Talk:Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty

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Wikipedia:ANZUS authors and history

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From Wikipedia:Talk:ANZUS

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An event mentioned in this article is a September 1 selected anniversary.

The information about the Australian Defence Force in the second-last paragraph should be transferred to the correct Australian Army, Navy, and Air Force pages. --Robert Merkel

Need someone to provide mention of NZ involvement in Korean War, Vietnam War, intellgence networks (yes, we are part of the notorious Echelon!), etc--NZ involvment in ANZUS only diminished after the 1980s. I'm not qualified to add it.--Edmund

U.S. Nuclear testing in the Pacific ended in 1958. France tested in the Pacific through the nineties. It's unclear what nuclear testing of the U.S. that NZ would have objected to as late as the eighties.

2 quick points;

1. I am concerned byth editing explained as "New Zealand takes no part in the allaince now". The alliance does still bind New Zealand and Australia to each other. Granted Aussies may question whether NZ's defence spending enables it to honour its obligations, but that doesn't change the obligations.

2. I am also concerned about the removal of the material related to the Rainbow Warrior. This incident is not irrelevant. The Rainbow Warrior bombing and the suspension of the ANZUS alliance stand together in history as linked consequences of the late David Lange's actions and it would be disingenous to make no mention of one in discussing the other. A devil's advocate could argue that, as a direct attack by a foriegn nation on one of the Allies, the treaty could have been invoked (note the US had not suspended it's obligations at the time). That of course was never contemplated, however the incident is very relevant to ANZUS. It would be extremely simplistic to think the attack was against just at Greenpeace, it was against New Zealand's antinuclear movement and at New Zeland itself - indeed I could suspect the act was designed to show New Zealand was defenceless. It shows the length some Western powers were prepared to go to stop the antinuclear movement New Zealand was part of. It also shows the loss of protection and influence New Zealand suffered internationally - this was hardly the first time NZ based protests had headed to French tests, but never before had France contemplated such an action, (one wonders what would have happened if the attack had occured 2 years earlier, and France was left scrabbling to appease the cantankerous Muldoon). Most importantly the bombing hardened New Zealands attitude against anything pro-nuclear, as the actions and bad judgement of the Mitterand administration were imputed - fairly or not - on America and the pro-nuclear lobby. Opinion polls prior to the bombing showed New Zealanders wanted to be part of the alliance, opinion polls after the bombing showed a clear majority did not want to be part of the alliance.

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