THE PRESS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1986. Spelling out the U.S. view

Press, 1 September 1986, Page 20

THE PRESS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1986. Spelling out the U.S. view

New Zealanders who are concerned about the future of their country’s association with the United States would do well to take account of the remarks made here last week by Senator Richard Lugar, chairman Of the United States Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee and a possible Republican contender for the American Presidency. Whether the Senator was right or wrong in the opinions he expressed is not the main point Many will agree with him; many will disagree. The point is that he was able to deliver, first hand, to the Government and the community, a significant sample of the American attitudes that this country will have to live with in the years ahead. Senator Lugar was careful not to give the impression that his country sought to increase the strain between the United States and New Zealand. He described the A.N.Z.U.S. Pact as important, and said its importance would increase if New Zealand returned to full membership. He spoke with warmth of maintaining a relationship with New Zealand, and of the United States’ avoiding vindictive actions because of New Zealand’s antinuclear policies.

At the centre of his remarks, however, lay a view of the world that is probably shared by a majority of his countrymen. The American nuclear deterrent has been crucial to maintaining peace, and preserving American interests, for the last 40 years. The

core of the deterrent now lies in America’s sea-based weapons. Anything that appears to reduce the mobility add security of those weapons will be treated very seriously indeed by the American Administration. Senator Lugar is probably also correct when he says that the presence, or absence, of American warships in New Zealand waters makes little difference to New Zealand’s security from attack by the Soviet Union. A direct attack remains very unlikely. In the last resort, an attack is deterred by the American ability to retaliate, regardless of whether New Zealand has a close defence connection with the United States.

New Zealand, by attempting to set limits — even to a tiny degree — to America’s power of retaliation, makes the possibility of nuclear war just a little greater. Many New Zealanders, including the Government, do not agree. That does not alter the importance of what the Senator had to say. New Zealand cannot pretend that by passing anti-nuclear legislation it can somehow set the clock back 40 years, or remove New. Zealand from the world of nuclear power and confrontation.

The American view of the world is the more realistic, however unpleasant it may be. By isolating itself, even with the highest motives, New Zealand is reducing its influence in that real world without gaining any significant improvement in its own security.