Riding with Queen helped swing Reagan behind Falklands War
MUCH is made of the soft power of the Queen, from her glamorous overseas tours to the promise of tea at the palace.
When it came to persuading President Ronald Reagan to back Britain during the Falklands War, the Queen had a further trick up her sleeve: horse riding.
Newly-unearthed classified documents from the Foreign Office show how the Queen’s gentle influence could have changed history, after the president made an invitation to ride with her at Windsor the top priority of his 1982 European tour.
One ambassador, emphasising its central importance to the American visit, described it as “the only absolutely stable and central item in any discussion” of the trip.
The president’s team considered it “the most photogenic event” in the entire visit, which included the G7 in France, the Nato summit in Germany and a meeting with the Pope.
Documents, uncovered via a Freedom of Information request, also shed light on the Queen’s preparation for the trip, including a Foreign Office request not to use the phrase “special relationship” in her speech.
It was, warned David Gladstone of the Western European department, “always better to avoid describing it as such if we can”. The 1982 documents have been published in
Times, a new book by Robert Hardman. They give an insight into the negotiations for the June visit, in which Britain’s most important ally travelled in person in a show of support.
“[Prime minister Margaret] Thatcher had worked very hard to bring Ronald Reagan onside in the conflict, despite the reluctance of some American strategists for whom Argentina served as a bulwark against the spread of communism in South America,” writes Hardman. Of the proposed American visit, he adds: “The emphasis was on informality, even though the Reagans’ stay would include a state banquet and an address to both Houses of Parliament.
“However, Foreign Office files reveal that President Reagan had singled out one event above all others as the most important element of the entire presidential grand tour of Europe: the prospect of riding with the Queen.”
Documents show Sir Nico Henderson, British ambassador to Washington, reporting: “The only absolutely stable and central item in any discussion of the president’s visit is this riding event.”
“Over the next few weeks,” Hardman says, “numerous confidential memos flew to and fro across the Atlantic about the president’s ideal horse, saddle and riding style, along with ideas for dinner guests at the Queen’s banquet”. The ride, which lasted an hour around the Windsor estate, went off without a hitch, “pursued by US secret service outriders in a state of near panic”.