Editing Margaret Thatcher (section)

====Cold War====
Thatcher's first foreign-policy crisis came with the 1979 [[Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]]. She condemned the invasion, said it showed the bankruptcy of a [[détente]] policy and helped convince some British athletes to boycott the [[1980 Moscow Olympics]]. She gave weak support to US president Jimmy Carter who tried to punish the USSR with economic sanctions. Britain's economic situation was precarious, and most of NATO was reluctant to cut trade ties.{{sfnp|Lahey|2013}} Thatcher nevertheless gave the go-ahead for [[Whitehall]] to approve [[MI6]] (along with the SAS) to undertake [[United Kingdom in the Soviet–Afghan War|"disruptive action" in Afghanistan]].{{sfnp|Dorril|2002|p={{nowrap|{{plainlink|https://archive.org/details/mi6insidecovertw00dorr/page/752|752}} {{closed access}}}}}} As well as working with the CIA in [[Operation Cyclone]], they also supplied weapons, training and intelligence to the ''[[mujaheddin]]''.{{sfnp|Cormac|2018|pages=233–36}}

The ''[[Financial Times]]'' reported in 2011 that her government had secretly supplied [[Iraq under Saddam Hussein]] with [[British support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war|"non-lethal" military equipment since 1981]].<ref name="Thatcher Hussein secret">{{Cite web |last=Stothard |first=Michael |date=30 December 2011 |title=UK secretly supplied Saddam |url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/52add2c4-30b4-11e1-9436-00144feabdc0.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701032514/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/52add2c4-30b4-11e1-9436-00144feabdc0.html |archive-date=1 July 2016 |access-date=11 October 2015 |newspaper=Financial Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Leigh |first1=David |author-link1=David Leigh (journalist) |last2=Evans |first2=Rob |name-list-style=amp |date=27 February 2003 |title=How £1bn was lost when Thatcher propped up Saddam |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/feb/28/iraq.politics1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811011113/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/feb/28/iraq.politics1 |archive-date=11 August 2017 |access-date=2 August 2017 |work=The Guardian}}</ref>

Having withdrawn formal recognition from the [[Pol Pot regime]] in 1979,<ref>{{Cite Hansard |title=Kampuchea |house=House of Commons |date=16 May 1985 |volume=79 |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1985/may/16/kampuchea |column_start=486 |column_end=490 |access-date=22 October 2020}}</ref> the Thatcher government backed the [[Khmer Rouge]] keeping their UN seat after they were ousted from power in Cambodia by the [[Cambodian–Vietnamese War]]. Although Thatcher denied it at the time,<ref>{{Cite Hansard |title=Cambodia |house=House of Commons |date=26 October 1990 |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm198990/cmhansrd/1990-10-26/Debate-3.html |column_start=655 |column_end=667 |access-date=22 October 2020}}</ref> it was revealed in 1991 that, while not directly training any Khmer Rouge,{{sfnp|Neville|2016|p=20}} from 1983 the [[Special Air Service]] (SAS) was sent to secretly train "the armed forces of the [[Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea|Cambodian non-communist resistance]]" that remained loyal to Prince [[Norodom Sihanouk]] and his former prime minister [[Son Sann]] in the fight against the [[People's Republic of Kampuchea|Vietnamese-backed puppet regime]].<ref>{{Cite Hansard |title=Cambodia |house=House of Commons |date=22 July 1991 |volume=195 |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1991/jul/22/cambodia |column_start=863 |column_end=883 |access-date=22 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=9 January 2000 |title=Butcher of Cambodia set to expose Thatcher's role |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jan/09/cambodia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612144544/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jan/09/cambodia |archive-date=12 June 2018 |access-date=26 May 2011 |work=The Observer}}</ref>

Thatcher was one of the first Western leaders to respond warmly to reformist Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]. Following Reagan–Gorbachev summit meetings and reforms enacted by Gorbachev in the USSR, she declared in November 1988 that "[{{lcfirst:W]e're}} not in a Cold War now" but rather in a "new relationship much wider than the Cold War ever was".<ref name="reforms1988">{{Cite news |date=18 November 1988 |title=Gorbachev Policy Has Ended The Cold War, Thatcher Says |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE2DC1738F93BA25752C1A96E948260 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111173109/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/18/world/gorbachev-policy-has-ended-the-cold-war-thatcher-says.html |archive-date=11 January 2021 |access-date=30 October 2008 |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press}}</ref> She went on a state visit to the Soviet Union in 1984 and met with Gorbachev and Council of Ministers chairman [[Nikolai Ryzhkov]].{{sfnp|Zemcov|Farrar|1989|page=138}}