Keith,

I disagree - at the end of the day the sinking of the "Belgrano" was an opperational decision by the Navy, or put it another way, can you imagine the ructions there would have been if it had leaked, and it would have leaked, that the Prime Minister had overuled the Admiral on the spot. - And a light cruiser and two exocet armed destroyers had got amoungst the troop ships ? It could have made PQ17 look like a picnic.

I concur with your description of the Junta, I also remind you of the hysterical sympathy Thatcher and others poured over Pinochot (sic) in recent times.

I also concur on the subject of appeasement. If the Patrol ship had not been on the cuts list ?

No- as I said earlier in this thread :-

1/. Don't charge/credit that woman with the "Belgrano" sinking.
and
2/. It was a case of a Government making the correct decisions for the wrong reasons.

Gareth