N-ships deter Soviet attack — Senator

Press, 30 August 1986, Page 8

N-ships deter Soviet attack — Senator

The United States seabased nuclear weapons force is the most credible deterrent to Soviet attack, says the visiting chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, Senator Richard Lugar. While not directly criticising New Zealand’s nuclear ships ban, Senator Lugar said yesterday that the nuclear deterrent was the only reason that there had been 40 years of peace and the sea-based weapons were its main element

“The one thing the Soviets have not been able to do is target our ships,” he said. Europe had been remarkably peaceful for 40 years because of the nuclear balance, and in spite of serious imbalances in conventional forces there, he said.

Senator Lugar, speaking to a Christchurch Chamber of Commerce audience at the end of a three-day visit to New Zealand, said that the Soviet threat was “fact, not paranoia.”

If the deterrent was not sufficient the Soviet Union would use the threat of attack to intimidate the West and that included New Zealand. The Soviet Union worried about Australia and New Zealand because they had credible defences and power and influence in the South Pacific, he said.

"You are a part of this world. You are visible even if you thought you weren’t”

Senator Lugar, who said earlier this week that Russian missiles are aimed at New Zealand, denied that that statement was “scaremongering or inflationary.” Rather, it was the “best estimate of how I see the world.”

He said that he always felt that the Soviet Union would take advantage of a nuclear imbalance.

The A.N.Z.U.S. pact remained important, said Senator Lugar, and it could be more important “if it became three again instead of two.”

But he said that the United States would not become vindictive over the split

“My recommendation would be that we keep the relationship going; keep the elements that are strong, on course.” The senator, who has been described as one of the most important politicians in Washington, and a leading contender for the next Republican Presidential nomination, said that he would also recommend maintaining the Antarctic Support Force base in Christchurch.

“It should remain as long as your country and city find it important” - He could give no definite answer as to whether the Government’s policy might threaten the base.

The Secretaries of State and Defence would evaluate the whole relationship between the two countries, and that would also include New Zealand’s anti-nuclear legislation, he said.