Taking Stock of Official History, Past, Present and Future: Reflections of an Official Historian

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ABSTRACT The challenges of writing the official History of the Falklans campaign are described. There were no problems with officials insisitng on an approved interpretation of events. The main issues were connected with references to intelligence, in which the basic compromise was to show how intellgience influenced events without identifying the source. The one exception was the intelligence relevant to the sinking of the Belgrano. The value of documents compared with interviews is discussed, as well as the need to provide a full and comprefensive acocunt in a government-sponsored history. and for humility when assessing the behaviour of policy-makers who do not know how the story ends.