'Iron Lady' Was a Great Leader

To the editors:

Simon DeDeo's op-ed savaging Margaret Thatcher's legacy ("The Darker Side of the Iron Lady," Oct. 28) is sadly misinformed. First, in the case of the Falklands War, Thatcher was responding to an invasion of sovereign British territory, territory whose inhabitants despised the invaders. While the eventual liberation of the islands might not have made "economic sense" as DeDeo points out, there was still a moral imperative to act decisively in the face of Argentinian aggression.

Second, Thatcher might have launched a war on the Irish Republican Army, but it was under her government that Britain and Ireland first made joint efforts to make peace in Northern Ireland. Finally, DeDeo presents Thatcher's confrontation with Arthur Scargill's coal unions as economically disruptive--never mind that the 1980s were on the whole a boom-time for the English economy. Thatcher's actions against the overpowerful unions were actually key to the restructuring of Britain that went on during her tenure.

From her role in the end of the Cold War to her somewhat ruthless reform of the welfare state, Thatcher was a truly remarkable leader. That all of Harvard does not recognize this is indicative of the Leftist Lite mush which permeates our College. CABOT HENDERSON '00   Oct. 28, 1998

The writer is business manager of the Salient.