Malta - The Cold War’s Mediterranean Hotspot : Britain’s Escape 1971-1979

‘You can stay if you want to, we’re pulling out and pulling out fast’, said British prime minister Ted Heath to Italian premier Emilio Columbo in January 1972\. He had just ordered an emergency withdrawal operation when renegotiations over Britain’s continued 180-year-old presence in Malta collapsed and its socialist, table-thumping prime minister, Dom Mintoff, threatened measures against 3,500 service people and their families.Dom Mintoff’s election victory in June 1971 changed Cold War dynamics in the Western Mediterranean. It risked handing over the island, a strategic choke point, to the Soviet Union, threatening Italy, Nato’s exposed southern flank, and the US Sixth Fleet.President Richard Nixon was paranoid about losing Malta and his government was already secretly funding Italian political parties to stop a socialist or communist government winning power in Rome. Italy – in complete political turmoil – was likewise obsessed, and Libya’s young and unpredictable Colonel Muammar Gaddafi offered oil money to help oust Britain. Nato looked to be in disarray.Heath wanted out because Malta no longer served Britain’s national interests. But he wanted to withdraw from this strategically placed island without precipitating US withdrawal from Nato and Europe. Mintoff refused to allow any replacement, giving Britain a terrible headache of how to leave without opening the door to Russia, and without surrendering to Mintoff’s outlandish demands.Tension mounted: Libya shipped in men with boxes, Mintoff threatened violence, Heath trebled all the guards in a massive evacuation as the story unfolded, involving spies, Nato, the Vatican, Washington and other curious characters. Nato caved in to Mintoff while Heath stood firm. A second crunch point came when Britain, then under Harold Wilson, decided under the 1975 defence review to keep the Chagos islands and Cyprus but relinquish Malta.Then came the 1979 finale with prime minister James Callaghan desperate to depart Malta and escape from Mintoff’s money grabbing hands, finally leaving the island as Gaddafi arrived with 500 heavies. This book corrects the ‘myth’ of a highly colourful socialist leader kicking out a colonial power, to one of a Britain anxious to leave Malta and pass over responsibility to NATO or any other western power.