Falkland Islands: Girding for the Big One

• Share

(6 of 7)

Another attack at sea produced no casualties, but a mystery. Some 500 miles northeast of the Falklands, the 220,117-ton U.S.-owned but Liberian-registered supertanker Hercules was steaming south with her oil tanks empty. Her eventual destination: Alaska. The ship was far from the 200-mile blockade limit, which both Britain and Argentina have declared around the Falklands, when it was attacked by a four-engine aircraft, probably a C130. Bombs were pushed out of the aircraft cargo door; one hit the Hercules but failed to explode on board. None of the 29 crewmen was injured. According to the British Defense Ministry, the ship was ordered by radio to head for an Argentine port within 15 minutes or face attack. Argentina denied any knowledge of the incident, but on June 2 an Argentine C-130 made a similar attack on a British oil tanker within the 200-mile zone, causing little damage.

News of Argentina's aerial successes lifted the gray mood that had enveloped Buenos Aires when a humiliating defeat at Port Stanley had seemed inevitable. Blared a headline in the daily newspaper Convictión: LONDON ADMITS GETTING A BEATING. Under the eyes of a beaming President Galtieri, thousands of chanting, banner-waving Argentines gathered in the central Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires to celebrate Malvinas Day, the anniversary of the appointment of the first Argentine governor of the contested islands known in Spanish as Las Malvinas. As Galtieri waved his hat in salute, the crowd chanted, "Be strong! Don't back down!" and unfurled national flags of sky-blue and white.

The Buenos Aires rally was yet another sign of how the Falklands struggle has brought a degree of unity to Argentina, a country of 28 million, traditionally riven by factionalism. Says Francisco Manrique, 63, president of the country's suspended Federal Party: "Whatever happens in the Falklands and whatever mistakes the government made are secondary. The fact is that Argentines now have a sense of pride and nationhood as never before." The war was also bringing about a realignment of Argentine foreign policy. Staunchly Roman Catholic, anti-Communist and pro-Western, Argentina has responded to U.S. and Western European support for Britain in the Falklands battle by threatening to turn to the Soviet Union for military aid. Last week Argentina announced that it was closing its consulate in West Berlin and considering opening new embassies in Mozambique and Angola, two African countries dominated by Marxist-led regimes.