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27that a negotiated settlement should be reached. The problem was that theopening positions of the parties were uncompromising. The UK saidthere could be no discussions without a previous Argentineanwithdrawal. Argentina said that there could be no withdrawal without aguarantee of Argentinean sovereignty. To break the impasse, Secretaryof State Alexander Haig set off on an epic of shuttle diplomacy, flyingsome 14,000 miles in twelve days as he pursued the Holy Grail of apeaceful solution in London, Buenos Aires and Washington. It wasexhausting, exasperating, and, despite quite amazing persistence on hispart, he got nowhere. Mrs Thatcher was implacable. The Argentineanforces had to withdraw and the long-term wishes of the FalklandIslanders were paramount. Britain could and would recover the islandsby force if it came to it. She still believed that the junta would back downrather than fight. The junta, however, was irrevocably committed. Theycould not back down and survive. They had also convinced themselvesthat Britain was a soft-hearted democracy and that the British people hadno stomach for a fight. Haig told them flatly, several times, that theBritish would go through with it and that Argentina would lose. Galtieritold him he was wrong, and Admiral Anaya went so far as to call him aliar.In the midst of the gathering gloom, there were lighter moments. Haigkept everyone informed about how things were going, and there weretimes when it was obvious from the messages we were getting in theBritish Embassy that he was having difficulty in damping down his wellknown short fuse. Once he went so far as to say that he might makebetter progress if he ever got to Galtieri when he was sober. Anothertime his genuine astonishment at the government in Buenos Aires cameout. He said that it was impossible to see how the system worked, sincethere appeared to be at least a thousand decision makers. He would getGaltieri or Costa Mendes to agree to something, only to have somecolonel appear on the scene an hour later and say that it wasunacceptable. Faced with the very real tragedy of a comic operagovernment, Haig finally folded his tent and went home, where he toldthe President that armed conflict was inevitable and that the US shouldback Britain. Later, on 30 April, President Reagan imposed sanctions onArgentina and formally offered material aid to the UK, therebyregularising what was already an established fact.I will leave aside the dissenting voices also being heard by the