A.N.Z.U.S. PACT

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32706, 8 September 1971, Page 4

A.N.Z.U.S. PACT

‘Quagmire of adventures’

(N.Z.P.A. -Reuter—Copyright)

MOSCOW, September 7.

Both Australia and New Zealand were beginning to realise that their participation in a military alliance with the United States had led them into a “quagmire of American military-political adventures,” the Soviet Government newspaper “Izvestia” has said.

In a commentary on the twentieth anniversary of the A.N.Z.U.S. pact the newspaper said that the Americans urged on their "allies” at each session of the A.N.Z.U.S. council an activisation of their role and a building-up of their military forces. , Now, both countries were beginning to understand that their participation had led led them into a quagmire of American military-political adventures.

The commentary added that Anzus had been formed to further "strategic plans of the struggle against the growing national liberation movement in South-East Asia and the south-western Pacific.” Both Australia and New Zealand have announced plans to withdraw their forces from South Vietnam, where they formed a task fo(ce in Phuoc Tuy province.