Downing Street Years - Margaret Thatcher [275]
I have no illusion that these actions will eliminate entirely the terrorist threat. But it will show that officially sponsored terrorist actions by a government — such as Libya has repeatedly perpetrated — will not be without cost. The loss of such state sponsorship will inevitably weaken the ability of terrorist organizations to carry out their criminal attacks even as we work through diplomatic, political, and economic channels to alleviate the more fundamental causes of such terrorism.
I read and reread the President’s message. He was clearly determined to go ahead.
The more I considered the matter the clearer the justification for America’s approach to Libya seemed. The phenomenon of the terrorist state which projects violence against its enemies across the globe, using surrogates wherever possible, is one which earlier generations never confronted. The means required to crush this kind of threat to world order and peace are bound to be different too. There was no doubt of Gaddafi’s culpability. Nor when the most powerful country in the free world decided to act against him must there be any doubt where Britain stood. Whatever the cost to me, I knew that the cost to Britain of not backing American action was unthinkable. If the United States was abandoned by its closest ally the American people and their Government would feel bitterly betrayed — and reasonably so. From this point on, my efforts were directed not at trying to hold America back but to giving her Britain’s full support, both as regards use of bases and in justifying its action against what I knew would be a storm of opposition in Britain and Europe. This did not mean, however, that I would go along with every American suggestion. It remained vital that the air strikes be limited to clearly defined targets and that the action as a whole could be justified on grounds of self-defence.
The first task next day was to convince my colleagues of what needed to be done. Geoffrey Howe was against the American action, but once the decision had been made to support it he defended the line staunchly in public. George Younger supported it from the first.
That afternoon I sent a further message to President Reagan. I pledged ‘our unqualified support for action directed against specific Libyan targets demonstrably involved in the conduct and support of terrorist activities’. I pledged support for the use of US aircraft from their bases in the UK, as long as that criterion was met. But I questioned some of the proposed targets and warned that if there ensued more wide-ranging action the Americans should recognize that even those most keen to give them all possible support would then find themselves in a difficult position.
It is all but impossible to keep anything secret in Washington, which was now awash with rumours of US preparations for military action against Libya. This did not make it any easier to maintain a discreet silence about our own attitude. At one point on Friday it seemed that the US was not intending to use the F1 — 11S based in Britain, which would of course have substantially eased our predicament. But later in the evening it appeared that they would indeed wish to do so. Later still I received a message from President Reagan thanking me for our offer of co-operation and confirming that the targets would be