CIA
Files
Secret CIA
documents show the US had plans to either give the Falkland Islands
to Argentina and repatriate the islanders to Scotland or allow them
become Argentine citizens because the spy agency thought the UK would
lose the 1982 war.
The papers,
called ‘Solution to the Falkland Islands crisis,’ appear to the
show the intelligence agency felt the UK had seriously underestimated
the capabilities of the Argentine military when the two countries
fought a short but savage war over the South Atlantic archipelago.
The
documents comprise just a few pages of 12 million formerly-classified
internal papers published by the CIA this week.
The
Falklands plan was written by Henry Rowen, then head of the National
Intelligence Council. “For a period of three years the
inhabitants of the Falkland Islands will be given a chance to
consider whether they wish to remain on the Falkland Islands or
whether they wish to relocate to an area of British jurisdiction,
either in the UK or elsewhere under British sovereignty, with a
relocation grant of $100,000 per person,” he said. He said it
was probable “that many residents will find this sufficient
inducement to relocate to some other area, perhaps in Scotland or
elsewhere where conditions may be similar to the Falkland Islands.”
Rowen said
that any citizen who did not wish to leave “will be free to
remain and become Argentinian citizens at the end of three years.”
“The
cost of the relocation grants to be paid to any residents of the
Falkland Islands wishing to relocate elsewhere will be borne
fifty/fifty by the Argentinian and British governments,” he
added.
In the end
the British won the Islands back at a combined cost of 907 British,
Argentine and Falklands Islander lives.
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