Nuclear free legislation - Nuclear Free New Zealand
USS Buchanan cartoon
David Lange at the Oxford Union debate
Nuclear weapon free zone badge
Cast adrift from ANZUS
New Zealand becomes a Nuclear Free Zone
1984 was an election year. Muldoon decided to go to the polls early on 14 July. This was due largely to the decison by Marilyn Waring, a National Party MP, to withdraw her support for the National caucus on June 14. She had been savagely attacked by Muldoon for supporting the Labour opposition's Nuclear Free NZ bill the previous day.
Labour campaigned against nuclear propulsion and weapons, but not against ANZUS. Labour leader David Lange had tried to work with the Americans but their 'neither confirm nor deny' policy made a middle ground virtually impossible to find.
After Labour swept to power, it immediately made clear its intention to pursue policies that would establish New Zealand as a nuclear-free country. This was a popular stand and by the end of the year nearly 40 towns and boroughs had declared themselves nuclear-free. Labour announced its decision to ban ships that were either nuclear-powered or armed. The United States maintained its position and stalemate was quickly reached.
Five days after his defeat in the election, the outgoing Prime Minister, Muldoon, met US Secretary of State George Shultz in Wellington for an ANZUS Council meeting. Lange labelled this 'a calculated attempt to embarrass the new Labour Government' and declared that the council communiqué was 'intellectual dishonesty which allowed the representatives of a defeated government to put their country's name to a document that all who signed it knew did not represent the views of the country's future government'.
Lange in seeking a softening of Labour Party policy on this issue found that there was little room to move; party activists were unwilling to draw distinctions between nuclear propulsion and nuclear weapons. The mood of the nation was also against such political manoeuvring. Lange may well have hinted to Shultz that the policy could change, but Shultz had 'convinced himself' that he had an assurance that Lange would overturn Labour's policy. He later claimed that he felt betrayed by how things unfolded.
The US decided to test the new government's resolve in late 1984 when it requested a visit by the guided missile destroyer USS Buchanan. The Buchanan was an older ship and the Americans hoped that public suspicions that it was not nuclear-armed would be enough for it to slip under the political radar. 'Near-uncertainty was not now enough for us,' Lange recalled. 'Whatever the truth of its armaments, its arrival in New Zealand would be seen as a surrender by the government.' Lange hoped that the Americans might offer to send something less ambiguous, but it was the Buchanan or nothing.
On 4 February 1985 the government said no. Within a matter of days Washington severed visible intelligence and military ties with New Zealand and downgraded political and diplomatic exchanges. Schultz confirmed that the United States was no longer willing to maintain its security guarantee to New Zealand, although the ANZUS treaty structure remained in place.
The Oxford Union Debate
One of the concerns of the United States over the ships row was that other countries might follow New Zealand's lead. David Lange had effectively become the 'pin-up boy for nuclear disarmament' and this was demonstrated on 2 March 1985 during the widely televised Oxford Union debate. Lange competed against the right wing evangelist Jerry Falwell and his performance in arguing the proposition that 'nuclear weapons are morally indefensible' was masterful. The quick-witted Lange drew thunderous applause with his now famous reply to a young conservative: '...hold your breath just for a moment. I can smell the uranium on it as you lean forward!' Briefly, New Zealand had taken the centre stage.
You can hear and read the Lange Oxford Union speech on the Public Address website
In 1987 Labour passed the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control and Act. In a largely symbolic act, the US Congress retaliated with the Broomfield Act, downgrading New Zealand's status from ally to friend. Lange stated that if the security alliance was the price New Zealand must pay to remain nuclear-free, 'it is the price we are prepared to pay'. In 1989 52 per cent of New Zealanders indicated that they would rather break defence ties than admit nuclear-armed ships. By 1990 even National had signed up to anti-nuclearism.
Further information:
links:
- Legal challenges to nuclear weapons (Disarmament and security centre)
- New Zealand's nuclear free status (Peter Wills)
- David Lange obituary (NZ Herald)
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