# Is this plausible as a 1990s misconception in the US? (1985 Rainbow Warrior sinking) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 14, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-plausible-as-a-1990s-misconception-in-the-us-1985-rainbow-warrior-sinking/294524 "2005-03-14T21:39:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-plausible-as-a-1990s-misconception-in-the-us-1985-rainbow-warrior-sinking/294524/1 "2005-03-14T21:39:43Z")
From an article in [New Scientist](http://www.newscientist.com/), 5 March 2005 issue, by Jeremy Leggett > [@](#): > > … > WHEN I visited America during my time working for Greenpeace International in the 1990s, time and again people would say to me “we really don’t approve of the way your organisation blew up that French ship”, or words to that effect. It happened once at the end of a meeting with a lawyer in Philadelphia. He was defending Lloyds of London against a suit filed by Exxon after the Valdez oil spill. He wanted to thank me kindly for all the excellent free technical information I had furnished him with in support of his defence, but he really hadn’t enjoyed having to talk to me because my people had murdered somebody in New Zealand. > … ([Beginning of the article](http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18524891.600) - this freee portion fortuitously has most of the text on the claim that at least part of the US public got the part about who blew up whom in the [Rainbow Warrior affair](http://www.kauricoast.co.nz/Feature.cfm?WPID=70) wrong.) The author goes on to state that he did not encounter this misconception in other countries. Is this plausible? Was/is Greenpace portrayed in a significant part of the US media in a light that made people believe they’d resort to laying bombs? ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-plausible-as-a-1990s-misconception-in-the-us-1985-rainbow-warrior-sinking/294524/2 "2005-03-14T22:01:01Z")
> [@tschild](#): > > Is this plausible? Was/is Greenpace portrayed in a significant part of the US media in a light that made people believe they’d resort to laying bombs? I think it was fairly clear that it was the French who blew up a Greenpeace ship and not the other way around. I can’t recall a single instance of the American media getting it wrong. I did some online searches of major newspapers and didn’t see any evidence there either. I was never active in Greenpeace, but I was a donor during the 80s, so I think I would have been well aware if Greenpeace were being portrayed as a quasi-terrorist organization. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-plausible-as-a-1990s-misconception-in-the-us-1985-rainbow-warrior-sinking/294524/3 "2005-03-14T23:15:38Z")
I, who have no actual interest in Greenpeace aside from what I view is millet-headed ideology, am fairly sure I recall the French driving over their little boat, not the other way around. For all the good it didn’t do them. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-plausible-as-a-1990s-misconception-in-the-us-1985-rainbow-warrior-sinking/294524/4 "2005-03-15T00:35:50Z")
This is not the first time I’ve read of that kind of exchange, in almost those exact words. I can say, for myself, that there’s been enough other anti-Greenpeace propaganda in the USA that the memory of tension between France & Greenpeace gets scrambled into the idea of hostility on both sides. And given certain typical American attitudes, one may reconstruct it mentally as being primarily on the side without legal authority. After all, surely the government of France has better things to do? No, we think, it must have been those radicals! There is a weird idea that Greenpeace is “awfully extreme” in many minds. Of course, I live in a GOP-dominated corner of the central USA; YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-plausible-as-a-1990s-misconception-in-the-us-1985-rainbow-warrior-sinking/294524/5 "2005-03-15T21:10:02Z")
I don’t know–when I was in college the martyred Rainbow Warrior and the guy who got killed by the French government was pretty common knowledge, and gave an aura of heroism to Greenpeace that I think they’ve sort of lost now. But I’ve never heard an American make that mistake–indeed, I’ve heard the sinking cited in anti-French remarks. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-plausible-as-a-1990s-misconception-in-the-us-1985-rainbow-warrior-sinking/294524/6 "2005-03-15T22:22:45Z")
I find it somewhat difficult to believe that of all the countries in the world where such confusion might be likely, it would be the one where hysterical anti-French sentiments are the most common. I have seen many online discussions of the matter, many articles about the incident, and never come across this misconception before. I find Mr. Leggett’s claim to be extremely dubious. Truth be told, I doubt most people remember the incident at all. I’d bet dollars to donuts if I asked fifty random acquaintances “Who sank the Rainbow Warrior,” 5 would know the answer, 15 would know only with some more reminding, 30 wouldn’t know what the hell I was talking about, and 0 would think Greenpeace sank a French ship. After all, why would a French ship have an English name? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-plausible-as-a-1990s-misconception-in-the-us-1985-rainbow-warrior-sinking/294524/7 "2005-03-15T22:29:24Z")
I’d suggest that the OP notes that Mr Liggett used to work for Greenpeace and grab a handful of salt. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-plausible-as-a-1990s-misconception-in-the-us-1985-rainbow-warrior-sinking/294524/8 "2005-03-15T22:38:45Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I find it somewhat difficult to believe that of all the countries in the world where such confusion might be likely, it would be the one where hysterical anti-French sentiments are the most common. I have also never heard this version of the story and would suggest that **Quartz** ’ suggestion for a sodium chloride treatment is a good one. I will note, though, that among those with such anti-French sentiments there is a number who might conflate the details of the incident in disbelief that the French would or even could engage in a successful military operation. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-plausible-as-a-1990s-misconception-in-the-us-1985-rainbow-warrior-sinking/294524/9 "2005-03-15T23:02:03Z")
I’m not sure sinking an unarmed boat in a civilian harbour is a “military operation.” ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-plausible-as-a-1990s-misconception-in-the-us-1985-rainbow-warrior-sinking/294524/10 "2005-03-16T00:15:33Z")
You could argue that it wasn’t a _successful_ operation because they got found out and it was a big embarassment for the French government (IIRC).