ABSTRACT
So wrote Parsons back to London at the end of April as the Task Force reached the South Atlantic and the Haig mission faltered. The atmosphere at the UN had become tenser in the expectation of military moves by Britain and diplomatic moves by almost anyone. Yet there had still been no initiative to activate the Security Council, and Parsons was not inclined to encourage one. Any move Britain tried to control would be seen at best as a cynical ploy, providing cover for military preparations, and control would be lost as soon as a resolution appeared demanding that all military operations be suspended. Until early May Argentina had also seemed content to keep the issue out of the UN, leaving the mediation to Haig before the brief flirtation with the Peruvian initiative. A meeting between Perez de Cuellar and Costa Mendez on 30 April had produced no proposals but promises that ‘in their treatment of the islanders, Argentine generosity would know no limits.’ Having just met the Argentine Foreign Minister, it was natural that the SecretaryGeneral should also consult the British Foreign Secretary, a meeting scheduled in New York for 2 May, and also that he should say nothing more until he had done so. To avoid giving the impression that UN mediation was imminent, the British presented Pym’s visit as a natural add-on to the main visit to Washington.
