A Sinking Defense

Ever since a Royal Navy submarine torpedoed the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands war, killing 368 crewmen, the British government has maintained that the action was taken in self-defense. Information surfaced last week, however, indicating that the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had other motives for the sinking, and even considered using nuclear weapons in the conflict.

Labor M.P. Tarn Dalyell sent documents to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons suggesting that the government had withheld information about the Belgrano affair from the committee. Dalyell also alleged that British forces were not in immediate danger when they attacked the Belgrano. Clive Ponting, 38, a Defense Ministry official, told the Sunday Observer that he has been charged under the Official Secrets Act with giving the documents to Dalyell.

A few days after Dalyell's disclosures, the weekly New Statesman, citing unidentified British sources, reported that Thatcher disregarded a U.S. peace initiative and decided to sink a major Argentine vessel. She first ordered the sinking of the aircraft carrier Veinticinco de Mayo, but the nuclear submarine assigned to the task lost track of the carrier. Another sub later hit the Belgrano instead. The magazine reported that some of Thatcher's advisers objected that it was against international law to attack a ship without warning. The New Statesman also said that the British sent a Polaris submarine armed with nuclear missiles to the South Atlantic and might have used the sub as a threat if Argentina had attacked their forces. Two top Royal Navy officers have denied the charges.