The Falklands Malvinas War In The South Atlantic

This book explores the Falklands War from an Argentinian perspective, taking into consideration three aspects. First, it introduces classified documents after the end of the thirty-year ban. Second, it highlights various conceptual, institutional, and doctrinal reforms in the Argentinian and other South American armed forces as a result of lessons learned from the Malvinas War. Third, it reflects on the war's long-term implications on Argentina’s foreign policy and society. The book offers the first comprehensive, multi-level analysis, and Argentinian scholarship on the conflict. It is based on original primary data, mainly official documentation and interviews with military officers and combatants.

The Falklands War is an ideal showcase for how British policy evolved in the 1970s and 1980s. The background of the dispute over the island group in the remote South Atlantic (called Las Malvinas by the Argentines) is given first, then the events that precipitated the 1982 conflict and extensive examination of the military aspects of the war are provided. An overview follows of the many hypotheses offered for the British motivation to recapture the Falklands, showing that only those theories pertaining to the British perception of their national honor and the defense of democratic principles are significant. The Falklands War did not result in a dramatic shift in British defense policy, but did show the importance of external developments and political realism in policy formation, and these considerations are fully detailed here.

An important contribution to the political science and military history literature, this is the first book to present the Argentinean side of the battle for the Malvinas (Falklands) in May 1982. The author, a senior official in the Argentine Air Force who took part in the conflict himself, uses a wealth of documents, including previously unreleased British intelligence data and records of conversations between the top authorities, to construct a comprehensive account of the political and diplomatic aspects of the war, as well as the day-by-day military operations in the South Atlantic. The author begins by examining the facts and circumstances that put Great Britain and Argentina on a collision course, paying particular attention to the points at which war could have been avoided. He goes on to provide a detailed account of events, such as the attempts by the United States to intervene, the deployment of forces, the battle of May 1, the sinking of the cruiser ARA General Belgrano and the subsequent sinking of the British destroyer HMS Sheffield, the battle of San Carlos, the fight for Darwin-Goose Green, the march to Fitz Roy and Mount Kent, and the last stand of Puerto Argentino. In addition to offering a full portrayal of the battles and conflicts themselves, Moro also provides a cogent analysis of the interaction of political and military events in modern conflict, a particularly valuable case study of U.S.-Latin American relations, and a fascinating examination of weapons systems in modern warfare. Moro takes issue with published British reports that treat the war as a discreet event that is now over, arguing that the conflict is not only still alive but also threatens both hemispheric peace and U.S. influence in Latin America.

Thirty years after the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands, the war remains a source of continued debate and analysis for politicians, historians and military strategists. Not only did the conflict provide a fascinating example of modern expeditionary warfare, but it also brought to the fore numerous questions regarding international law, sovereignty, the inheritance of colonialism, the influence of history on national policy and the use of military force for domestic political uses. As the essays in this collection show, the numerous facets of the Falklands War remain current today and have ramifications far beyond the South Atlantic. Covering issues ranging from military strategy to Anglo-American relations, international reactions and international law to media coverage, the volume provides an important overview of some of the complex issues involved, and offers a better understanding of this conflict and of the tensions which still exist today between London and Buenos Aires. Of interest to scholars of history, politics, international relations and defence studies, the volume provides a timely and forthright examination of a short but bloody episode of a kind that is likely to be seen with increasing frequency, as nations lay competing claims to disputed territories around the globe.

A Royal Air Force veteran of the Falklands Conflict presents a comprehensive, myth-busting study of the air campaign. In the spring of 1982, Argentina and the UK engaged in tense combat over control of the Falkland Islands. The ten weeks of fighting are often portrayed with a decidedly one-sided narrative: either heroic Argentine pilots relentlessly pressing home their attacks, or the Sea Harrier force utterly dominating its Argentine enemies. In Air Power in the Falklands Conflict, RAF veteran John Shields presents a detailed and even-handed analysis of the Falkland Islands air war. As an RAF officer, John Shields spent two and a half years in the Falklands as an air defense navigator. Using recently released primary source material, Shields looks at the air campaign at the operational level. He develops a considered view of what should have occurred, and contrasts it with what actually happened. In so doing, John Shields has produced a comprehensive account of the air campaign that has demolished many of the enduring myths of this Cold War conflict.

By 1982, the backbone of the Argentine combat aviation, both on the Air Force and the Navy, was formed by three batches of Douglas A-4 Skyhawks, with the A-4B and C of the Air Force and the A-4Qs of the Navy. Despite their age, being a model almost 30 years old at the time of the war, and lacking protection, they took on the overwhelming struggle to fight the British Task Force that opposed the Argentine forces on the Malvinas/Falkland Islands. The Skyhawks were responsible for inflicting the greatest damage upon the Royal Navy, sinking HMS Coventry, Ardent, Antelope, the RFA Sir Gallahad, and LCU F-4, while damaging many other ships and striking ground targets. They also suffered heavy losses, with 10 A-4Bs, 9 A-4Cs and three A-4Qs lost in combat, with eighteen pilots being killed. The experience of the Skyhawk during the war was another addition to the legend the model had become over the skies of Vietnam and Israel. Despite many reports to the contrary, at the time of writing the Argentine Air Force still operates modernised A-4ARs and OA-4Ars, and is one of the last two military operators of the Skyhawk in the world.

This study examines the struggle for control of the Falkland Islands since the 18th-century. It explains the Argentine government's far-sighted development of the islands in the early 19th-century; assesses the heavy-handed intervention of the Americans; and explores Britain's reassertion of dominion. The author considers the theory that British colonization was a means of maintaining an empire of trade and commerce, and maritime pre-eminence. This account draws on hitherto unresearched documents relating to international maritime endeavours, and aims to give a balanced treatment of the claims of the British and Argentine governments to sovereignity over the islands - known both as the Falklands or Malvinas. The author's previous publications include "The Royal Navy and the Northwest Coast of North America" (1971) and "Distant Dominion: Britain and the Northwest Coast of North America" (1980).