Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"In the outcry that followed the sinking, a flotilla of private boats sailed from New Zealand to Mururoa Atoll and France's nuclear testing program was abandoned for 10 years, New Zealand's nuclear-free policy became strongly confirmed, and Greenpeace's popularity and profile internationally soared. It was later revealed that the French president, Françoise Mitterrand had authorized the bombing." [Furtado: 1001 Days] "Strong physical countermeasures by the authorities have often backfired, the most spectacular case of this occurring when the organization’s ship Rainbow Warrior was sunk by the French secret service in 1985 to stop it from sailing into a nuclear-testing zone in the South Pacific. Although the French government defended itself, the resulting furor, plus Greenpeace’s gathering of millions of petitions worldwide, did a great deal to drive the major powers, including France, into much less testing. No doubt it was the altered political climate between East and West that chiefly explains the coming of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1996), but it is not unreasonable to argue that a gadfly organization had played a considerable role in shifting public opinion in the first place." [Kennedy: Parliament of Man, Kindle Edition, Location 3701]