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Moreover, if the Argentines are attacked, they can probably count on more support, of at least the moral variety, than they have so far received from their Latin American neighbors. The Argentine generals were surprised and upset at the lack of backing they received at the United Nations Security Council immediately after their invasion, where they were condemned as aggressors. The situation would seem less clear-cut to other Latin American countries if the British started shooting in the South Atlantic. At least ten countries, including Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela, have expressed sympathy with Argentina's claim to the Falklands, even while most deplored their" neighbor's methods. British military action might make them close ranks with Argentina, although the other Latin nations are unlikely to join in any conflict.
Meanwhile, Britain too was looking for support from its allies, and finding it. At the urging of the Thatcher government, all ten members of the European Community announced an embargo against Argentina on arms and military spare parts. The Europeans also decided to impose a ban on all imports from Argentina (amounting to about $1.76 billion per year) effective this week. The British had already cut off all Argentine imports, restricted export credits and frozen Argentine assets worth about $1.5 billion. The ally upon whom Britain was counting the most, however, was the U.S. Said Sir Nicholas Henderson, Britain's Ambassador to Washington: "There is no doubt of the paramount influence of the U.S. After all, Argentina does not have very many friends in the world."
Prime Minister Thatcher had other good reasons to call for aid from the Reagan Administration. As both sides well knew, Britain has been the firmest ally of the U.S. throughout the 20th century. Whenever the U.S. has asked for similar kinds of help from its friends, Britain has given it, often at considerable cost. In recent years, the Thatcher government has joined in U.S.-sponsored trade sanctions against the Soviet Union for its invasion of Afghanistan, endorsed the U.S. call for a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics for the same reason, and vociferously criticized the martial-law crackdown in Poland. Britain supported sanctions against Iran during the U.S. embassy hostage crisis, even though British diplomats privately believed that the measures would be ineffective. Thatcher has unswervingly backed the U.S. nuclear buildup to counter increased Soviet strategic forces and is a supporter of the controversial NATO policy to place additional intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe, including cruise missiles on British soil. Says a senior official in the British Foreign Office: "We gave you our unstinted support when you needed it and have been your loyalest global ally. If you cannot give us your strong support at a moment when British sovereign territory has been invaded, there is the possibility of grave damage being done to the alliance between our two countries."
The Reagan Administration was keenly aware of Britain's desires, yet its reaction was tentative and halting. The U.S. learned of the impending invasion only 48 hours in advance, through British rather