A Very Special Relationship
WHEN THE NEW YEAR BEGAN, THE FOCUS ON DIANA DIMINISHED AS the public and the royal family faced the prospect of war in the South Atlantic between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands. On Friday, April 2, 1982, Argentine forces invaded the islands, which had been a British colony since the eighteenth century, claiming that what they called the Malvinas really belonged to them. On the grounds that British sovereign territory had been violated, Margaret Thatcher immediately ordered a military expedition to retake the islands. The Queen wholeheartedly supported her prime minister’s action, not only in her role as monarch of the invaded country, but as head of the Commonwealth.
She was also in the unusual position of considering whether her twenty-two-year-old son, Andrew, second in line to the throne, should be deployed into the war zone. In his brusque manner Andrew resembled his father, whose path he had followed to Gordonstoun. Unlike Charles, Andrew’s more macho personality adapted easily to the rigors of the school. He spent six months in an exchange program at Lakefield College in Ontario, Canada, but on his graduation from Gordonstoun in 1979 he skipped university and went directly into the Royal Navy after training at Dartmouth like his father. By the time of the Falklands War, Andrew was a fully accredited helicopter pilot.
The government expressed concern about the dangers of combat, but when Andrew insisted he go with his squadron on the HMS
The war resulted in 255 British and 650 Argentine deaths before Argentina surrendered on June 14. Andrew was never involved in direct combat, although he flew a Sea King helicopter in a number of diversionary actions, transported troops, and conducted search and rescue operations—any of which could have put him in harm’s way. He lost friends and colleagues, and once was on deck when Exocet missiles were fired at the ship. “I definitely went there a boy and came back a man,” he said.
Margaret Thatcher’s decisiveness in prosecuting the Falklands War greatly enhanced her image as “the Iron Lady” and Britain’s reputation as a muscular and effective military power a quarter century after the Suez debacle. “We have ceased to be a nation in retreat,” she said. Her staunch ally in the fight was Ronald Reagan, whose administration imposed economic sanctions on Argentina and supplied intelligence and key military equipment to the British forces, at the risk of alienating allies in South America. The bond between the two leaders, who had strong personal and ideological affinities, brought the British-American “special relationship” to its highest point since Churchill’s time as prime minister. The Queen later rewarded Reagan and his secretary of defense, Caspar Weinberger, by investing them as honorary Knights Commander of the British Empire.
As it happened, President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, were scheduled to stay with the Queen and Prince Philip that June, an invitation that had come the previous July when the first lady was in London for the royal wedding. It was not a state visit arranged by the government. Rather, the Reagans were personal guests of the Queen for a “quiet two days between summit meetings” in France and Germany, and they were the first American presidential couple to stay overnight at Windsor Castle. The most anticipated element of the trip was a ride on horseback by the Queen and the president, the result of numerous meetings in Washington and London that began early in the year. British ambassador Nicholas Henderson noted that Reagan’s key image maker, deputy chief of staff Michael Deaver, “invariably lit up at the prospect” of the ride. “Carter couldn’t have done a thing like that,” said Deaver. “Think of the photo opportunity.”
Reagan’s predecessor, Jimmy Carter, had met the Queen only twice, during her stop in Washington for the Bicentennial, and on his inaugural foreign trip as president to “the first country that I have visited outside my own” on May 5, 1977. He was in England for economic and foreign policy meetings, followed by a black-tie dinner for NATO leaders at Buckingham Palace. When Carter (wearing a bow tie three times the size of Philip’s) greeted the Queen’s seventy-six-year-old mother, he tried to flatter her by comparing her to his own beloved mother, “Miz Lillian,” and in a burst of enthusiasm kissed her on the lips. “I took a sharp step backwards,” the Queen Mother recalled, “not quite far enough.” She commented afterward that she hadn’t been kissed that way since the death of her husband twenty-five years earlier.
Ronald and Nancy Reagan arrived at Windsor Castle by helicopter on Monday, June 7, 1982. They were assigned the seven-room suite 240 in the Lancaster Tower—two bedrooms, two dressing rooms, two bathrooms, and a main sitting room with portraits of the Queen’s ancestors by Hans Holbein—all with the sweeping view of the Long Walk. The Queen had arranged for a dedicated White House telephone line, as well as the installation of the first shower in Windsor Castle because her advisers were told “that was what he needed.”
In the afternoon the royal couple took the Reagans on a tour of the gardens, and in the evening, the president and first lady, along with top officials and their spouses staying at the castle—Michael Deaver, Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Chief of Staff James Baker, and National Security Adviser William Clark—joined the royal family for a private black-tie dinner in the Crimson Room, the small dining room in the private apartments, preceded by drinks in the Green Drawing Room.
“We had the feeling we had come into a family dinner,” said Carolyn Deaver. “They banter effortlessly in front of a stranger. They sort of make you feel a part, but you never are.” Princess Anne and Mark Phillips were on hand, along with Charles and Diana, eight months pregnant and visibly miserable. “She was wearing a red dress and she had her head down,” said Carolyn Deaver. “She was seated toward the end of the table and talked only a little to the people on either side.”
The next morning Elizabeth II and Philip invited the Reagans to breakfast on a small terrace outside their bedroom. “It was surprisingly informal,” Nancy Reagan recalled. “We had to walk through their bedroom, and lined up on a table were boxes of cereal. I said to Prince Charles, ‘What do I do?’ He said, ‘Just help yourself.’ It wasn’t anything like what I had imagined.”
At 9:30 it was time for the much heralded ride. The fifty-six-year-old Queen rode Burmese and wore tan jodhpurs, a checked woolen jacket, beige gloves, and a head scarf. The seventy-one-year-old president sported an open-collared shirt and light tweed jacket. He rode an eight-year-old stallion named Centennial and used an English saddle, “bobbing when he should have remained still.” Neither of them wore a hard hat, which caused predictable criticism.
Before they headed into the mist of the 655-acre Home Park, Reagan joked with the swarm of 150 reporters shouting questions from behind a barrier. “Does it ride well?” yelled one. “Yes,” replied Reagan with a grin. “If you stand still I’ll take it over the top.” The Queen, who never responds to such queries, glared, pulled at her reins, and trotted off, prompting Reagan to hastily catch up. They were followed by two of the Queen’s equerries, two security men on horseback, and a Range Rover filled with Secret Service agents and British protection officers. Nancy Reagan rode in a four-in-hand carriage driven by Philip, who took her on her own tour around the park. Philip, who had given up polo in 1971 because of arthritis, had become a champion in competitive carriage driving marathons, and offered the first lady a running commentary on the finer points of the sport as well as the surrounding scenery.
For an hour, Elizabeth II and Reagan walked, trotted, and cantered on their eight-mile ride, stopping once to greet farmers in the middle of a field of cattle. As they followed a canal adjacent to the Thames, Reagan was waving so much to onlookers that the Queen worried he might ride straight into the water, and at one point took his reins and led his horse in the right direction. They finished at the top of Long Walk in Windsor Great Park, where protection agents lurked behind nearly every tree and bush, and reporters again shouted questions, prompting another flash of displeasure from the Queen when the president stopped to chat. He described her as “charming” and “down-to-earth,” and observed that “she was in charge of that animal!”
Several hours later, Reagan praised Britain’s Falklands campaign during a televised speech before both houses of Parliament, the first American president given that privilege. The Queen busied herself at Windsor with her boxes in her private sitting room. Carolyn Deaver spent the afternoon touring the castle, wandering along the Grand Corridor and marveling at the Canalettos. “Are you enjoying yourself?” piped a familiar voice from one of the doorways. “These paintings are just beautiful,” the wide-eyed guest replied. “Take your time,” said the Queen. “I’m glad you are enjoying it.”
