ABSTRACT
The Cabinet met on the morning of 2 April to hear of the imminent invasion and the preparations that had been set in motion to provide a diplomatic and military response. With little hard information, the Cabinet ‘parted in some gloom’. 1 Cecil Parkinson, Conservative Party Chairman and soon member of the War Cabinet recalls his despondency at the timing. The party had survived a deep economic recession and the day before had regained its lead in the opinion polls for the first time in eight months. His reaction to the news of the Argentine invasion was that ‘this was really deadly’. 2 Margaret Thatcher was not at this stage the formidable political force she later became (in part because of the Falklands) but presided over a Cabinet which was by no means wholly loyal. By upping the ante and deciding to take on Argentina, rather than accepting the loss of a piece of distant land of limited value, she was taking an enormous gamble. She had no military background herself and could be presented as clutching at straws presented to her by self-serving admirals. If it all went badly and concluded with heavy casualties and the Falklands still in Argentine hands, her premiership would be over.
