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What was the Falkland Islands War all about anyway? · Stuff You Should Know

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0:59
Speaker 1: well them to stuff you should know. A production of
1:01
Speaker 1: I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to
1:10
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant,
1:15
Speaker 1: here's Jerry over there and that friends makes this stuff.
1:19
Speaker 1: You should know. The final studio recording. That's pretty good, Chuck.
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Speaker 1: Maybe not final. That sounded a little final, The temporarily
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Speaker 1: for now final studio recording, the indefinitely suspended recordings in
1:36
Speaker 1: the studio. Yeah, starting after obviously everyone knows what's going
1:40
Speaker 1: on in this world, say this country, uh coy, but uh,
1:49
Speaker 1: we are getting set up in our homes. Yeah. I
1:52
Speaker 1: set up a system yesterday that I just didn't quite
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Speaker 1: trust for today's. Yeah, it was a little little premature
1:58
Speaker 1: to test the day after, I think so, but um
2:02
Speaker 1: I posted a picture of it on the movie Crush
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Speaker 1: page and I was pretty excited. I was like, guys,
2:06
Speaker 1: after twelve years, I'm finally a dude recording a podcast
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Speaker 1: in this basement. Right. You went full circle backwards, full circle.
2:15
Speaker 1: That's nice. It was funny. People were saying stuff like
2:17
Speaker 1: just make sure your mom keeps it down upstairs and
2:19
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Yeah, I saw that picture. I
2:21
Speaker 1: love the quilt tablecloth. It's really homespun. It's beautiful. Yeah,
2:26
Speaker 1: that's my daughter's quilt. I had a gank that, but
2:29
Speaker 1: it's not okay. It all sounds pretty I mean, she's
2:33
Speaker 1: not cold at night. We have other blankets. Um, it
2:36
Speaker 1: sounds pretty good, though. You know, the band room already
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Speaker 1: had sound baffling, so I just sort of moved some
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Speaker 1: I moved my bass player out of the way and uh,
2:48
Speaker 1: because this is kind of over in his corner, and
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Speaker 1: just kind of positioned it where I'm speaking into this
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Speaker 1: sort of dense corner, and I did a sound check
2:55
Speaker 1: and it sounds pretty good. That's great, man, So look
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Speaker 1: for that coming soon every one. Hopefully you want no difference. Yeah, yeah, well,
3:02
Speaker 1: I mean like we should we should just not even
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Speaker 1: mention it and see if anybody notices. Well, our aim
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Speaker 1: is to keep bringing everyone shows every week, and uh
3:11
Speaker 1: to not because you know, podcasts are going to be
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Speaker 1: a pretty big deal moving forward for people, you know, Yeah,
3:18
Speaker 1: I guess. So, I mean, like if we can record
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Speaker 1: remotely and still release on time, like that'll hopefully be
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Speaker 1: a source of comfort for people who are just sitting
3:26
Speaker 1: at home board that's getting a little stir crazy. So yeah,
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Speaker 1: that's the aim. So our two aims are to not
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Speaker 1: come down with coronavirus ourselves and also yeah, and then
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Speaker 1: also keep releasing on time and on schedule. That's number two,
3:39
Speaker 1: all right, so let's do it. Yeah, let's do it, Chuck. Um,
3:44
Speaker 1: So we're talking the Falklands War and you requested this one, right,
3:47
Speaker 1: so this is this is your idea? Yeah, you know why.
3:50
Speaker 1: It was one of those things that happens to us
3:52
Speaker 1: every now and then where we think of something that
3:55
Speaker 1: we remember but you know nothing about. Like I remember this.
3:59
Speaker 1: I was eleven years old, but I'm like, what was
4:01
Speaker 1: that all about? Where are the Falkland Islands even right?
4:04
Speaker 1: What's going on? Now? I know all about it, yes,
4:07
Speaker 1: but I was wondering if you were, um, if you
4:10
Speaker 1: requested it because of the fact that it's starting to
4:13
Speaker 1: heat up again geo politically down there. No, I had
4:16
Speaker 1: nothing to do with it, Okay, because it is. It
4:18
Speaker 1: turns out it is. We'll talk about it at the
4:20
Speaker 1: end there. But but I was like, wow, that's that's
4:22
Speaker 1: very prescient. Chuck's got his finger on the pulse of
4:25
Speaker 1: like some real arcane geopolitics right now. No, this was
4:29
Speaker 1: this was all just sort of h yearbook memories, right
4:34
Speaker 1: the Falkland Islands said stay cool this summer, see you
4:38
Speaker 1: next fall. So I was the first one to write
4:42
Speaker 1: on your crack. Um, did people do that to you? Oh? Yeah,
4:46
Speaker 1: that's timeless man. So what we're talking about, though, is
4:49
Speaker 1: the Falkland Islands War in nine two. Great Britain went
4:56
Speaker 1: to war with Argentina over a little tiny group Well
4:59
Speaker 1: they're not so tiny. We'll get into that. But um,
5:02
Speaker 1: as far as livable thrivable areas, these little rocky islands
5:06
Speaker 1: out in the middle of nowhere in the Atlantic Ocean,
5:09
Speaker 1: and and not to say that they're useless, they're definitely
5:11
Speaker 1: not useless. There are people who live there and have
5:13
Speaker 1: lived there for hundreds of years now, um, but there's
5:19
Speaker 1: no there's been archaeological studies of the area and they're
5:22
Speaker 1: they've turned up zero evidence of prehistoric people living there.
5:26
Speaker 1: So it's not a highly valuable area. But it is
5:31
Speaker 1: a place that some people call home. And we're in
5:33
Speaker 1: no position to poo poo anywhere somebody calls home. It's
5:37
Speaker 1: just again geo politically speaking, it's really bizarre that that
5:42
Speaker 1: Great Britain went to war with Argentina over this particular
5:46
Speaker 1: set of islands. Yeah, and we'll get into the the
5:49
Speaker 1: ins and outs of that, but in general, it's fair
5:52
Speaker 1: to say that um old time. Colonialism had a part
5:56
Speaker 1: in it, but it was also the fact that it's
5:59
Speaker 1: the fog Land Islands are not super far and if
6:03
Speaker 1: you're talking about the size of the world from Antarctica,
6:07
Speaker 1: and you know, anytime there's there's a there are different
6:12
Speaker 1: countries that want to be set up near other places
6:16
Speaker 1: seemingly unpopular land but can become popular. It is. Yeah,
6:20
Speaker 1: every country wants to stake some sort of outpost near
6:24
Speaker 1: the ancient sleeping ones, the eldritch gods that are asleep
6:29
Speaker 1: beneath Antarctica right now, to worship them, you know, when
6:32
Speaker 1: they wake up. But uh that that can lead to
6:36
Speaker 1: disputes among nations, and in particular Argentina is like, hey man,
6:39
Speaker 1: these are like four miles off of our coast. Surely
6:43
Speaker 1: they belong to us. They're about a thousand miles above Antarctica,
6:47
Speaker 1: the northernmost outpost of Antarctica. But the British say, no, no, no,
6:52
Speaker 1: these are this is a British territory, even though it
6:54
Speaker 1: is nowhere near Great Britain in any sense that ever
6:59
Speaker 1: something before it really hasn't, but and it does. It
7:02
Speaker 1: has to do with colonialism in the British Empire. But
7:04
Speaker 1: they they have said, no, we've been here for a while.
7:07
Speaker 1: This is our place. Yeah. And the Grabster put this
7:10
Speaker 1: together very detailed, Yes, account, Um, but we're gonna talk
7:15
Speaker 1: a little bit about the the origin of these islands
7:18
Speaker 1: and why different countries thought that they were theirs. Yes,
7:23
Speaker 1: starting in about I think, um, well they think possibly Magellan,
7:28
Speaker 1: maybe Americo Vespucci. I love that guy's name. They may
7:32
Speaker 1: have seen the Falklands. Um. But the first the first
7:36
Speaker 1: British person to have landed on the Falklands was named
7:40
Speaker 1: John Strong, and he showed up in six And the
7:44
Speaker 1: Falkland Islands look kind of if you squint and use
7:48
Speaker 1: you know, eighty percent of your imagination, look a bit
7:50
Speaker 1: like a butterfly. And the body of the butterfly is
7:54
Speaker 1: a channel that runs between the two main islands, East
7:57
Speaker 1: and West Falklands. And so he named that channel the
8:01
Speaker 1: the Falkland Sound after the guy who was running the
8:05
Speaker 1: show for them, the Admiralty the Navy, I guess of
8:08
Speaker 1: Great Britain at the time. Um, And he got his
8:12
Speaker 1: title from Scotland. So it actually is kind of appropriate
8:17
Speaker 1: that you would name this area after someplace in Scotland,
8:19
Speaker 1: because it is kind of Scottish climate wise, apparently it's
8:23
Speaker 1: a little soggy, it's kind of cold, um, and you
8:26
Speaker 1: kind of have to like that kind of weather to
8:28
Speaker 1: to survive there and not go crazy. Yeah, and some there.
8:32
Speaker 1: He wasn't the first person. Other people had discovered it before.
8:36
Speaker 1: People came afterward, and it's sort of so removed that
8:39
Speaker 1: people showed up afterward. Uh in seventeen and won the
8:42
Speaker 1: French uh seventeen sixty four more French, and they both said, well,
8:50
Speaker 1: nothing's going on here. This is ours, and they named
8:53
Speaker 1: them French names. Yeah. The the the guy who really
8:57
Speaker 1: made a the first real attempt at settling the place,
9:00
Speaker 1: Antoine Louis de Bougaonville. He set up a colony and um,
9:05
Speaker 1: the Spanish showed up and they said, hey, you know
9:07
Speaker 1: how we basically owned South America. We owned this too.
9:10
Speaker 1: It's only four dred miles east of us, so so
9:14
Speaker 1: get out of here. And Bougunville said, um, okay, but
9:18
Speaker 1: I set up this legit colony and I want some
9:20
Speaker 1: money for it. So they gave him what would amount
9:22
Speaker 1: today to about one point one million dollars for it.
9:25
Speaker 1: Not bad at all. So the French said, okay, Spanish,
9:29
Speaker 1: this is yours. We recognize that. Well. At about the
9:31
Speaker 1: same time, some English settlers showed up and they said,
9:35
Speaker 1: we're going to settle this place. Had no idea that
9:38
Speaker 1: the French were even there, had even less of an
9:40
Speaker 1: idea that the French had just sold their claim to
9:42
Speaker 1: it to Spain. And the British kind of made their
9:46
Speaker 1: home there, uh for about a year before they noticed
9:49
Speaker 1: a French settlement there and went over and said, hey,
9:52
Speaker 1: this is our place. You need to get out. Yeah.
9:54
Speaker 1: It's funny too, because Ed made a very ed joke.
9:58
Speaker 1: Uh he said que yeah, and he said x because
10:01
Speaker 1: that's kind of what it sounded like at first, like
10:04
Speaker 1: Britain settled it. They didn't even notice that there was
10:06
Speaker 1: a French settlement there until yeah, until a year later. Uh.
10:10
Speaker 1: And then this weird exchange starting in nineteen I'm sorry,
10:13
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty nine started going back and forth where yeah,
10:21
Speaker 1: you can say that every time we went in the
10:23
Speaker 1: year from now, I almost let it slip by, and
10:25
Speaker 1: I was like, last possible second, I'm I'm going for it.
10:28
Speaker 1: That's pretty good. So this starting in seventeen sixty nine
10:31
Speaker 1: is weird exchange started where British ships and Spanish ships
10:37
Speaker 1: would go back and forth trading letters that got a
10:41
Speaker 1: little more heated, saying no, you leave, no, you leave
10:44
Speaker 1: you And then eventually Spain said, oh, you know what,
10:49
Speaker 1: We're going to send all of our ships and Britain said, fine,
10:52
Speaker 1: it's yours and in a certain way, yeah, in a
10:56
Speaker 1: certain way. And this is really kind of critical because
10:59
Speaker 1: I guess the the Spanish forced the British out, but
11:02
Speaker 1: I don't know if there was any kind of treaty
11:04
Speaker 1: signed or any kind of like. Okay, so so this
11:07
Speaker 1: the Spanish um, the Spanish forced the British out, and
11:10
Speaker 1: basically I guess took at least possession of the islands. Um.
11:14
Speaker 1: But this is a big deal. This was um. The
11:17
Speaker 1: Falklands have been a site of international wars for years now,
11:22
Speaker 1: and the first one was called the Falkland Islands Crisis
11:24
Speaker 1: of seventeen seventy, where the French were down there, the
11:28
Speaker 1: English were down there, the Spanish were down there, and
11:31
Speaker 1: all of them wanted this island, mainly because the English
11:35
Speaker 1: and the French didn't want the Spanish to control the
11:38
Speaker 1: entire southwestern hemisphere of the world, which they basically did
11:43
Speaker 1: by controlling South America for the most part. And Uh, conversely,
11:47
Speaker 1: the Spanish were like, I don't want the French and
11:49
Speaker 1: the English to have even just a little bit of
11:50
Speaker 1: a toe hold here, so they need to get out.
11:53
Speaker 1: But it was a big deal. It was. It was
11:54
Speaker 1: literally called the Falkland Islands Crisis of seventeen seventy and
11:58
Speaker 1: America was like, oh, can we please be a country
12:00
Speaker 1: quickly so we can get down there too. All right,
12:03
Speaker 1: We'll just hang in the background and manipulate everything, all right.
12:07
Speaker 1: So after that crisis point, England and Spain both had
12:11
Speaker 1: settlements down there for quite a few years, and they
12:14
Speaker 1: were just sort of both down there. It was kind
12:16
Speaker 1: of odd if you look historically, that's usually not how
12:19
Speaker 1: things go. Yeah, apparently the crisis never came to a
12:23
Speaker 1: full head and actually just went to a breaking point.
12:26
Speaker 1: It just continued to simmer. I guess with everybody hanging
12:29
Speaker 1: out on the island. I bet there were some good
12:31
Speaker 1: times too, though maybe so. Uh. In the eighteen hundreds, Uh,
12:36
Speaker 1: they both left and then that kind of it was
12:39
Speaker 1: like a reboot almost for the Falklands. No one really
12:42
Speaker 1: had a claim. Uh, it fell into I mean, it
12:46
Speaker 1: sounds scary on one hand, but it also sounds like
12:48
Speaker 1: a wild party because pirates and whalers basically uh ed
12:54
Speaker 1: described it as had their way with the island for
12:56
Speaker 1: two decades, so I guess they had sex with the island.
12:59
Speaker 1: They literally humped the island. That's what it was like
13:02
Speaker 1: down there. But it was it fell into uh lawlessness
13:07
Speaker 1: and uh piracy, like we said, um. And then the
13:10
Speaker 1: Argentinian Revolution came around. Spain lost all the claim, but
13:15
Speaker 1: Argentina it was so rough. Argentina tried to say, hey,
13:20
Speaker 1: this is ours and put governors on the island, but
13:22
Speaker 1: they got rebuffed by the party scene. Yeah, the party
13:27
Speaker 1: people said get out of here, and they actually did
13:30
Speaker 1: they this. The the Argentinians failed to install any kind
13:33
Speaker 1: of government on the island, and so in eighteen thirty
13:37
Speaker 1: four the British showed up with the governor and they said,
13:40
Speaker 1: we're installing some law around here. And either they were
13:45
Speaker 1: more apt to kill people to get their way, or
13:48
Speaker 1: the people down there already were more down with the
13:50
Speaker 1: British than the Argentinians. I'm not sure, but either way,
13:53
Speaker 1: the British were successful at installing a government there starting
13:57
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty four, so here's the thing, um, from
14:01
Speaker 1: that moment on, the British had a government set up
14:06
Speaker 1: and connected to the Government of Great Britain from that
14:11
Speaker 1: moment on, and that is basically the basis of the
14:17
Speaker 1: claim that they make that they say, we have been
14:19
Speaker 1: living on these islands and one one way or another
14:22
Speaker 1: continuously since eighteen four. Of course this is our territory. Yeah,
14:27
Speaker 1: I mean they built a town Stanley, which is as
14:30
Speaker 1: far as I know, still the sort of biggest thing
14:33
Speaker 1: going there. Oh, by far. They were farmers, are farmers, sheep, cattle, pigs. Uh,
14:39
Speaker 1: they would do a little fishing. It was a place
14:42
Speaker 1: where um boats could stop off and get fixed or
14:46
Speaker 1: fueled up or something or resupplied. Yeah. They make a
14:49
Speaker 1: little money on the side from tourists who come to
14:51
Speaker 1: see people humping islands. But we're talking less than five
14:56
Speaker 1: thousand people and they are all basically Scottish and Welsh
15:02
Speaker 1: descendants of those settlers. So if you were to go
15:05
Speaker 1: down to the Falkland Islands in the early nineteen eighties
15:08
Speaker 1: and even now, you would think this is a British outpost. Yeah, dude.
15:12
Speaker 1: As recently as two thousand thirteen, Great Britain held a
15:15
Speaker 1: referendum for you know, um self determination among the Falklanders,
15:21
Speaker 1: and all but four four residents, not four percent, four
15:24
Speaker 1: residents voted to stay a British territory. What do you
15:30
Speaker 1: the four Rossberer they all they want to do is
15:33
Speaker 1: hump the island. They don't want to be bothered to
15:35
Speaker 1: think about politics at all, which they call the rossbero Rossberger.
15:40
Speaker 1: You get it? Get it? Oh boy, maybe we should
15:44
Speaker 1: take a break, take a little cool shower, and uh,
15:49
Speaker 1: we'll come back with more falkland Mania right after this. Okay.
16:15
Speaker 1: So the British are saying, hey, not only have we
16:17
Speaker 1: had a claim on this since at least eighteen thirty four,
16:21
Speaker 1: the people who lived there consider themselves British, it's ours.
16:25
Speaker 1: But the Argentinians said, no, you know what, the Spanish
16:27
Speaker 1: held this place before the British, and we inherited any
16:30
Speaker 1: any title to it from the Spanish after the revolution. Um,
16:35
Speaker 1: there's a there's a it's closer to us. What else
16:39
Speaker 1: do you want? What do you want to hear? And
16:41
Speaker 1: the Argentinians claim on the Falklands is actually fairly tenuous. Um,
16:47
Speaker 1: but that has not stopped them from from kind of
16:52
Speaker 1: coveting these islands and making attempts to go after them
16:56
Speaker 1: over the years. Yeah. I mean, you know, Argentina will say,
17:00
Speaker 1: you guys left in seventeen seventy four, Uh, so you
17:03
Speaker 1: abandon it. Britain would say, well, you never established any
17:07
Speaker 1: kind of serenity there. Uh, there were no indigenous people.
17:11
Speaker 1: It's not like we came down here and kicked all
17:14
Speaker 1: your people out of here and displaced them. Um. So
17:17
Speaker 1: there's really no big moral claims either. And I don't
17:20
Speaker 1: know if I know enough about it even after all
17:23
Speaker 1: this to to really say without making some people mad,
17:26
Speaker 1: But it seems like it was Britain's Yeah right, I'm yeah, No,
17:31
Speaker 1: it's it's still like a point of national soreness in Argentina,
17:35
Speaker 1: and I think there's a little bit of national pride
17:38
Speaker 1: in in the UK of it. But yes, the fact
17:40
Speaker 1: that the people who lived there and have are descended
17:43
Speaker 1: some people who have lived there since eighteen thirty four
17:45
Speaker 1: considered themselves British, that's I agree with you. That to
17:49
Speaker 1: me says it's it's a British territory, which ostensibly would
17:53
Speaker 1: make Argentina the the the invading force, the bad people. Yes,
17:58
Speaker 1: and that's the thing like we all have to have
18:00
Speaker 1: good guys and bad guys, and there you know, both
18:02
Speaker 1: sides did good and bad things during this conflict. They
18:07
Speaker 1: were bad people on both sides. But you can you can,
18:10
Speaker 1: oh man, you can make man chuck. You can make
18:15
Speaker 1: the case that, yes, if you have to identify an
18:18
Speaker 1: aggressor in this situation, it was Argentina who who did it,
18:22
Speaker 1: because again the Spanish settled it before the British, but
18:25
Speaker 1: then the Spanish left and the Argentineans overthrew the Spanish.
18:29
Speaker 1: There were no indigenous people that lived on these islands
18:32
Speaker 1: that were connected to Argentina. Argentina in any way. There's
18:36
Speaker 1: really no legal or moral claim that Argentina had aside
18:40
Speaker 1: from proximity, and that just doesn't really hold up when
18:43
Speaker 1: it comes to teri territorial dispute. So yes, you can
18:47
Speaker 1: really make the case that Argentina was the aggressor. And
18:50
Speaker 1: it doesn't hurt that the proportion of Argentinean listeners to
18:54
Speaker 1: stuff you should know, pales in comparison to the British proportion.
19:00
Speaker 1: So leading up to the war, this is sort of
19:03
Speaker 1: the scene. You've got the people living on the Falkland Islands,
19:08
Speaker 1: um the economy wasn't great. It's never been booming. Like
19:11
Speaker 1: we said, it's a very small seaside hamlet of farmers. Uh.
19:16
Speaker 1: They were depending on the British government subsidies to to
19:19
Speaker 1: even get by. And this is you know, back in
19:22
Speaker 1: the late seventies, early eighties. Uh. Brittain says, you know what,
19:27
Speaker 1: we would like to start trading with Argentina. We would
19:30
Speaker 1: like to help these islanders out. Maybe let them move
19:33
Speaker 1: some wool, maybe make it easier to get fuel and supplies.
19:37
Speaker 1: And Margaret Thatcher comes into power and says, maybe it
19:40
Speaker 1: might also be nice to sell them weapons in Argentina. Yeah,
19:44
Speaker 1: they need missiles and we've got them. Yeah. She opened
19:47
Speaker 1: her trench coach. She's like, what do you need? What
19:48
Speaker 1: do you need? I got it? I got it. Never
19:50
Speaker 1: one went whoa lady. I'm not saying she was new
19:54
Speaker 1: to okay, just that she had missiles in her trench. Gotcha.
20:00
Speaker 1: So there was one other thing. It wasn't just that
20:02
Speaker 1: the British were being patrimonious and really wanted to help
20:06
Speaker 1: the Falklanders out by opening up trade between them and
20:09
Speaker 1: the Argentinians. They also wanted to potentially offload responsibility for
20:15
Speaker 1: the Falklands to Argentina, kind of like how you would
20:21
Speaker 1: consider selling a car that you knew maybe had fifty
20:25
Speaker 1: miles left in it, but you could sink some money
20:28
Speaker 1: into repairing it to whatever, or you can sell it
20:31
Speaker 1: to some schmo And Great Britain identified that this would
20:35
Speaker 1: be a great bargaining chip. The Argentinians really want this thing,
20:39
Speaker 1: so maybe we can sell them this used car in
20:41
Speaker 1: addition to selling them some missiles for a few billion pounds.
20:44
Speaker 1: Argentina said, can I take it for a spin? And
20:47
Speaker 1: Britain went, I can't find the keys right now, but
20:50
Speaker 1: we go ahead and make the deal. I'll see if
20:52
Speaker 1: I can find them. It runs great though, yeah exactly,
20:56
Speaker 1: so just trust me. But but imagine you just said
21:00
Speaker 1: in a British accent, Yeah, I thought about doing it,
21:03
Speaker 1: but so. Um. The thing is is this didn't go
21:07
Speaker 1: over very well with Great Britain. Um. They were like, well, well, whoa,
21:10
Speaker 1: you can't just these are British subjects in some form
21:14
Speaker 1: or another. You can't just abandon them to the Argentinas.
21:16
Speaker 1: You can't sell them out. And the people on the
21:19
Speaker 1: island of the Falklands were not very happy with this either. Um,
21:23
Speaker 1: supposedly they used to call themselves kelpers, and I think
21:27
Speaker 1: I get the impression that's one of those things that
21:29
Speaker 1: they can still call themselves kelpers. But if you're from
21:31
Speaker 1: Argentina and you call them kelpers, then that's that's fighting words.
21:36
Speaker 1: But um, they did not, uh, they did not like
21:39
Speaker 1: the idea of being sold off to the Argentinians in
21:42
Speaker 1: a as a pawn in a larger trade negotiation to
21:46
Speaker 1: sell missiles. That that just didn't sit well with them.
21:50
Speaker 1: And you get why. I totally get why. And the
21:54
Speaker 1: other problem is is this is this is just so
21:56
Speaker 1: neo lib too. The Thatchery administration went in, it was like,
21:59
Speaker 1: this is really what we want to do is sell missiles,
22:01
Speaker 1: but we're not going to give one way or another.
22:03
Speaker 1: There's no compromise on the Falklands. He's either all or nothing.
22:06
Speaker 1: And um, they they, I guess, wanted to open trade
22:11
Speaker 1: to Argentinians, but didn't want to give them to the Argentinians,
22:15
Speaker 1: but Argentinians wanted them. And rather than find a compromise,
22:18
Speaker 1: like I said, it was just all or nothing and
22:20
Speaker 1: they just left it as this. They basically scared the
22:25
Speaker 1: pants off of the Falkland Islanders, saying we're willing to
22:28
Speaker 1: basically leave you guys hanging um. But at the same
22:32
Speaker 1: time they weren't willing to to pull the trigger and
22:34
Speaker 1: go all the way and and let Argentina have the
22:37
Speaker 1: Falklands and maybe administer them correctly who knows. So instead
22:41
Speaker 1: the Falkland Islands were left in this weird geopolitical limbo
22:45
Speaker 1: in starting about nineteen seventy nine, I believe, um to
22:50
Speaker 1: where no one quite knew exactly how interested Great Britain
22:54
Speaker 1: was in holding these islands. Our Argentina was very interested
22:57
Speaker 1: in getting these islands, and the Falkland island As were
23:00
Speaker 1: caught in the middle of this. Yeah. And on the
23:02
Speaker 1: Argentinian side, they were sort of in the midst of
23:05
Speaker 1: a right wing military dictatorship that after a seventy six
23:10
Speaker 1: coup um. They were not nice people. They terrorized people,
23:15
Speaker 1: they murdered their opponents, they imprisoned people. It was called
23:18
Speaker 1: the Dirty War um. Within that or a few years
23:22
Speaker 1: after that n one there was in an internal coup
23:25
Speaker 1: within that same party where a General Leopoldo Galtieri m good, sure,
23:33
Speaker 1: all right, um, he went into power. But still that
23:36
Speaker 1: same right wing faction and they wanted not only the Falklands.
23:40
Speaker 1: They wanted the South. Uh, they wanted South Georgia Island
23:44
Speaker 1: and South Sandwich Islands and basically wanted that whole sort
23:48
Speaker 1: of South Atlantic area because of Antarctica. Yeah yeah, so
23:54
Speaker 1: they um. The other thing is and a lot of
23:56
Speaker 1: people point to this. Did you mention the name of
23:58
Speaker 1: that the tatorship? Oh the uh the NPR. Now it's
24:03
Speaker 1: the opposite of the NPR. It's yeah, it's not the
24:07
Speaker 1: opposite National reorganization process. Oh it is. I guess, I guess,
24:14
Speaker 1: although they're both into re education for sure. So um,
24:19
Speaker 1: Argentina basically was saying like, okay, we're a military junta.
24:25
Speaker 1: We don't know what to do with the economy. We're
24:27
Speaker 1: super oppressive, especially against our opposition, will like make you
24:31
Speaker 1: disappear and murder your family and all this stuff. This
24:35
Speaker 1: is a bad jam at home. We need something to
24:37
Speaker 1: make everybody feel good about being Argentinean again. Maybe maybe
24:42
Speaker 1: if we go get these Falkland islands, this little adventurism
24:46
Speaker 1: that we go on will restore patriotism in Argentina and
24:50
Speaker 1: will make everybody look the other way on this what's
24:52
Speaker 1: called the dirty war that we've been fighting for the
24:55
Speaker 1: last few years since we've come to power, and that
24:58
Speaker 1: was kind of like the big impetus toward Argentina. They
25:02
Speaker 1: had like these military aspirations because it was after all,
25:05
Speaker 1: the merit military coup that took over as a military dictatorship.
25:09
Speaker 1: To what else are they gonna do? Military stuff? But
25:11
Speaker 1: at the same time, Britain was widely viewed around the
25:14
Speaker 1: world is not really caring much about what happened to
25:16
Speaker 1: the Falklands, And I think that they gave Argentina an
25:20
Speaker 1: overblown sense of how easy it would be to just
25:24
Speaker 1: go ahead and take these islands once and for all
25:26
Speaker 1: is their own. Yeah, they needed this for nationalism. They
25:31
Speaker 1: couldn't count on Diego Maradonna to come in and save
25:34
Speaker 1: the day for another four or five years. You have
25:38
Speaker 1: no idea what I'm talking about. He was a a
25:41
Speaker 1: soccer player, Yeah, he must have been a contemporary place.
25:44
Speaker 1: Then the Hand of God, that was very famous soccer
25:47
Speaker 1: goal that he scored. I think in the hand of
25:49
Speaker 1: you can't use your hands in soccer exactly, huh, look
25:53
Speaker 1: it up. So I think that's kind of sets the
25:57
Speaker 1: table for what's what's about to happen here. Um, It's
26:02
Speaker 1: not like England or I'm sorry, che's always do that.
26:06
Speaker 1: Let's just say Britain to be safe, that's what I've
26:08
Speaker 1: been doing. Britain wasn't really planning for this UM. Even
26:12
Speaker 1: though there had been a lot of back and forth
26:14
Speaker 1: about the Falklands. I don't think they expected uh, ultimately
26:18
Speaker 1: a surprise attack. They weren't really prepared UM. Like you mentioned,
26:22
Speaker 1: the Argentines thought it would kind of go pretty easily
26:25
Speaker 1: because they didn't seem like they cared about it. The Britain,
26:27
Speaker 1: the Brits, and they're like, we're gonna go get all
26:30
Speaker 1: these islands. But then this weird sort of start to
26:34
Speaker 1: the war, to the start of a very weird war happened,
26:38
Speaker 1: which is it was an incident at South Georgia Island
26:41
Speaker 1: with a with a scrap metal dealer of all things.
26:46
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so I mean at this at that time,
26:49
Speaker 1: remember the Argentinian dictatorship was like just looking for any
26:52
Speaker 1: opportunity to take these islands. And that scrap metal dealer
26:56
Speaker 1: got a UM contract to dismantle the whaling station in
27:03
Speaker 1: South Georgia Island, and so we chartered a an Argentinian
27:07
Speaker 1: naval navy vessel to carry him and his salvage crew
27:10
Speaker 1: over there, and Argentina actually thought this would be a
27:14
Speaker 1: good opportunity for us to secretly invade South Georgia Island
27:20
Speaker 1: of just sort of parking their car there and saying, hey,
27:22
Speaker 1: this is exactly exactly And they didn't. Even as they
27:27
Speaker 1: were backing in, somebody else was coming in front ways Seinfeld, Yes,
27:33
Speaker 1: and they just had to stand there and argue for
27:35
Speaker 1: a while. But finally the Argentinians won. And when they
27:37
Speaker 1: got this is the weird thing. When they got to
27:40
Speaker 1: South Georgia Island, the first thing they did the salvage
27:43
Speaker 1: crew was raised the Argentinian flag. They replaced the Union
27:48
Speaker 1: jack with the Argentinian flag. As dude, you could be
27:53
Speaker 1: a second grade cub scout and recognize that you are
27:56
Speaker 1: not supposed to do something like that, not even as
27:58
Speaker 1: a joke, which is what Argentina ultimately claimed that was
28:03
Speaker 1: just getting around, just joking, was their international diplomatic response. Yeah,
28:08
Speaker 1: and Britain does not take kindly to that, no, because
28:12
Speaker 1: they knew that Argentina wanted these islands. But here's the
28:14
Speaker 1: thing that it was a really stupid thing to do,
28:18
Speaker 1: because right when British diplomats pointed out that they had
28:21
Speaker 1: done this and demanded that it be removed in the
28:23
Speaker 1: Union Jack be put up. The Argentina's were like, just kidding,
28:26
Speaker 1: just kidding, and put the flag back up. But it
28:29
Speaker 1: immediately put the British on high alert. Like the diplomatic
28:33
Speaker 1: tensions were raised. Um, it was it was a dumb
28:37
Speaker 1: thing to do and if they were planning on really
28:41
Speaker 1: um tactically invading and holding the Falklands, because it got
28:46
Speaker 1: the British, the British the British's attention. Yeah, it didn't
28:50
Speaker 1: seem like any of this is very well thought out. Um,
28:53
Speaker 1: they work closer, so like they both start sending ships. Um,
28:58
Speaker 1: Argentina is going to get there quicker. Obviously. Um, they
29:02
Speaker 1: sent clear indication that they were gonna invade the Falklands. Uh.
29:07
Speaker 1: The Endurance was a British ship, and Captain Barker of
29:11
Speaker 1: the Endurance brought this news to London. There were only
29:14
Speaker 1: sixty eight marines on the islands. Royal marines, British marines
29:19
Speaker 1: didn't have great weapons were really under they were under weapons,
29:24
Speaker 1: under artillery, under staff. They they were just it was
29:28
Speaker 1: sort of those deals where they're like, what are we
29:31
Speaker 1: doing down here? Guys for a long time, I think
29:33
Speaker 1: until this happened. UM. So I mean imagine being that
29:38
Speaker 1: there was like sixty eight of them, I guess, just
29:41
Speaker 1: hanging out like sixty knowing that the Argentineans were coming
29:46
Speaker 1: right or thinking that they probably were. They knew it
29:50
Speaker 1: was on the way. Well, here's the thing. So back
29:52
Speaker 1: in London, UM, Margaret Thatcher and her Tory government were
29:57
Speaker 1: um not convinced like they she said later on UM,
30:02
Speaker 1: I think she her diaries got published about this or whatever.
30:05
Speaker 1: But in the days leading up to it, she was
30:08
Speaker 1: like she could not believe that Argentina would actually go
30:12
Speaker 1: through with an invasion because it was such a stupid
30:15
Speaker 1: thing to do that she just couldn't believe it. UM.
30:18
Speaker 1: And so that was combined with um eventually with some
30:24
Speaker 1: of her um like military advisers saying, if they take
30:29
Speaker 1: these islands, there's no guarantee we're going to get them back.
30:32
Speaker 1: And she realized that if she lost the Falkland Islands
30:35
Speaker 1: to Argentina, that was it. She was never going to
30:37
Speaker 1: be re elected and her government would basically just limp
30:40
Speaker 1: along until the next election. It would be a really
30:42
Speaker 1: bad look for her. UM. So she had to win
30:46
Speaker 1: these back. But at the same time, she couldn't just
30:48
Speaker 1: send the Royal Navy down there for nothing. So she
30:52
Speaker 1: had to make this decision about what to do, whether
30:55
Speaker 1: to be proactive or reactive, and she ultimately waited and
31:00
Speaker 1: was reactive, and by the time she reacted, she was
31:03
Speaker 1: she was kind of um. She was working with the
31:06
Speaker 1: knowledge that it wasn't guaranteed that that now that they
31:09
Speaker 1: have invaded, that Great Britain would be able to take
31:12
Speaker 1: it back. That's right, And you say take it back,
31:15
Speaker 1: we haven't even mentioned the fact that Argentina took it
31:18
Speaker 1: to begin with. Yeah, I think that was implied. April two,
31:22
Speaker 1: about three o'clock in the morning, their tactical dive team
31:26
Speaker 1: came aboard the island. They approached the capitol. They under
31:31
Speaker 1: cover of darkness fired on the barracks, which they because
31:34
Speaker 1: the Royal Marines knew this was coming, so they had
31:36
Speaker 1: abandoned the barracks and we're sort of falling back, essentially
31:40
Speaker 1: toward the Government House, which is where they were going
31:43
Speaker 1: to hold up on their final stand. Argentineans had a
31:47
Speaker 1: lot more people, they had amphibious assault vehicles, and eventually
31:52
Speaker 1: the Brits retired to the Government House and said we
31:57
Speaker 1: give up, We surrender uh ten a m. The Union
32:00
Speaker 1: jack was replaced by the Argentinean flag and Argentina broke
32:06
Speaker 1: their arms, patting themselves on the back. They lost five people,
32:09
Speaker 1: they killed one I'm sorry, zero British soldiers and we're like,
32:13
Speaker 1: all right, we did it. That was super easy, just
32:15
Speaker 1: like we thought. And so the Argentineans were thinking, well,
32:18
Speaker 1: you know, that was very easy. The British are clearly
32:21
Speaker 1: disinterested in the Falklands. They're probably just gonna say, well,
32:24
Speaker 1: you guys captured at fair and Square, we'll get our
32:26
Speaker 1: people out of there. There your islands now. But this
32:29
Speaker 1: is not at all what happened. In fact um, the
32:32
Speaker 1: British did not take very kindly to this, and I
32:35
Speaker 1: propose we'd take a break and talk about the actual
32:39
Speaker 1: Falkland War after this. Let's do it, okay. So where
33:04
Speaker 1: we left off was Argentina had taken the Falklands with
33:09
Speaker 1: very little effort, and then Margaret Thatcher realized what was
33:12
Speaker 1: going on in a big way and she went not old,
33:15
Speaker 1: my watch, that was dead on. So once Britain said,
33:22
Speaker 1: you know what, we're gonna fight back here and we're
33:25
Speaker 1: gonna take these islands back. It became the real deal thing. Uh,
33:29
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about in the end there. You know,
33:31
Speaker 1: casualties numbered at about a thousand on both sides, so
33:35
Speaker 1: it still wasn't the biggest conflict, but it was a
33:38
Speaker 1: real conflict. No, it really was. And Britain was in
33:40
Speaker 1: this weird position. Argentina was in a weird position, and
33:43
Speaker 1: that they were fighting a pretty substantial military but Britain
33:49
Speaker 1: was in a weird position, and that they knew that
33:50
Speaker 1: if they overshowed force, if they just pounded the Argentineans
33:57
Speaker 1: into dust, other countries might actually enter the war on
34:01
Speaker 1: the on the side of Argentina. So they had to
34:03
Speaker 1: get these islands back with with without just using all
34:08
Speaker 1: of their might against Argentina. Yeah, and with also saying
34:12
Speaker 1: we're not going to come after you Argentina. In Argentina
34:16
Speaker 1: supposedly they explicitly said that, huh, yeah, I mean, it's
34:20
Speaker 1: such a weird war in a weird time. It really was.
34:24
Speaker 1: It was a weird war. But yeah, a lot of
34:25
Speaker 1: people just kind of joke like, oh, you know, the
34:28
Speaker 1: British invaded the Falklands, what a what a over overblown move.
34:33
Speaker 1: But at the same time it was like you know
34:35
Speaker 1: Thatcher's Prime ministry was on the line. And also, um,
34:40
Speaker 1: the the idea that these were British subjects who were
34:43
Speaker 1: being occupied. Like like, make no mistake about it, if
34:45
Speaker 1: you were if you were living on the Falklands and
34:48
Speaker 1: you left your house, you were living under Argentinian occupation.
34:53
Speaker 1: They changed what side of the roads you're supposed to
34:55
Speaker 1: drive on, which is crazy a little bit you had
34:58
Speaker 1: to um, oh, either way, one of these days we're
35:01
Speaker 1: gonna have to do with short stuff on dogg and h.
35:04
Speaker 1: It was in either Sweden or I think Sweden. It
35:08
Speaker 1: was the day that they changed from one side of
35:10
Speaker 1: the road to the other for driving around the country. Yes,
35:14
Speaker 1: it was just a big mess, so we'll talk about
35:16
Speaker 1: this sometimes. But um you also had to carry like
35:19
Speaker 1: a white flag around with you to basically let them
35:22
Speaker 1: know you were noncombatant. And even still even under those conditions, um,
35:26
Speaker 1: I think at least three Falkland Islanders were killed during
35:29
Speaker 1: this war. So like this was you know, it was
35:31
Speaker 1: it was a big deal and there was there were
35:33
Speaker 1: reasons for the British to invade. Um. And again you
35:38
Speaker 1: can really make the case of the Argentineans where the
35:40
Speaker 1: aggressors in this situation. Yeah, So April six, the Great
35:46
Speaker 1: Britain finally um puts together a war cabinet. They name
35:50
Speaker 1: their operation Operation Corporate, and they send down a couple
35:56
Speaker 1: of aircraft carriers, about a hundred and twenty seven ships.
35:59
Speaker 1: They send down fighter jets. There's helicopters um while they're
36:03
Speaker 1: doing this, because like you mentioned it, it takes a
36:05
Speaker 1: long time to get down there on an aircraft carrier.
36:09
Speaker 1: They were still hoping to work this out. Like France
36:12
Speaker 1: got involved and they said, you know what, we're not
36:14
Speaker 1: gonna sell arms to Argentina anymore. Uh, they're flying our
36:17
Speaker 1: fighter jets, by the way, So here's some help in
36:20
Speaker 1: defeating them. If you want a little inside scoop, there's
36:23
Speaker 1: a little button on the back as long as you
36:25
Speaker 1: push it, and they won't be able to drop bombings
36:28
Speaker 1: will fold in. Reagan got involved. He called up Galtieri specifically,
36:33
Speaker 1: said let's try and work it out peacefully. I'm gonna
36:36
Speaker 1: send al Haig down there, and they said, nope, we
36:41
Speaker 1: don't want your help, Reagan. So British Britain said, oh,
36:44
Speaker 1: you don't want Ronald Reagan's help, then screw you, it's on. Yeah,
36:49
Speaker 1: and so it was on. From that point on. The
36:51
Speaker 1: British were like, all right, well then it's just war
36:53
Speaker 1: is what we're going to do. So there UM two
36:57
Speaker 1: aircraft carriers showed up and since they only had two,
37:00
Speaker 1: had a limited number of UM jets. But it turns
37:03
Speaker 1: out that their jets were mostly useful in keeping the
37:08
Speaker 1: Argentinean fighter jets away from bombing and missile attacks on
37:13
Speaker 1: the ships, but weren't successful in every case. Like as
37:16
Speaker 1: funny as it seems, you know, like the British were
37:19
Speaker 1: fighting the Argentineans are did the Argentina had some some
37:23
Speaker 1: successes definitely in this war too. It wasn't just totally lopsided. Yeah,
37:28
Speaker 1: I mean Britain. Uh. It all really really started on
37:32
Speaker 1: April and kind of one of the first things that
37:35
Speaker 1: Britain did was go after one of their submarines, the
37:38
Speaker 1: Santa Fe. Damaged that one pretty heavily. That that submarine
37:43
Speaker 1: made it to the South Georgia Island, but the crew
37:46
Speaker 1: jumped off and basically retired that submarine on the spot.
37:50
Speaker 1: UM Royal Marines were getting reinforced the whole time, and
37:54
Speaker 1: this was really what made the biggest difference is Britain
37:58
Speaker 1: had complete control of the the naval side of things, right, yeah,
38:02
Speaker 1: just immediately the Argentinians figured out like, oh, we're we
38:06
Speaker 1: we aren't going to be able to do much with
38:08
Speaker 1: our navy. But again, we've got some fighter jets and
38:11
Speaker 1: you know, their French, and they worked pretty good as
38:12
Speaker 1: long as you don't press that one button. Um. And
38:15
Speaker 1: they used them to good effect in that they would
38:19
Speaker 1: fly decoy flights to get the British jets to come
38:22
Speaker 1: chase them, and then the real um attack jets would
38:27
Speaker 1: come in and actually attack like a ship or maybe
38:30
Speaker 1: the mainland or something like that. Yeah, that worked. They
38:35
Speaker 1: also had some They also had surface to air missiles
38:38
Speaker 1: that they used fairly well, although they apparently accidentally shot
38:41
Speaker 1: down one of their planes at least once. Um. The
38:45
Speaker 1: point of all this, the upshot, is that despite you know,
38:48
Speaker 1: the British superiority and just about every single way um,
38:53
Speaker 1: Argentina did did have some success and they managed to
38:56
Speaker 1: stave off the British retaking the Falklands, which spoiler alert,
39:00
Speaker 1: the British retook the Falklands. Um. For you know, this
39:04
Speaker 1: whole conflict lasted seventy four days. Yeah, they sunk a destroyer.
39:10
Speaker 1: I think they sunk some other ships. The big one
39:13
Speaker 1: of the big turning points was when on May two,
39:17
Speaker 1: uh the General Bell Grano, which was an Argentinian cruiser,
39:23
Speaker 1: was destroyed by the HMS Conqueror. And that was like
39:27
Speaker 1: three and twenty three men were killed basically in that attack.
39:31
Speaker 1: And that was you know, not half but the losses
39:35
Speaker 1: of the whole war, right, and most of most of
39:38
Speaker 1: Argentina's losses came from the sinking of that one ship.
39:41
Speaker 1: And that was viewed as fairly grotesque by a lot
39:44
Speaker 1: of people, by the international community really because remember England
39:48
Speaker 1: needed to sorry, Great Britain needed to um to basically
39:52
Speaker 1: show themselves as showing restraint. This was not necessarily a
39:57
Speaker 1: show of restraint. The UM the Argentinians said that this
40:00
Speaker 1: was not inside of the no go zone where their
40:04
Speaker 1: their ship wasn't supposed to be um, that it had
40:07
Speaker 1: been tracked down by the British and sunk. That they
40:09
Speaker 1: could have just disabled it, but they purposefully sunk it.
40:13
Speaker 1: And that you know, it killed three d and twenty
40:15
Speaker 1: three Argentineans in one shot, which is just bad press
40:18
Speaker 1: for anybody. It makes England look like an over overblown bully. Um.
40:24
Speaker 1: And you know, they died in pretty terrible ways, like
40:26
Speaker 1: a lot of them drowned, but a lot of them
40:28
Speaker 1: frozen lifeboats because again we're not that far away from Antarctica,
40:32
Speaker 1: and it took twenty four hours I think for them
40:35
Speaker 1: to be rescued, So a lot of people froze to
40:37
Speaker 1: death in lifeboats waiting to be rescued because they were
40:41
Speaker 1: sunk by this British ship rather than just having their
40:43
Speaker 1: ship disabled. Yeah. Ed made a nice little Jaws reference
40:46
Speaker 1: in this, Dude, did you catch that? I didn't? Uh
40:49
Speaker 1: made a second thousand nine five men went into the
40:53
Speaker 1: water seven seventy two come out the sea took the rest.
40:57
Speaker 1: I got it now. Uh? Then the other big yeah yeah, um,
41:04
Speaker 1: the other big turning point came. Of course, you know
41:07
Speaker 1: this is all like sinking of ships and naval battles. Uh.
41:11
Speaker 1: What they needed to do was take the main town
41:13
Speaker 1: and on MA one. The British gained a very good
41:18
Speaker 1: foothold when they made a landing on East Falkland and
41:21
Speaker 1: started advancing towards Stanley, which was not Stanley the guy
41:25
Speaker 1: that was just they're cleaning up. But Stanley, the town Stanley,
41:28
Speaker 1: the measuring tape, that's right. Uh. And they basically, you know,
41:33
Speaker 1: Argentinea would would fight untill they ran out of AMMO,
41:36
Speaker 1: then they would get captured and the Brits would just
41:38
Speaker 1: move slowly, I think from one to June eleven. They
41:43
Speaker 1: finally assaulted Stanley and on June fourteen, Port Stay on
41:49
Speaker 1: June fourteenth, so just three days after they finally got
41:52
Speaker 1: to Stanley they surrendered. Argentina did yeah, but but no
41:55
Speaker 1: here that It was May twenty one that the British
41:58
Speaker 1: finally landed on East Falkland and June thirteen that they
42:03
Speaker 1: managed to take control of um Stanley weeks. It was
42:09
Speaker 1: three weeks and the Argentinians managed to um hold them
42:12
Speaker 1: off for that long. But this is almost like you know,
42:16
Speaker 1: um those movies, like the huge, sweeping epic comedies like
42:20
Speaker 1: It's a Mad, Mad Mad Mad World, where there's like
42:23
Speaker 1: ten different things going on at once in the scene
42:26
Speaker 1: just kind of visits, you know, each person. In one scene,
42:30
Speaker 1: there was a Brigadier general named Tony Wilson who was
42:34
Speaker 1: I guess on hiatus from running factory records at the time.
42:38
Speaker 1: He was trying to get to fitz Roy, which was
42:41
Speaker 1: a smaller town, not as big as Stanley, but it
42:43
Speaker 1: was a town, and he decided to get some intel
42:46
Speaker 1: where the Argentinians would He just he just looked up
42:50
Speaker 1: the number from one of the fitz Roy residents, put
42:54
Speaker 1: went to a phone booth and called and said, Hey,
42:57
Speaker 1: are the Argentinians around today? And residents said, no, they're not.
43:01
Speaker 1: Maybe today would be a good day for you guys
43:03
Speaker 1: to come. And that's how they overtook fitz Roy, and
43:06
Speaker 1: so little by little they started taking like the East Falklands,
43:09
Speaker 1: until like you said, they finally took Stanley. And one
43:12
Speaker 1: other thing. One of the over overlooked, unsung groups of
43:17
Speaker 1: soldiers who helped really retake Stanley are um the Gurkhas.
43:21
Speaker 1: Have you heard about them? Holy cow, dude, there's They're
43:25
Speaker 1: widely considered to be the toughest um soldiers in the world.
43:30
Speaker 1: Mother is on the plan exactly. Um. They are from Nepal.
43:34
Speaker 1: They're the Nepalese like basically Nepalese special forces and they're
43:37
Speaker 1: known for carrying these uh cou cree knives k u
43:41
Speaker 1: k r I knives. I'm sure I said that incorrectly.
43:46
Speaker 1: And by the way, apparently everyone else in the world
43:49
Speaker 1: except for you and I knows how to pronounce the
43:52
Speaker 1: national language of the Philippines correctly. Yeah, we did a
43:56
Speaker 1: listener mail about that, but they're just still pouring in. Yeah.
43:59
Speaker 1: So the these knives are just really fierce looking and
44:02
Speaker 1: they're like, these guys are basically just going from like
44:05
Speaker 1: outlooks or observation stationed observation station, I guess, just taking
44:09
Speaker 1: out Argentinean guys with their knives and and helping re
44:13
Speaker 1: established this British foothold on the East Falklands. Check them
44:18
Speaker 1: out the because you're you'll you'll like him, I think,
44:21
Speaker 1: like the sou In the end, they like we said,
44:25
Speaker 1: they surrendered on June four. Um, we should point out
44:29
Speaker 1: that there was a neutral c zone that had hospital
44:33
Speaker 1: ships on both sides and throughout this whole thing, which
44:36
Speaker 1: got really acrimonious. You know, it sounds silly to say
44:39
Speaker 1: about a war, but it was one of the more
44:41
Speaker 1: acrimonious wars because it was it was small, and they
44:45
Speaker 1: were really mad at each other, you know, but these
44:50
Speaker 1: hospital ships helped each other out. They cooperated, they transferred patients, um,
44:55
Speaker 1: which says a lot about how things were you know, yeah,
44:58
Speaker 1: it was still civil even though acrimonious. Right, that's right.
45:02
Speaker 1: Argentina in the end suffered sixty nine deaths, which was,
45:07
Speaker 1: like we said, about half of those actually almost exactly
45:10
Speaker 1: half came from that ship sinking. Yeah, Britain lost to
45:14
Speaker 1: fifty five and those three three poor kelpers. And I'm
45:18
Speaker 1: sorry if that's offensive, I think I think, yeah, I don't.
45:22
Speaker 1: I don't know if it is. Let's just call them
45:25
Speaker 1: Falkland civilians. They were killed Stanley, It's yes, Stanley and
45:32
Speaker 1: the Antonians. So it did not work out well for Argentina.
45:35
Speaker 1: It really backfired. That was pretty humiliating defeat. Uh, the
45:40
Speaker 1: n RP was defeated in nineteen eighty three and free
45:43
Speaker 1: election started, So that's a good thing. Yeah, that is
45:45
Speaker 1: that was this was actually huge impetus for them. Losing
45:48
Speaker 1: control of power was the you know, the Argentina was
45:52
Speaker 1: was defeated and kind of humiliated. Actually, um and this
45:57
Speaker 1: military government since this was like ed put it like
46:00
Speaker 1: Hail Mary, elastic effort to kind of retain power. They
46:03
Speaker 1: lost the Falklands, so they lost their power in Argentina.
46:07
Speaker 1: It's always good anytime a military dictatorship loses control of
46:11
Speaker 1: a nation. Yeah. So Um. One of the things Chuck
46:16
Speaker 1: is still to this day, the Falklands are in dispute
46:18
Speaker 1: by Argentina. And I was asking you if if you, um,
46:23
Speaker 1: you came up with this idea because the stuff that's
46:25
Speaker 1: been going on lately, but ever since I think two
46:28
Speaker 1: thousand nine, Argentina made a claim at the u N
46:32
Speaker 1: to extend its territorial waters from two hundred nautical miles
46:36
Speaker 1: off shore to three fifty well three nautical miles off of.
46:41
Speaker 1: Argentina completely envelops the Falkland Islands, the South Georgia Island,
46:46
Speaker 1: and the Sandwich Islands. Okay, this is not something that
46:49
Speaker 1: the British are okay with um, so much so that
46:52
Speaker 1: that one of the revelations from the Snowden Um whistleblower
46:56
Speaker 1: files was that the British had engaged in disinformation campaigns
47:01
Speaker 1: and propaganda campaign secret ones to change public opinion and
47:05
Speaker 1: Argentina about the Falklands sovereignty and them being part of
47:10
Speaker 1: a British you know, them being just thoroughly British and
47:12
Speaker 1: Argentina has no claim on it. And the reason why,
47:16
Speaker 1: and I was looking into this, I'm like, is another
47:18
Speaker 1: war there possible. Who knows. The reason why is because
47:21
Speaker 1: in two thousand ten they found a massive oil deposit
47:26
Speaker 1: that is in the territorial waters of the Falklands. So
47:30
Speaker 1: if Argentina's waters extend to envelope the Falklands, that's their
47:35
Speaker 1: oil deposit. In the UK said, no, now, that's our
47:38
Speaker 1: oil deposit because that's in the Falkland waters. And I
47:41
Speaker 1: think in two thousands sixteen the u N Commission ruled
47:45
Speaker 1: in favor of Argentina um even though they said, well,
47:49
Speaker 1: we don't really have any teeth, it's just our opinion
47:51
Speaker 1: that Argentina has a legitimate claim on us, and the
47:54
Speaker 1: UK said, we're not going to be paying attention to that. Yeah,
47:58
Speaker 1: So it's still continuing today and even more than just
48:01
Speaker 1: being like a source of national pride, now it's a
48:03
Speaker 1: source of national oil. So who knows what will happen
48:07
Speaker 1: in the coming years over that. Jeez. Plus, when the
48:11
Speaker 1: eldritch gods wake up, you know, yeah, well then we're
48:16
Speaker 1: all doomed. So you got anything else about the Falklands,
48:19
Speaker 1: got nothing else? And now I now I get it. Yep,
48:22
Speaker 1: me to chuck me too. So thanks for that. If
48:24
Speaker 1: you want to know more about the Falklands. Well, you
48:26
Speaker 1: can start reading up on it. There's plenty of stuff
48:28
Speaker 1: to be read. And since I said that, it's time
48:30
Speaker 1: for listener mail, I'm gonna call this from a teacher
48:37
Speaker 1: who was grounded right now because of the coronavirus and
48:42
Speaker 1: wants a little help from us. Hey guys, my name
48:45
Speaker 1: is Marissa Stratton. I'm a sixth grade teacher from Springfield, Illinois.
48:49
Speaker 1: Like most of the country, our school is currently shut down.
48:51
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if you could help me with a suggestion
48:53
Speaker 1: for my students. I'm fairly new to the podcast world.
48:56
Speaker 1: I listened to and love your podcast. I would love
48:58
Speaker 1: to recommend it to my students, but I know some
49:00
Speaker 1: topics would be inappropriate for eleven year olds. You got
49:04
Speaker 1: that right, It's like pumping the island. I was about
49:07
Speaker 1: to say any of our history shows. Uh. Here's where
49:10
Speaker 1: your help would be greatly appreciated. You have any specific
49:12
Speaker 1: episodes in mine it would be great for eleven and
49:15
Speaker 1: twelve year old er. Do you have suggestions of other
49:16
Speaker 1: podcasts that middle schoolers might enjoy. Read a lot of articles,
49:21
Speaker 1: but I'm just overwhelmed. Being out of the classroom is
49:23
Speaker 1: very stressful and I want to make sure I'm recommending
49:26
Speaker 1: popularity and quality to my students, not just popularity. That
49:31
Speaker 1: is from Marissa Stratton. So I thought about this. I
49:36
Speaker 1: didn't make a specific list, but um, I was just
49:39
Speaker 1: about to say, most of our history shows are pretty
49:42
Speaker 1: pretty appropriate, wouldn't you agree? Yeah, I would like to
49:46
Speaker 1: think that all of our stuff is in the wheelhouse
49:48
Speaker 1: of eleven and twelve year olds, at least at the
49:51
Speaker 1: same level of humor I think. So, I mean, it's
49:54
Speaker 1: pretty easy when you look through the twelve hundred plus episodes.
49:58
Speaker 1: There's a lot of science in his tree and uh
50:01
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Like it's I think it's pretty clear
50:03
Speaker 1: the ones to avoid. Like if you see things on
50:06
Speaker 1: like magic mushrooms or marijuana grow farms, uh, murder stories
50:12
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, you may want to avoid. But
50:15
Speaker 1: you know, aside from that, it's pretty self explanatory. A
50:19
Speaker 1: few dumb blue jokes aside from us, they're pretty pretty
50:22
Speaker 1: clean for sure, and a lot of them probably fly
50:25
Speaker 1: over in eleven year old's head. Yeah, but you know
50:28
Speaker 1: that's that's for her to decide. They may want to
50:30
Speaker 1: learn about the Mendel brought set. So so no, no, no,
50:35
Speaker 1: I mean our jokes are jokes, might play over the
50:37
Speaker 1: even year old thing. Gotcha, it's true. So yeah, I
50:41
Speaker 1: guess I would recommend maybe listening to them once before
50:44
Speaker 1: sharing them. But yeah, like we pride ourselves and being
50:47
Speaker 1: a pretty family family agreed. Okay, that was Mrs Stratton correct. Well,
50:52
Speaker 1: thanks a lot of Ms Stratton and hello to your
50:54
Speaker 1: class who are being taught virtually I'm guessing right now
50:58
Speaker 1: we're the teachers now, yeah, exactly. Just leave it to us,
51:01
Speaker 1: America and world. We got this. If you want to
51:04
Speaker 1: get in touch with us, like Mrs Stratton did, please
51:07
Speaker 1: feel free to. You can send us an email, wrap
51:09
Speaker 1: it up, spank it on the bottom, and send it
51:11
Speaker 1: off to Stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com. Ye.
51:18
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51:20
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51:25
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