Galtieri leads from the front.

J.D.Ward

Donor
What happens, particularly as regards Argentine morale, if General Galtieri takes personal command of Argentine troops in the Falklands in 1982?

[Ignore for the moment that this would probably require possession by ASB.]

What are the effects of the President broadcasting to the nation and the world "live from the Malvinas"? At the very least an offer of safe conduct to Margaret Thatcher to meet him face to face at Puerto Argentino (the Argentine name for Port Stanley) to discuss outstanding matters of dispute would be an interesting diplomatic move.

What are the consequences if Galtieri is either killed or captured by British troops? If captured, I assume that he would be put on trial for war crimes.

Any ideas about this?
 
He has sovereign immunity as President, which in 1982 was considered pretty much inviolate.

In any case, he hasn't committed any war crimes against the British, and they aren't going to try him for throwing nuns out of helicopters in the dirty war - that's an internal argentine matter.

Oh, and the Argentines probably lose even worse, with a drunk in personal command.
 
Well at the very least they wouldn't of run the occupation in such a half-arsed manner. From what I can remember the troops on the islands weren't all that well supplied and a large number of them were conscripts who were poorly trained and treated like dirt by some of their officers who were professional soldiers.
 
What happens, particularly as regards Argentine morale, if General Galtieri takes personal command of Argentine troops in the Falklands in 1982?

[Ignore for the moment that this would probably require possession by ASB.]

What are the effects of the President broadcasting to the nation and the world "live from the Malvinas"? At the very least an offer of safe conduct to Margaret Thatcher to meet him face to face at Puerto Argentino (the Argentine name for Port Stanley) to discuss outstanding matters of dispute would be an interesting diplomatic move.

What are the consequences if Galtieri is either killed or captured by British troops? If captured, I assume that he would be put on trial for war crimes.

Any ideas about this?
Well, at first glance one might assume Galtieri might benefit from a rise in popularity but, then again, the people was already very pissed off at the junta anyway so it shouldn't affect much. Galtieri was a lousy general and an even lousier diplomat, so his presence in the islands isn't changing much anyway. He might even leave the islands when the shooting starts.
In short, I don't think things would really change.

For the record, no war crimes were committed by Argentinean troops and, unfortunately, starting a war isn't considered a crime. Galtieri was put on trial and convicted in Argentina for "incompetence at leading war" by a military court.
 
Maybe he'll die in battle and be considered a martyr and the Argentines complain about the Falklands even more in the intervening 20 years.
 
See the first two indictments at the Nuremburg Trials:

"

  1. Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace
  2. Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace
"

Those are classified as crimes against humanity, alongside other forms of nastiness such as genocide.

War crimes are any conduct that is contrary to the established laws & customs of warfare, such as but not necessarily limited to those codified in the assorted Hague & Geneva conventions. Things as varied as the murder or other mistreatment of POWs, the use of weapons banned as excessively inhumane such as dum-dum bullets, intentionally firing on protected places such as hospitals, acts of treachery & perfidy on the battlefield (e.g. using false surrenders, or abusing protective symbols like the Red Cross to lure ones opponent into an ambush), massacres of civilians, fighting in enemy uniform, and just being an unlawful combatant all fall under the umbrella of war crimes
 
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