Although the ‘Reagan-Thatcher axis’ would be the most enduring personal alliance in the western world throughout the 1980s, Britain entered the Falklands alone. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was bent upon defending the 1,800 islanders, people of British ‘tradition and stock’ who were now controlled by a foreign power. She dismissed advice from officials like Defence Secretary John Nott, who believed that Britain’s largest remaining colony could not be re-taken. She assembled a task force in order to fight a war 8,000 miles from Britain’s shores. On 5 April the first battle ships and aircraft carriers set sail. Americans diplomats watched with interest, believing their militarily inferior ally would quickly lose.