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You are wrong here [1], Thatcher threatened Mitterrand to nuke Buenos Aires if he doesn't give her codes to Exocet missiles sold by French to Argentinians earli

You are wrong here [1], Thatcher threatened Mitterrand to nuke Buenos Aires if he doesn't give her codes to Exocet missiles sold by French to Argentinians earlier. Just to be clear - she was stating she happily kills hundreds of thousands of civilians in a horrible way just because 20 Navy sailors died during war (personally I think its pretty clear she was bluffing, but maybe Mitterrand knew something on her that made him bulge). Calling her 'Iron lady' is insult to all proper ladies of this world [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/nov/22/books.france https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/nov/22/books.france

simonh 8y ago
I'd recommend not simply uncritically believing everything you read. As far as I can tell this is a complete fiction invented by a dodgy French psychoanalyst to spice up his me-too biography of Mitterrand. French support for us during the conflict was immediate, extensive and un-stinting, far beyond what you could coerce with such a transparently ridiculous threat. Furthermore the account in his book doesn't even match the actual sequence of events. French co-operation with us began immediately, not after the destruction of the Sheffield many months into the conflict. Furthermore missiles like the Exocet don't have 'codes' you can use to remotely disable them. Why would they? There's also no evidence the UK ever had or used anything like that. The whole thing is poppycock from start to finish.
- tropo 8y ago
  They would have a remote disable ability because the advanced nation making them is hesitant to fully trust the less-advanced nation buying them. You should assume that every weapons system that is on the international market has such codes. The F-22 wasn't sold on the international market, so it wouldn't have them, but the F-35 is being sold internationally. Every weapons supplier will do this. Buying surface-to-air missiles from Russia means that the buyer can shoot down all non-Russian planes.
  - simonh 8y ago
    I'm not aware of a single case of this being true. In any case, this guy's biography is so full of verifiable factual inaccuracies it can't be trusted. So if Exocet had such codes, and given that the French gave the UK full and thorough support and assistance throughout the conflict including secret intelligence information, how come so many British ships were damaged and sunk by Exocet missiles? Either the French had such codes and deliberately did not give them to us, stabbing us in the back in a way in which we would know for a fact they had done it to us, or the missiles never had such codes in the first place.
    - tropo 8y ago
      I recall the story was that the codes were turned over because some ships had been sunk. That fits. You got the codes late.

simonh 8y ago

I'd recommend not simply uncritically believing everything you read. As far as I can tell this is a complete fiction invented by a dodgy French psychoanalyst to spice up his me-too biography of Mitterrand. French support for us during the conflict was immediate, extensive and un-stinting, far beyond what you could coerce with such a transparently ridiculous threat. Furthermore the account in his book doesn't even match the actual sequence of events. French co-operation with us began immediately, not after the destruction of the Sheffield many months into the conflict. Furthermore missiles like the Exocet don't have 'codes' you can use to remotely disable them. Why would they? There's also no evidence the UK ever had or used anything like that. The whole thing is poppycock from start to finish.

tropo 8y ago
They would have a remote disable ability because the advanced nation making them is hesitant to fully trust the less-advanced nation buying them. You should assume that every weapons system that is on the international market has such codes. The F-22 wasn't sold on the international market, so it wouldn't have them, but the F-35 is being sold internationally. Every weapons supplier will do this. Buying surface-to-air missiles from Russia means that the buyer can shoot down all non-Russian planes.
- simonh 8y ago
  I'm not aware of a single case of this being true. In any case, this guy's biography is so full of verifiable factual inaccuracies it can't be trusted. So if Exocet had such codes, and given that the French gave the UK full and thorough support and assistance throughout the conflict including secret intelligence information, how come so many British ships were damaged and sunk by Exocet missiles? Either the French had such codes and deliberately did not give them to us, stabbing us in the back in a way in which we would know for a fact they had done it to us, or the missiles never had such codes in the first place.
  - tropo 8y ago
    I recall the story was that the codes were turned over because some ships had been sunk. That fits. You got the codes late.