Newspapers and the Soviet Union

Press, 26 April 1984, Page 20

Newspapers and the Soviet Union

Sir,—lllingworth Mac Kay in referring to an alleged Soviet threat quotes “Time,” a vehicle of American propaganda (“The Press,” April 21). More objective information indicates that the Soviets have achieved only defensive parity in the Pacific. Both super-Powers in recent years have been engaged in an ominous military build-up in the northern Pacific, with the Soviets concentrating on the defence of their vulnerable bases at Vladivostok, Sakhalin and Kamchatka Peninsula. In September 1982 and April 1983, United States Navy carrier groups carried out mock invasions of some of these bases. If the Russians had held similar exercises off the coast of the United States, the Western media would have howled complaints, and rightly so. “Defenceless New Zealand is at grave risk” from a Russian nuclear strike unless we achieve a neutral New Zealand by the next election. Above all else, this means getting rid of National. — Yours, etc., D. K. SMALL. April 21, 1984,