ABSTRACT
Thatcher's first major international problem is the issue of Rhodesia where an entrenched white minority government acts in defiance of Britain and the world. Denis Thatcher, who served in Italy in the Second World War consoles and encourages her when news of casualties came through to endure the long periods of waiting for news from the battle zone. The military option resolves the Falklands crisis was inapplicable in the case of the third post-imperial problem to confront Thatcher, the future of Hong Kong and the negotiations with China over the island group offer closer parallels with the Rhodesian settlement. As with Rhodesia, the episode demonstrates the Thatcher's innate realism and not withstanding her private feelings about the Foreign Office mentality on traditional methods of diplomacy in pursuit of British interests. Thatcher is suspicious of the mind-set of the Foreign Office mandarins that views the sophistication and the ingrained preference to mask a supine acceptance of national decline.
