LONDON — Margaret Thatcher, for all her reputation as a hard-liner, rebuffed appeals from U.S. President Jimmy Carter for a more demonstrative response to the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, saying it would do more harm than good, according to papers in her personal files released today.
The files cover the first eight months of Thatcher’s 11 1/2 years as prime minister, giving glimpses of her embarking on an ambitious domestic agenda to revive the economy and curb the unions, and engaging with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979.
They were made public by the Thatcher Foundation under rules that allow for keeping documents secret for 30 years.
On Nov. 14, Carter asked in a cable for “the strongest possible remonstration or action” to pressure Iran, suggesting that Britain consider reducing the number of diplomatic staff in the country.
Thatcher responded a week later that Britain had withdrawn some staff, “but we have not hitherto believed it wise to make a political point of any reduction, partly because we doubt whether the Iranians would be much impressed and partly because of the risk of retaliatory action against those remaining.”
Many of the papers go online today at the Thatcher Foundation website, , and many of them duplicate official government documents in the National Archives.
