmingly in the early days of the altercation...

...Although it was hard to find anyone here who did not at the outset support Thatcher's decision to dispatch a mighty task force to retrieve the tiny colony, it also became apparent that almost nobody believed the islands were worth a single British life...

...loyalty might ebb away...

...There was one unfortunate BBC television program where virtually all the invited speakers were in one way or another critical of the Prime Minister, while every public opinion poll showed that her approach was in fact popular and becoming more so...

...One source privy to earlier Cabinet debates on what would be an acceptable compromise indicated that each suggested point was fought over like "a hundred bloody yards of ground at Pass-chendaele...

...But they realize that this will have an unpredictable and probably unfortunate long-term effect on inter-American relations...

...Why on earth did you take us so seriously?'" The reason, of course, was that the British, despite their desire to avoid bloodshed, saw the Falkland takeover as shameless aggression that could be tolerated only at the price of national disgrace...

...Trying to decipher the Argentine mentality, the London Times invoked the thoughts of Trinidad-born novelist V.S...

...Rupert Murdoch's London daily tabloid, the Sun, best known for its emphasis on sex, tried to whip up a let's-really-go-to-war mentality with screaming banner headlines like "Stick It Up Your Junta" and "Give 'Em Hell...

...For the moment, Whitehall has retreated on these issues and the other countries—except for Italy and Ireland—have extended their economic sanctions against Argentina...

...Television footage transmitted from Buenos Aires showed crowds of riled Argentineans screaming Viva la Pairia and calling for the British to be bloodied, beaten and sent packing—as if they had started the conflict...

...In London, by contrast, the first major victory for either side, the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano last May 2, evoked qualms and concern rather than elation...

...In the local elections that took place the first week in May, the voters rallied around the "Iron Lady," giving the Tories a victory when, by all logic and tradition, they should have suffered a defeat...

...I've just discovered," one woman confessed, "that I'm as wet as they come...