The Falkands War

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the fortieth anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands, Max Pearson hears two contrasting accounts of the war with Britain. Patrick Watts was the manager of the radio station on the Falklands; he kept broadcasting calmly as Argentine troops burst into the studio. Patrick Savage was a conscript in the Argentine army; for him, the fighting was a cold, frightening and brutal experience that culminated in defeat. Max also gets analysis of the conflict from Argentine political scientist, Dr Celia Szusterman.

In the second half of the programme, there are first-hand accounts of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979; the US-USSR trade deal that fuelled inflation in the 70s; and a historic handshake in space between an American astronaut and a Soviet cosmonaut.

PHOTO: Argentine troops on the Falklands shortly after the 1982 invasion (Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC with me Max Pearson and the team behind
0:04.7	the Witness History Strand on the World Service.
0:07.6	This week it's 40 years since Argentina invaded the Falklands.
0:11.2	We get both sides of a short but brutal war. Also with Russia's
0:15.2	military adventure in Ukraine still dominating today's world news, we're going to
0:19.4	examine past Russian forays onto the international stage with mixed results including the 10-year
0:25.8	Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Our planes dropped bombs on hospitals, on villages,
0:31.3	it was collateral damage.
0:33.7	Some days they wouldn't let us out of Kandahar for two, three days
0:36.6	because the planes were bombing.
0:38.0	But what can you do?
0:39.0	It's a war.
0:39.7	We started it.
0:40.5	We had to see it through.
0:41.8	A 1970's grain deal with the US that forced up food prices around the world, and a cosmonaut
0:48.1	astronaut handshake in space.
0:50.1	Apollo, Houston, I got two messages for you.
0:53.0	Moscow is go for docking.
0:55.0	Houston is go for docking.
0:56.0	It's up to you guys.
0:58.0	Have fun. All right, sounds good.
1:00.0	That's all coming up later in the podcast, but let's head first to the South Atlantic, where in
	...

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