Like many other parts of the globe, territorial disputation has been a popular pastime in Latin America.
Argentina has been prominent in such disputes but these have generally been resolved by agreement or arbitration, which makes the Falklands ambitions and war even more aberrant. http://www.usip.org/pubs/peaceworks/pwks27/chap2_27.html
It’s interesting to compare current strong nationalistic views about the Falklands War, such as PK expresses, with contemporary reports which were more in the nature of sweeping the event, and the poor Argentinians who fought in it, under the carpet.
THE FALKLAND SOLDIERS: ARGENTINA FORGETS QUICKLY
By EDWARD SCHUMACHER, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: August 13, 1982Two months after Argentine forces surrendered to the British on the Falkland Islands, this nation appears to have all but forgotten its nearly 11,000 war veterans.
It has done little to eulogize its 600 dead or console its 1,300 wounded. There have been no medals awarded to any survivors. Few veterans’ benefits are available. And the army is still studying the matter of compensating those who suffered crippling wounds.
The psychological effects on many of the soldiers, most of whom were teen-agers drafted for the cause, have been apparent since the day they came home from the 10-week war, according to psychiatrists. Parallels to Vietnam
The psychiatrists say they have detected parallels in the reception received by United States veterans of the Vietnam War, but have found that the Argentine experience is worse in many ways. This country is smaller, the war was closer, and the cause, however brief, was more nationally heartfelt.
‘‘Instead of being received as heroes, they are told the defeat was their fault,’’ Humberto Mesones, a psychiatrist doing volunteer work in military hospitals, said in an interview.
‘‘It helped that this war did not last so long,’’ he added. Democratic and Undemocratic
The draft here is democratic, an honest lottery, but the assignments afterward are not. Many of the white sons of the middle class draw office jobs. But most of the fighting men for the Falkland war were one-year conscripts from poor and working-class families. Many came from the provinces, their dark, straight hair and wide cheekbones revealing their Indian ancestry.
Without a war tradition to draw on -the Falklands was Argentina’s first war in this century - many of the young men went not knowing what to expect and came back shellshocked and traumatized. Psychiatrists and parents report that many of the veterans are plagued by nightmares of British shelling and of comrades being killed or mutilated. One survivor of the torpedoed cruiser General Belgrano committed suicide.
The cold shoulder that the veterans have received has been part of the larger mood of a defeated country trying to forget the war altogether. Renewed concern about the economy, with its growing recession and triple-digit inflation, has replaced the Falklands, or the Malvinas as they are known here, as the subject overheard in buses, on elevators and along this city’s busy cosmopolitan streets. ‘They Feel Shame’
‘‘People are not talking about the Malvinas and its consequences because they feel shame,’’ former Foreign Minister Oscar Camilion said in an interview.
At a recent mass for the survivors, the officiating monsignor compared the ordeal of the Argentine prisoners-of-war following their surrender to the ordeal of Christ bearing the cross. The pews were half-empty. Only one television crew rattled around inside the church.
A navy officer, standing on the almost empty steps of the church after mass, shrugged wanly and said, ‘‘It appears that we have been forgotten.’’
There have been some small gestures of support. The City of Buenos Aires recently announced that veterans of the war would be exempt from city taxes for the next five years. The army also awarded a week’s leave to each of the soldiers who fought on the Falklands.
But the lack of concern for the veterans is seen in many ways. There have been no hometown dances and ceremonial barbecues, for example. There is not one national war hero, not even among the daring pilots who fearlessly attacked Britain’s superior fleet and sank six of its warships. Questions and Anger
Many Argentines contend they were misled by the military to expect victory. They question now whether the Government should not have been more conciliatory in negotiations with Britain in the early weeks of the crisis.
If there is any public emotion it is anger against the military, an anger enhanced by returning soldiers’ tales of food and ammunition shortages and some cowardly officers.
A recent cover of Siete Dias, a popular weekly magazine, showed a dead Argentine soldier lying on the Falklands with his helmet on a stick beside him.
‘‘Whose fault was it?’’ the cover asked, showing in a small inset a picture of the Argentine commander on the islands, Brig. Gen. Mario Benjamin Menendez. General Defends Surrender
General Menendez, a soft-faced man of 52 years, has been mostly silent since returning as a war prisoner one month ago. He and a number of other senior officers who fought on the islands have been relieved of their posts. They have been put on standby while a commission of five generals conducts an inquiry into the war.
However, in recent army-approved interviews with Argentina’s three leading weekly general-interest magazines, the defeated general praised the British commanders and defended his own actions.
He declined to discuss tactics but said he had made the decision to surrender on his own, without consulting Buenos Aires. He also said that he remained convinced it was the right decision and that he did not feel a sense of guilt or a slur on his professional capacity. ‘Tell Me What We Did Wrong’
But for all the general’s apparent certainties about what happened and why, many of the conscripts remain confused and anguished. ‘‘Nobody has explained to us why we lost,’’ Juan Guerrera, an 18-year-old who fought on the islands with the air force, recently told Argentine reporters.
‘‘I think they should tell me what happened. Maybe I was a bad soldier. I don’t know. But I need somebody to tell me what we did wrong.’’
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9E05E2DF1E39F930A2575BC0A964948260
Something often overlooked is:
The Falklands War was not only legal and just, it also had positive consequences for the people of Argentina. The defeat of the invaders hastened the fall of Galtieri and his brutal military junta and paved the way for the return of democracy and the rule of law.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21486074-7583,00.html
It’s curious that nowadays some of those given liberty by the fall of the junta won’t allow the same liberty to the Islanders, but are determined to subject them to a dictatorial takeover reminiscent of the junta.
It’s curious that nowadays some of those given liberty by the fall of the junta won’t allow the same liberty to the Islanders, but are determined to subject them to a dictatorial takeover reminiscent of the junta.
Just wanted to say that the “Nation” of Islanders are about a couple of thousands… not enough to fill a high school auditorium… considerably less than the once inhabitants of the Diego García group of islands.
Those very few Islanders have also “benefitted” a lot since the war… they have become 1st class citizens of the UK, they use Sterling, not a local currency as until 1982, they got an international airport, the business derived from the garrison… they pressed for and they got their own “fisheries” backed by the RN…
And many thanks for getting Argentina from the Generals, I thought it was mainly due to the blood of countless Argentines that fought them for years… Yes, the defeat helped, but the inmediate retreat to “winter quarters” was long into the boiling… finaly, democracy won.
The Islanders have the freedom of … remain British… as many British live happily in Buenos Aires and the mainland… they may want to become Argentine?, no problem, Argentina already considers them Argentines by born ( ius solis ) Do they want double nationality, you are welcome…
All their rights would be respected, believe me… Argentines considers them well, even if you do not believe me… their propperties rights will be respected and I am sure they would have as much autonomy as possible…
But they want to be a 2,000 inhabitants independent country? Gulp! With an ongoing dispute over the sovereignty of the islands more than a century and a half old?
I do not think things would change that much for the islands… maybe they will double the population?.. there is plenty of space… and they will have the emotion of being serious candidates fo the FIFA world cup every 4 years !
Argentina would treat their “lost sisters” as a sanctuary, I am sure…sorry, more than sure.
So, all the aforementioned was posted in the best of faiths and sincerily.
Cheers,
Pánzon.
I don’t doubt or dispute your sincerity in anything you’ve said.
But the reality for the Islanders the last time Argentina occupied their land was rather different.
I never said the Islands were a nation. Although given some of the joke ‘nations’ admitted to the UN, they could just about qualify. If the sheep were counted, they’d be in for sure.
Hi Rising Sun,
But the reality for the Islanders the last time Argentina occupied their land was rather different.
Did not agree a while ago that it was mainly a “gentlemen war”… that the most heard from the Islander was complaints that some Argentine troops “shitted in they barns”?
So… what is the “reality for the Islanders” last time Argentina was sovereign there? Anybody raped? Somebody is “missing” from their records? I heard that even when they sacrificed a lamb or two, they paid the owners. And no “Argie SS” roaming around…
How does it compare to Churchill´s invention in the Boer Wars of the “concentration camps”. where all Boers were confined for the duration of the conflict to avoid them replenishing or supporting the Boer troops in the “veld”? Or pass information? I say this without the purpose to offend… but… the Argentine soldiers were as far as I know little less than gentlemen…
It is incredible how the Islanders remember those excretions in the barn and not the Landing strip, the gas instalations and all the “shows of goodwill” that Argentina was offering them for years before the conflict? In a way exercising the duties that their “sovereign nation” was not fulfilling?
For decades, perhaps more than a century, the only way for an Islander to have surgery was to fly to Argentina… Now they have “new brothers” in Chile.
Cheers to all,
Pánzon.
A couple of points Panzon.
The relationship with the islanders was not entirely benevolent. The activities of your Major Patricio Dowling for one, I know he was sent home in disgrace thanks to the actions of Carlos Bloomer-Reeve but it still happened. Bloomer-Reeve had to rebuke Dowling for clubbing a man to the ground for no reason.
Your forces also expelled islanders simply because they had spoken out against Argentina; Bill Luxton and his entire family were unceremoniously deported and dumped on the British consulate. When that proved internationally embarrassing your forces resorted to internal exile in West Falkland. Then there is the case of Goose Green where all of the islanders were herded into the recreation hall and imprisoned for weeks without adequate provision for food, water, blankets or sanitation.
You know the Falklands are a small community and this does get around and they have long memories.
Secondly, the population of the Falklands is completely immaterial to the question (which btw is about double what you wrote). They’ve been there a long time, some of them predating the British Return in 1833 as, contrary to Argentine propaganda, Vernet’s settlers were not expelled from the islands. They do get to have a say in their own future and I’m sorry but the way you airily dismiss their views is part of the problem.
And you fail to recognise that they have developed a distinctly different culture that is totally unlike that of Argentina. Apart from anything else, why would they wish to swap the stability of the British economy for the turbulence of the Argentine one. Furthermore would you allow them to keep their fishing income, or would that be swallowed by the Argentine Government?
You also insist that you would respect their rights and their property. Yet as part of its sovereignty claim Argentina asserts that they have no rights. Seemingly you can’t see the contradiction in those two statements.
You also talked about the airstrip and the oil supplies brought about by the communications agreement. Well the airstrip was actually paid for by Britain for a start. The whole idea of the Communications Agreement was to bring the islanders and Argentina closer together.
You’re also wrong about always being dependent upon Argentina. Historically, the Falklands were always close to Uruguay thanks to the activities of Samuel Fisher Lafone in the mid-1800s. The communications agreement cut that link
So yes, Argentina may have been friendly up to a point in the '70s, you forget that your navy fired on an unarmed British survey ship in 1976. You forget that was a conspiracy between the FCO and Argentina to create a situation where the British could get rid of the islands. The war has created a situation where the islanders want absolutely nothing to do with Argentina and the activities of the Argentine Government only serve to antagonise them further.
Di Tella’s approach to the islander may seem to have been a bit naive to some but in truth it went far further toward a rapprochement than the hawkish comments by Tianna and Kirschner, or more recently by your current president.
Finally, to be frank Panzon, Argentina’s claim to the Falklands is none existent. Someone familiar with the history can pick it to pieces in a matter of minutes. Rather it has become a cause celebre that is very convenient for uniting the Argentine population as only the “Malvinas” and football can. Its more useful to maintain the status quo than it is to truly solve the problem. I notice in your posting that, sadly even you who I regard as quite sensible, blame the islander, when in fact it is Argentina that is the architect of its own misfortune on this issue.
What nonsense! The Philippines are independent, LOL. They were only a US possession for about 50 years. I expect better from you Chevan.
Geez. But then, what should the English give the French in exchange for the French divisions that sacrificed themselves in front of Dunquerque allowing the British to escape? And on and on and on…