Lid comes off Thatcher's Cold War secrets
OFFICIAL secrets from the very top of Margaret Thatcher's government can be revealed for the first time today.
A raft of previously unseen material from diplomatic cables, official letters and secret meetings from 1980 has been disclosed by the National Archives under the 30-year rule of the Official Secrets Act.
Written during the Cold War, the new material ranges from secret discussions between Britain and the US to arm the Afghan mujahidin fighters following the Soviet invasion in 1979, diplomatic fears over the "mental vitality" of Ronald Reagan, an attempt to block Sebastian Coe competing in the Moscow Olympics and the first rumblings of the MP expenses scandal which was to engulf Westminster three decades later.