Nixon Gives Views On N.Z. Defence

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31831, 8 November 1968, Page 12

Nixon Gives Views On N.Z. Defence

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent)

WASHINGTON, November 6.

The President-elect, Mr Richard Nixon, believes that Asian countries, and Australia and New Zealand, should play a greater role in their defence after Vietnam.

An article, which recently appeared under his name in the “American Foreign Affairs Quarterly,” is of particular significance after his election victory today.

Entitled “Asia after Vietnam,” the article says the primary restraint on China’s Asian ambitions should be exercised by the Asian nations in the path of those ambitions, backed by the ultimate power of the United States. Mr Nixon says that the United States is “a Pacific power . . . linked by the sea not only with those Oriental nations on Asia’s Pacific littoral, but at the same time with Occidental Australia and New Zealand, and with the islands in between.”

U.S. Reluctance At the same time, one of the legacies of Vietnam almost certainly would be “a deep reluctance on the part of the United States to become involved once again in a similar intervention on a similar basis. “The war has imposed severe strains on the United States, not only militarily and economically but socially and politically as well. “Bitter dissension has torn the fabric of American intellectual life, and. whatever the outcome of the war the tear may be a long time mending. “If another friendly country should be faced with an externally supported Communist insurrection—whether in Asia, or in Africa or even Latin America—there is serious question whether the American public or the American Congress would now support a unilateral American intervention, even at the request of the host Government. "This makes it vitally in their own interest that the nations in the path of China’s ambitions move quickly to establish an indigenous Asian framework for their own future security.” “Limited Role”

Mr Nixon said other nations must recognise that the role of the United States as world policeman was likely to be limited in the future.

“To ensure that a United States response will be forth-

coming if needed, machinery must be created that is capable of meeting two conditions: (a) a collective effort by the nations of the region to contain the threat by themselves and, if that effort fails, (b) a collective request to the United States for assistance." This was important not only from the respective national standpoints, but also from the standpoint of avoiding nuclear collision.

A regional pact would become a “buffer” separating the distant great Power from the immediate threat. “Only if the buffer proves insufficient does the great Power become involved and then in terms that make victory more attainable and the enterprise more palatable ” Mr Nixon said S.E.A.T.O. was useful and appropriate to its time. But it was Western in origin and “drew its strength from the United States and Europe“It has weakened to the point at which it is little more than an institutional embodiment of an American commitment, and a somewhat anachronistic relic of the days when France and Britain were active members.” Asia today needed its own security undertakings, reflecting “the new realities of Asian independence and Asian needs.”

An appropriate foundation stone existed on which to build: the Asian and the Pacific Council (Aspac). All Aspac members, except Malaysia, had military ties with the United States, Mr Nixon said. “It has the distinct advantage of including Australia and New Zealand, which share the danger of China, and would be able to contribute substantially to its strength without an unbalancing great-Power presence.” Japan’s Part Later in the article, Mr Nixon said Japan would surely want to play a greater role both diplomatically and militarily in maintaining the balance in Asia.

“Twenty years ago it was considered unthinkable that Japan should acquire even a conventional military capability. Five years ago, while some Japanese thought about it, they did not talk about it.

“Today a substantial majority of Japanese still oppose the idea but it is openly discussed and debated. Looking toward the future, one must recognise that it simply is not realistic to expect a nation moving into the first rank of major powers to be totally dependent for its own security on another nation, however close the ties.” Mr Nixon said without turning its back on Europe, the United States had now to reach out westward to the East and “to fashion the sinews of a Pacific community." “This has to be a community in the fullest sense: a community of purpose, of understanding and of mutual assistance, in which military defences are co-ordinated while economies are strengthened—a community embracing a concert of Asian strengths as a counterforce to the designs of China. “One in which Japan will play an increasing role, as befits its commanding position as a world economic power, and one in which United States leadership is exercised with restraint, with respect for our partners and with a sophisticated discretion that ensures a genuinely Asian idiom and Asian origin for whatever new Asian institutions are developed.”