Argentina planned for occupation, not a naval war with Britain

Economic crisis and dictatorship encouraged Argentina's leaders to seek an external cause, while their strategic assumptions minimized British resolve and the importance of the US-UK relationship. They expected Washington to value Argentina more highly than a nuclear-armed NATO ally and assumed Britain would accept a fait accompli. The invasion overwhelmed the small Royal Marines detachment but converted a dispute that might still have been negotiated into a war Britain was politically compelled to fight. The British response therefore forced Argentina to improvise a naval battle it had not expected to conduct.