Someone made this claim in another subreddit and I find it suspicious, do you (historians), have any opinion/information about the credibility of this claim ?
Here is the source of the claim: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/nov/22/books.france
If you have anything about the story of the technical team repairing the launchers (here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17256975 ) I am interested as well.
More generally, any information/clarification about the specificities/extent of the collaboration of France with the UK during the Falkland war is welcome as well.
The idea of using nuclear weapons over the Falklands is ridiculous. Britain was reluctant enough to fight the war in the first place, and international support was very shaky. The use of nuclear weapons - on what exactly? - would have been hugely disproportionate and turned public opinion against the war and international opinion massively against the UK.
The source still might be correct, but if so this has to be seen as a deliberate exaggeration by Thatcher, and probably passed on by Mitterand just to show how stubborn she was.
Even the idea that exocets had some kind of code to "deactivate" them is open to question - see this thread.
In approaching this kind of source, would it be reasonable to infer that Mitterand would have good reason to embellish his claim, or would that have to be found in a source first?