Difficult Choice: A Study On The Decision-making Of The Reagan Administration During The Falklands War (1982-1983)

During the Malvinas/ Falklands War in 1982, the close cooperation between the United States and Britain was often seen as an important manifestation of the revival of the special relationship between the United States and Britain during the Reagan-Thatcher period. Indeed, the support provided by the United States is one of the most important reasons why the Britain can quickly win in three months. However, with the in-depth study of American policy during the Falklands War, it can be founded that the policy of the United States is not purely aimed to stand by Britain, accurately, it was much more complex than that. On the one hand, the policy of the United States during the Falklands war is a dynamic policy,which has undergone a process from the neutral mediation to supporting Britain, to the ultimate return to the neutrality. Among them,supporting the United Kingdom is only a stage of the US policy. On the other hand, there is always a big disagreement within the US government about whether or not to support the UK both between the department of Defense and department of States and within the States, moreover, the contradiction can be also reflected in the implementation of these officials on the policy. Under the influence of the factors above, the decision-making process of the United States during the Falklands war embodies a unity of complexity and diversity. To explore the decision-making process of the Reagan administration during the Falklands war,this thesis is divided into to three parts to study the process of the decision-making.The first part is aimed to comb the historical background of the war. The policy of the United States previous to the war will be researched in three aspects, which include the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, the relationship between the United States and Argentine,and early position of the United States before the outbreak of the Falklands war.The second part is the main part of the thesis, including the second, third and fourth chapters,aimed at phasing out the United States' policy formation process on the Falklands during the war. The second chapter introduces the first phase of the American intervention,at which the United States gradually shifted from neutral mediation to supporting the United Kingdom. Since Argentina occupied the island, the United States plunged into a dilemma. In order to maintain the relationships with both countries,Reagan sent Secretary of State Haig to mediate as well as to ease the contradictions between the two allies. However, the mediations of Haig was unsuccessful. Owing to factors which include the emotional tendencies of the Haig, the Department of Defense's support for Britain, the hardline attitude of both sides and the influence of media, the mediations failed. Since then, the United States adjusted its policy to support the UK.Chapter 3 deals with the second phase of the US involvement, which is the stage of American further control of the conflict. After the United States publicly announced its support for the United Kingdoms, the US Department of Defense increased support for the British, trying to help the British win quickly. At this point, the department of States also provided diplomatic support for the British. Nevertheless, the State Department has not stopped seeking diplomatic channels to resolve the conflict between the two sides.On the one hand, the United States took full use of its influence on two side to mediate the Anglo-Argentine conflict through the Peruvian. On the other hand, after the failure of Peruvian mediation, with the beginning of the mediation of the United Nations, Haig began to consider a cooperation with Brazil,hoping to achieve a decent exit of Argentina before it was totally defeated, so as to ease the tension between the United States and the Latin America. However, this mediation failed to work, the British refused the proposal of United States, which was seemed that the United Kingdoms defeated the Argentina with the support of United States.In the fourth chapter, the United States was in a stage to deal with post-war relations,and its policy gradually returned to neutrality. After the war, faced with seriously damaged relations between the United States and Latin America, the United States proceed with a series of remedial measures. Before the departure of Haig,this process was quite slow. After the departure of Haig, this process greatly accelerated. As the United States finally lifted its economic sanctions against Argentina, the newly appointed Secretary of State Schultz's attitude towards Argentina was more flexible and moderate,and under his arrangements, the United States quickly lifted its military sanctions against Argentina. At the same time, in order to ease the relations between the United States and the Latin America, in the international community, Schultz once again stressed the importance of negotiations in this dispute, and that within the principle of its own, the United States would give its moderate support to Argentina and Latin American countries.With these efforts, and with the establishment of the Argentine government, the relations between the United States and Argentine returned to normal levels in the end of 1983.Chapter 5 is the third part of the thesis. The author tries to combine history and theory, and use three different models to interpret the policy of the United States in the Falklands war, to show the main factors affecting the US foreign policy making, and to explore their legacy to American diplomacy.