Margaret Thatcher Dies at 87 Margaret Thatcher the

“Margaret Thatcher Dies at 87”

Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” of British politics, who set her country on a rightward economic course and helped guide the United States and the Soviet Union through the cold war’s difficult last years, died of a stroke on Monday in London. She was 87. Mrs. Thatcher was the first woman to become prime minister of Britain and the first to lead a major Western power in modern times. Hard-driving and hardheaded, she led her Conservative Party to three straight election wins and held office for 11 years — May 1979 to November 1990 — longer than any other British politician in the 20 th century. A statement from the White House said that “the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend. ”

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