On April 2 1982, Argentina’s military regime, responsible for the murder of more than 9,000 “disappeared”, invoked a 150-year old territorial claim and occupied the British-administered Falkland Islands.

Margaret Thatcher’s government had ignored the warning signs of imminent Argentine military action. But once this had taken place, prime minister Thatcher acted with extraordinary resolve in defending the right to self-determination by the 1,200 islanders who wished to be British. The biggest naval task force since the second world war, with 20,000 ground troops and naval and air personnel, was sent 8,000 miles from home. In 74 days, the islands were liberated. Twenty-five years on, it is too easy to look back on the Falklands conflict as the last battle-cry of British imperialism which, combined with the self-delusion of a corrupt military regime, turned an avoid­able diplomatic crisis into an unnecessary war over islands that had no political, strategic or economic interest.