Further Reading on the Falklands War of 1982

(Notes by Michael Parsons, 2000)

There have been so many books on the Falklands War that it is particularly difficult to suggest a selection.  

One of the best of the first wave of books published almost immediately after the conflict is Paul Eddy et.al. "The Falklands War: The Full Story by the Sunday Times Insight Tea" (London, 1982).  However, arguably the best, and most readily available, book on the Falklands War remains Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins, "The Battle for the Falklands" (London, 1983).  Also of interest is Martin Middlebrook, "Operation Corporate" (London, 1982), republished in 1987 as "Task Force: The Falklands War, 1982".  The same author studied the war from the Argentine viewpoint in "The Fight for the 'Malvinas'" (London, 1989).  

Lawrence Freedman and Virginia Gamba-Stonehouse, "Signals of War: The Falklands Conflict of 1982" (London, 1990) looks closely at the conflict from both sides, and shows not only the deep conflict of interests but also the many misunderstandings, misperceptions and miscalculations that affected diplomats and politicians both before and during the war, as well as the highly unpredictable nature of war itself.  Lawrence Freedman is also the author of a shorter history entitled "Britain and the Falklands War" (London, 1988).  

There have been a number of television programmes, some of which are still available as cassettes, such as the BBC's "Task Force South" (London, 1982).  ITV's "The Untold Story" included interviews that have been published in Michael Bilton and Peter Kominsky, "Speaking Out: Untold Stories from the Falklands War" (London, 1989).  Channel Four's programme "The Falklands War" was accompanied by a book of the same name by Denys Blakeway (London, 1991).  

An academic conference was organised on the Falklands War at Keele in 1990: a collection of papers is published in Alex Danchev, "International Perspectives on the Falklands Conflict" (London, 1992), including a stimulating discussion by Lawrence Freedman of the way the theory of escalation led to a misunderstanding of the events of the naval battle at the beginning of May.  

The British specialist on the early history of the Falklands and the sovereignty dispute is Peter Beck, author of "The Falkland Islands as an International Problem" (London, 1988).  The classic study of sovereignty over the Falklands, first published in 1927 and re-issued in 1982, is Julius Goebels, "The Struggle for the Falkland Islands" (Yale, 1982).

An extremely valuable specialist history focusing on the Navy's contribution is David Brown, "The Royal Navy and the Falklands War" (London, 1987).  Similarly, for the air war, Rodney Burdon et.al., "Falklands - The Air War" (London, 1986).  Readers interested particularly in the land battles will find detailed accounts in Nicholas van der Bijl, "Nine Battles to Stanley" (London, 1999).  A comprehensive account of the battle of Goose Green is given in Mark Adkin, "Goose Green" (London, 1992).  The role of the SAS is recounted in Ken Connor, "Ghost Force" (London, 1998).

The political dimension is well portrayed in G.M. Dillon, "The Falklands, Politics and War" (London, 1989).  An account of the Argentine political dimension can be found in Oscar Cardoso et.al., "The Secret Plot" (English translation, London, 1983).  Ruben O. Moro, "The History of the South Atlantic Conflict" (New York, 1989) gives an Argentine account of the events in the Malvinas.

A large number of servicemen who took part in the campaign have written about their experience of the war.  Among these, one might recommend Admiral Sandy Woodward, "One Hundred Days" (London, 1992), Julian Thompson, "No Picnic" (London, 1985), Nick Vaux, "March to the South Atlantic" (London, 1986), Commander 'Sharkey' Ward, "Sea Harrier over the Falklands" (London, 1993), Ewen Southby-Tailyour, "Reasons in Writing" (London, 1993), Nick Barker, "Beyond Endurance" (London, 1997) and John and Robert Lawrence, "When the Fighting is Over: a Personal Story of the Battle for Tumbledown Mountain and its Aftermath" (London, 1988).  Vincent Bramley, "Excursion to Hell" (London, 1991) tells the story of the battle for Mount Longdon, and includes highly controversial allegations about possible war crimes.  An idea of the way the war was seen by Argentine conscripts is given in Daniel Kon, "Los Chicos de la Guerra" (English translation, Sevenoaks, 1983).

Politicians and diplomats have also contributed their accounts.  Again, selection is difficult, but of particular interest are Margaret Thatcher, "The Downing Street Years" (London, 1993), Lord Carrington, "Reflect on Things Past" (London, 1988), Nicholas Henderson, "Mandarin" (London, 1994), Rex Hunt, "My Falkland Days" (London, 1992) and Alexander M. Haig, "Caveat" (New York, 1984).  An excellent collection of interviews of diplomats and politicians is provided in Michael Charlton, "The Little Platoon: Diplomacy and the Falklands Dispute" (London, 1989).

Media coverage of the Conflict has been studied in a number of books including Robert Harris, "Gotcha!" (London, 1983), Derek Mercer et.al., "The Fog of War" (London, 1987), Valorie Adams, "The Media and the Falklands Campaign" (London, 1986), David Morrison and Howard Tumber, "Journalists at War" (London, 1988) and the Glasgow University Media Group, "War and Peace: News" (Milton Keynes, 1985).  European opinion is surveyed in Stelios Stavridis and Christopher Hill (eds.), "Domestic Sources of Foreign Policy" (London, 1996).

Official reports on the Falklands often make fascinating reading, in particular the Franks Report reprinted with an introduction by Alex Danchev as Alex Danchev (ed.) "The Franks Report" (London, 1992) gives a very good account of the development of the crisis from the 1960s until 1982.

Source: "The Falklands War" by Michael Parson, published 2000 by Sutton Pocket Histories

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