Britain the Very Best of Friends

By James Kelly

She gladly claims that no one admires Ronald Reagan more than she does. "I'm his greatest fan," Margaret Thatcher has said. For his part, Reagan has never hidden his glowing respect for the Conservative British leader. So it came as no surprise that Thatcher and Reagan behaved like a two-person mutual admiration society during the Prime Minister's two-day visit to Washington last week, lavishing each other with high praise and champagne toasts. The British leader also enjoyed an ebullient welcome on Capitol Hill when she addressed a joint meeting of the Congress. Small wonder that Thatcher, as one aide put it, "just likes coming to America."

Leaving Britain behind, if only for a couple of days, might also have contributed to Thatcher's sunny mood. Ten years after she became head of her country's Conservative Party and nearly six years since she assumed the post ! of Prime Minister, Thatcher faces a daunting array of problems. Britain's unemployment rate of 13.9% is the country's highest since the Depression. The pound, worth $1.44 a year ago (and $2 in 1981), sank to $1.07 last week. A miners' strike, which has cost the country an estimated $3.8 billion and divided the nation, will go into its second year in March; a carefully crafted settlement fell apart while Thatcher was in the U.S.

Although her government recaptured the offensive last week in a nasty parliamentary squabble over the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands war, questions linger about the timing and motives behind the attack. The latest survey by Britain's respected MORI poll puts the Labor Party even with the Conservatives at 37%, the Tories' lowest ebb in three years.

The high point of Thatcher's visit was her speech before Congress. The last British Prime Minister so honored was Winston Churchill in 1952. Dressed in a black suit and flowered blouse, Thatcher received a two-minute standing ovation as she stepped onto the podium. After noting that Churchill had enjoyed a "special advantage" because his American mother had given him "ties of blood with you," Thatcher drew laughter by dryly adding, "Alas for me, these are not matters we can readily arrange for ourselves."

Thatcher then delivered what amounted to a valentine to U.S.-British relations. Her voice at times schoolmarmish but her delivery well modulated, the Prime Minister glossed over the battering of the British pound by the strong dollar, noting that "it is a marvelous time for Americans not only to visit Britain but to invest with us." On East-West relations, Thatcher insisted that the goal of the Soviet Union remained "the total triumph of socialism all over the world."

The Prime Minister gave a qualified blessing to the Reagan Administration's Strategic Defense Initiative, the so-called Star Wars space-based missile defense plan, which the Soviets have angrily denounced. But Thatcher limited her support of the controversial scheme to research, not to actual testing and deployment. According to close aides, the Prime Minister has serious doubts about the scientific feasibility and strategic logic of Star Wars. She cautioned that the Soviets might attempt to use the arms-control talks in Geneva, scheduled to begin March 12, "to sow differences among us." Said Thatcher: "Let us be under no illusions. It is our strength, not their good will, that has brought the Soviet Union to the negotiating table in Geneva."

Thatcher's voice took on a harder edge as she attacked the terrorist tactics of the Irish Republican Army. Without referring directly to her own close call last Oct. 12, when an I.R.A. bomb ripped through the Brighton hotel where she was staying, the British leader warned that Americans should not "be misled into making contributions to seemingly innocuous groups," an obvious reference to the Irish Northern Aid Committee (NORAID), a U.S. organization with suspected links to the I.R.A.

Afterward, the Prime Minister lunched at the White House with Reagan. The two friends discussed a range of issues, including the prickly matter of the robust dollar and the weakening pound. But Thatcher refrained from asking Reagan to adopt measures that could remedy what the British view as a crippling exchange rate. "Thatcher knows there isn't that much we can do," said White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan. "The dollar has hurt the pound, but it has also helped British exports."

The British leader continued to act like a personal cheerleader for the President at her final press conference. Thatcher expressed her displeasure at New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange's decision a month ago to refuse port access to U.S. ships that might be carrying nuclear weapons. Lange's announcement has prompted the Reagan Administration to review its ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, U.S.) defense pact for the southern Pacific. Thatcher announced that for security reasons, Great Britain, like the U.S., would continue to refuse to say whether its ships entering New Zealand ports carried nuclear weapons. "I hope (New Zealanders) would not ask whether they are carrying them," said Thatcher. "I should be very disappointed if our naval ships cannot visit New Zealand."

On Wednesday evening, Thatcher was host at a dinner at the British embassy in honor of the 200th anniversary of British-American diplomatic relations. The menu underscored the conviviality of the visit: poached salmon "Nancy," followed by filet of veal "special relationship" and raspberry mousse "Margaret." In his toast, the President mentioned the close friendships of Churchill and Roosevelt, of Harold Macmillan and John Kennedy, then said, "I'd like to add two more names to that list: Thatcher and Reagan." Thatcher broke up Reagan with several quips, including her lament that, despite sharing the same goals, she could not imitate his "wonderful American English accent, 'You ain't seen nothing yet.' " But the Prime Minister also poignantly captured the warmth between the two countries. Noting that people often asked her what the special relationship between Britain and the U.S. meant, Thatcher said she always replied, "It is special. It just is. And that's that." The clinking of glasses filled the room.

With reporting by Bonnie Angelo/London and Alessandra Stanley/Washington