Downing Street Years - Margaret Thatcher [206]
By contrast, American intervention in Grenada was, in fact, a success. Democracy was restored, to the advantage not only of the islanders themselves but also of their neighbours who could look forward to a more secure and prosperous future. No one would weep any tears over the fate of the Marxist thugs whom the Americans had dislodged. Yet even governments acting on the best of motives are wise to respect legal forms. Above all, democracies have to show their superiority to totalitarian governments which know no law. Admittedly, the law on these matters is by no means clear, as was confirmed for me during a seminar I held after the Grenada affair to consider the legal basis for military intervention in another country. Indeed, to my surprise, I found that the lawyers at the seminar were more inclined to argue on grounds of realpolitik and the politicians were more concerned with the issue of legitimacy. My own instinct was — and is — always to found military action on the right of self-defence, which ultimately no outside body has the authority to question.
THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL AT ATHENS
Grenada was still very much on my mind when I went to Bonn for one of my regular Anglo-German summits with Chancellor Kohl on Tuesday 8 November. Like me, Chancellor Kohl was worried about the impact of the American action on European public opinion in the run-up to the deployment of Cruise and Pershing missiles later that month. The West German Government had originally been very critical of the Grenada operation but had since toned this down. Helmut Kohl was showing a good deal of courage as well as political cunning in handling West German public opinion at this crucial time, and I admired him for it.
The main purpose of my visit, however, was to seek German support for the line I would take at the European Council in Athens, now just a few weeks away. So Athens was the principal topic of my discussion with him, in which we were later joined by Geoffrey Howe and the German Foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher. I began by making what I hoped would be the welcome suggestion that the next President of the European Commission should come from Germany, if the German Government wished to put forward a candidate. As I had rather expected, it appeared that they did not. Chancellor Kohl said that he agreed with me that the Commission was too big and tended to create unnecessary work. Then a little more diplomacy: I said that our aim was to build on the excellent foundation laid under the German presidency. After this we got down to business. I stressed the need for firm control of spending on the CAP if there was to be anything left of the Community’ ‘own resources’ for other purposes, such as the development of the electronics industry, which the Germans wanted. I also warned against allowing growing protectionism to create another area of disagreement with the United States. The Germans were most interested in the future level of MC As,* which affected German farmers’ incomes, and the steel industry where they considered that they were receiving a raw deal and that the Italians were using subsidies to undercut German producers. I hoped that at the end of this discussion each side had understood the areas on which we would stand firm and those where compromise was possible. In particular, I hoped that the Germans realized how serious I was about achieving my objectives on the budget question at Athens.
As usual before European Councils I held a number of preparatory meetings with ministers and officials. This was partly to ensure that I was thoroughly briefed, but also to sort out with colleagues our precise objective on each issue. It was not enough to decide what was ideal for us: I had also to establish and fully master the least bad alternatives. All too often the ideal was not attainable.
In the meetings for Athens on the budget question both Nigel Lawson and I felt that we had to be really tough in pressing for the required package if there were to be any question of our agreeing to an increase in the Community’