Caspar Weinberger - a great warrior friend of Britain during the Falkands and Cold Wars - has died.
Times Online: "Caspar Weinberger, the former US Defence Secretary awarded an honourary knighthood by Margaret Thatcher for persuading Ronald Reagan to support the Falklands conflict, died [today] aged 88. His wife of 63 years, Jane, was at his bedside."
BBCi: "He joined the Reagan administration in 1981... Mr Weinberger shared with President Reagan a conviction that the Soviet Union was the biggest threat to the US and he oversaw the biggest peacetime increase in defence spending in US history... During his time in office, Mr Weinberger persuaded Congress to fund the so-called "Star Wars" programme - a system for defending the US against incoming missiles from space and by land... Mr Weinberger was also an ally of the former UK Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, promising her US support during the Falklands War with Argentina in 1982."
Here's what he had to say about Iraq
“He is saying that we should hand over power to the United Nations, ... The United Nations is totally incapable of doing any kind of job as pacifying or removing terrorism from a country like Iraq.”
When you're right, you're right.
Posted by: Henry Whitmarsh | March 29, 2006 at 11:08
Iain Dale has penned this tribute on his own blog:
"I just wanted to add my thoughts to the many in today's newspapers about the sad death of Caspar Weinberger. He was a complete Anglogphile and I suspect we still don't know the exact role he played in helping us during the Falklands War. Mrs T maintains to this day that without him we would have been scuppered. He was a staunch Reaganite and wrote a highly entertaining memoir about his time in business and politics. He wrote me a letter once. I have never seen such spidery handwriting, except on a doctor's prescription! I think his main political legacy will be his role in defending freedom during the Cold War years of the early 1980s."
Posted by: Editor | March 30, 2006 at 10:37