N.Z. defence

Press, 5 February 1987, Page 16

N.Z. defence

Sir,—With a sense of pleasurably mounting excitement one read Neville Rush’s letter of January 27, only to suffer bitter disappointment at its end when he failed to name the “few countries left with democratic, Western or God-fearing forms of government” and who have not “turned away from their due respect for the Almighty.” One waits with barely containable impatience for Neville Rush’s :* next letter naming the favoured “few countries” meriting his approbation so that one may have a standard to measure them against the countries of “Godless socialism,” and to see . how they compare in actual performance. It will also afford an opportunity to assess the censorious righteousness of Neville Rush’s values. — Yours, etc., M. CREEL. January 29, 1987.

Sir, —Tony Banks (February 2) is factually correct with his list of the Soviet military presence and bases in foreign countries, but his implication that these are all predatory and menacing is unwarranted. As defensive precautions they are an understandable reaction to seven foreign invasions of Russia

within the last 200 years. Significantly, they do not even begin to’ match the 500,000 military personnel staffing 1500 bases in 32 foreign countries deployed by America — a nation which has never suffered invasion since its foundation in 1776. The Soviet Indo-China bases which so concern Mr Banks directly result frdm . America’s counterproductive intervention there. Cuba was alienated by American spite in 1963 and has turned to the Soviets ever since, but could never threaten America, central or northern, because it has been forced to accommodate an American naval base (now staffed by 1500 military) since the United States invasion in 1899. — Yours,‘etc.,

M. T. MOORE. February 2, 1987.