A.N.Z.U.S. rift ‘lamentable’

Press, 22 July 1986, Page 6

A.N.Z.U.S. rift ‘lamentable’

NZPA staff correspondent Washington

New Zealand decisions which have led to the break in the A.N.Z.U.S. pact with the United States are “lamentable,” says Mr Richard Allen, a former national security adviser to President Reagan.

Mr Allen, who will be guest speaker at the National Party’s fiftieth Dominion Conference in Auckland in August, said yesterday that he viewed the defence break between New Zealand and the United States

“grimly.” “Americans are deeply disappointed that Mr Lange has chosen this course.

“I do not view it as irrevocable. I would hope this ill-considered course of action will be repudiated in the course of a future change of Government,” he said. Mr Allen served as national security adviser in 1981-82, resigning after accusations of alleged improprieties concerning his acceptance of SUSIOOO ($1870) from a Japanese magazine and three Seiko watches from Japanese friends, and for omitting information from his financial disclosure form.

Investigations by the White House and Justice Department cleared him

of any wrongdoing.

Mr Allen said Americans were "shocked” that New Zealand, a traditional ally “should be led out of an alliance that has made an important contribution to Western security for so many years. “There are duties in an alliance: there are hardships associated with an alliance and burdens that must be borne. That the present leadership of New Zealand can see fit not to bear those burdens and perform those duties seems to me to be lamentable,” he said. “If you apparently believe that the only threat is going perhaps to be Indonesians with canoes, that is your right, but then of course the shield of protection might not be extended in the event of something more serious occurring in the region.

“The fact of the matter is that the presence of the Soviet Union is expanding; the Soviet threat is growing and it is necessary to offset that threat,” he said.

Mr Allen, who now runs his own business consultancy, is known for his strong anti-Soviet views.

It is in his role as a vice-chairman of the International Democrat Union, an international organisation of conservative political parties, that he was invited to New Zealand.