# Did Great Britain and Argentina ever declare war in 1982? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 14, 2006, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269 "2006-03-14T03:08:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/1 "2006-03-14T03:08:29Z")
Did the combatants in the Falklands War ever actually declare war on each other? If not, what were the domestic/foreign policy reasons why they didn’t? ---
**Author:** ![Tevildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/2 "2006-03-14T03:13:05Z")
I don’t know about Argentina, but the UK famously failed to declare war because the Foreign Office couldn’t find the piece of paper with the instructions _how_ to declare war. 🙂 Give us a couple of mins, and I’ll get a cite. ---
**Author:** ![bradministrator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a698b9/32.png) [@bradministrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradministrator)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/3 "2006-03-14T03:56:23Z")
My impression from reading about the conflict is that neither side really expected a shooting war. The Argentines invaded thinking the British would give up and cede the islands. The British sailed south thinking the Argentines would decamp and head home. The Argentines thought the British wouldn’t actually come ashore, and in fact, they had done very little preperations for defense (outside of Stanley). The whole time, the UN and the Reagan administration were both working hard to find a diplomatic solution to the whole mess. Declaring war would have locked both sides into a war that both hoped to avoid, right up until the war turned hot. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/4 "2006-03-14T06:30:04Z")
The closest might be that on 30 April 1982, the UK declared that the 200 mile maritime exclusion zone around the island was now a total exclusion zone, applicable to all ships and aircraft supporting the Argentine occupation of the Islands. On 10 May 1982, Argentina declared the entire South Atlantic to be a war zone. ---
**Author:** ![BadBadger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BadBadger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBadger)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/5 "2006-03-14T11:52:10Z")
I was trying to wrack my brains back to that time and was under the impression that the UK did declare war on Argentina. The chronology [here](http://www.falklandswar.org.uk/) makes no mention of it, and bears out was has been said before re. just declaring the exclusion zone. Would love to see the cite for the piece of paper going missing though. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/6 "2006-03-14T12:39:55Z")
The term I recall being used in the UK was that it was a ‘police action’! ---
**Author:** ![Tevildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Tevildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tevildo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/7 "2006-03-14T13:13:47Z")
> [@BadBadger](#): > > I was trying to wrack my brains back to that time and was under the impression that the UK did declare war on Argentina. The chronology [here](http://www.falklandswar.org.uk/) makes no mention of it, and bears out was has been said before re. just declaring the exclusion zone. Would love to see the cite for the piece of paper going missing though. My apologies - unable to come up with a definitive reference. ☹ To the factual issues. [Here’s](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=%2Farts%2F2002%2F03%2F12%2Fboknot12.xml) an extract from the memoirs of John Nott, Defence Secretary at the time, in which he states that the non-declaration was on the “advice” of the Foreign Office. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/8 "2006-03-14T15:25:41Z")
My memory of it all is that everyone was supposed to refer to it as a “conflict”, not a “war”. Vaguely amusing word usage, except for those who were killed or wounded. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/9 "2006-03-14T20:53:49Z")
Wow! This was a lot more bloody and involved than I remembered. See this excellent history [Falklands War - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War) ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/10 "2006-03-15T01:02:06Z")
under the United Nations Charter, anyone who declares war is automatically deemed to be an aggressor. So nobody bothers to declare war any more ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/11 "2006-03-15T01:30:46Z")
Baloney. Can you quote the chapter of the United Nations Charter that says that? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/12 "2006-03-15T08:17:02Z")
Paging **casdave**. ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/13 "2006-03-15T10:16:23Z")
Isn’t it implied in the name “Falklands War” that was was infact declared? In my mind you could only refer to something as a war if war were declared, otherwise it would be known as the “Falklands Conflict” or something similar. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/14 "2006-03-15T11:39:30Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Paging **casdave**. If you want a rant about how it was all a put-up job to get Thatcher re-elected and ruin the mining communities, page away. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/15 "2006-03-15T12:05:16Z")
> [@mittu](#): > > Isn’t it implied in the name “Falklands War” that was was infact declared? In my mind you could only refer to something as a war if war were declared, otherwise it would be known as the “Falklands Conflict” or something similar. Like the Vietnam… Conflict? ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/16 "2006-03-15T12:56:03Z")
> [@mittu](#): > > Isn’t it implied in the name “Falklands War” that was was infact declared? In my mind you could only refer to something as a war if war were declared, otherwise it would be known as the “Falklands Conflict” or something similar. Conflicts are named by the media and historians. I’ve never heard of any law saying that you can only call something a “war” if it’s a declared war. In fact, doesn’t the United Nations have a rule saying that if two nations are fighting, it’s war, no matter what they choose to call it? ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/17 "2006-03-15T13:38:12Z")
> [@Tevildo](#): > > I don’t know about Argentina, but the UK famously failed to declare war because the Foreign Office couldn’t find the piece of paper with the instructions _how_ to declare war. 🙂 This just demonstrates the value of having a Declaration of War (the Short Form) handy at all times. If only National Security Advisor Smirnoff had been there. ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/18 "2006-03-15T14:48:04Z")
Alright, I’ll kill it. “In Soviet Russia, war declares _you_!” ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/19 "2006-03-15T18:37:06Z")
All I’m going to say is that this war was needed by both parties for domestic reasons of their own, it was preventable, and had in fact been prevented on three previous occasions. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269/20 "2006-03-15T19:43:41Z")
I remember this war; in particular, I recall that it cost the UK about $4 billion. Included in this was the loss of 5 warships, a container ship, and probably more thasn 1200 lives. the Argentines lost a battlleship, a submarine, and scads of airplanes-and probably 3-4000 lives. All that for soem barren rocks. Anyway, what does the UK plan to do with the falklands? i heard that the whole colony pretty much riuns at a loss. the original purpose of the colony (coaling and ship provisioning for ships headed to the Straights of Magellan) is gone. This leaves sheep farming. Will it eventually be given to Argentina? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-great-britain-and-argentina-ever-declare-war-in-1982/348269.md?page=2)