School marms should smile, too

Pim Opinion

Anyone who has suffered the attention of a schoolyard bully knows that the true value of an alliance lies not in the quantity of damage done during an actual dust-up, but in the level of deterrence it poses to a potential enemy. The strength of the union is in the caution it generates in the beholder. Thus it was with ANZUS.

The chain of events over the last several months, since Mr David Lange became prime minister of New Zealand and rose on an unprecedented wave of public popularity to challenge the United States, was quite predictable. Here was a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant mouse roaring its little head off in defiance of the greatest nation on earth where, not so incidentally, W.A.S.P. principles also held fair sway.

In return, the greatest nation on earth acted like a schoolmarm, cane in hand, sending New Zealand into the comer and threatening it with six of the best on the bottom of its trade figures.

At the neighboring desk sits Australia, vastly uncomfortable over the exchange of words, making its own errors over things like MX missiles, and unscheduled conversations with the arrogant North Vietnamese who (surprise, surprise), didn’t tell Foreign Minister Bill Hayden the truth about Kampuchea.

In short, it has been a very vigorous month for foreign affairs in this part of the world, not least of the events being Papua New Guinea’s sharp slap at the United States over its treatment of New Zealand. Foreign Minister Giheno accused Washington of being ’’insensitive, heavy-handed, and a bully” and of causing alarm among South Pacific Forum countries. ’’The Forum represents a region which is unquestionably pro-Western in its values and ideologies,” he said. ”It appears that this has been taken for granted or treated casually by the U.S. in its latest actions ... PNG believes the conduct of relations between the U.S. and individual countries of the Forum should continue to be based on mutual respect and equality.”

Part of that reaction seems to have been generated not so much by the ANZUS row as by the manner in which American interests (as possibly distinct from Washington’s executive), have concur rently dragged their feet over giving what the small nations regard as due recognition to their rights over the fish in their exclusive economic zones. In short, the Newtonian law of equal and opposite reactions seems to be working in the politics of the Pacific and the United States is getting a good bit of stick, both publicly and privately, for being too heavy-handed. Since nobody in the Pacific really expects to be menaced in the next day or two by a bunch of cement-faced Muscovites, it would be useful to the region generally if Washington now made some conciliatory noises which everyone could clearly hear.

Mr Lange has clearly enjoyed himself on the world stage and, to that extent, has done his country no real harm so far as publicity is concerned. Most democracies admire a battler; the smaller the warrior and the bigger the dragon, the louder the cheers. It is possibly also worth a few seconds of a Washington official’s time to think not so much about the size and importance of New Zealand in relation to the United States, but of its standing among Pacific nations.

New Zealand has had considerable influence in the region for many years; it has a fine reputation as a reliable friend of all the

small countries. Where the United States is seen, albeit in favorable light, as a somewhat remote and occasionally clumsy giant, New Zealand has been on the ground for more than a century, helping, educating, supporting and cooperating.As a representative of Western democracy, and a long-time good friend of the United States, New Zealand has done an excellent job, politically and as a practical hod-carrier. New Zealand might have to be careful of its relations with the U.S. but, equally, in the Pacific if nowhere else, the U.S. must be careful about the way it from now on treats New Zealand, for, by those straws in the wind will the Pacific countries gauge their own affairs.

All of this is obvious enough, and there has been, since the beginning of this upset, considerable speculation that in fact it is all a matter of political engineering. Mr Lange was stuck with the anti-nuclear policy because he needed the support of the left-wing of his New Zealand Labour Party. The United States was happy to ’’make an example” of him because it would smarten-up attitudes towards the Western alliance in much more crucial areas like Europe, Canada, Iceland, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. Mr Lange didn’t really mind the appearance of a drubbing from the schoolmarm because it helped him pull his country together while he worked through some very painful, and desperately necessary, economic surgery.

So Mr Lange has taken his caning, and his snubbing at the hands of the Americans. He has been ticked off by Mrs Thatcher, and he has strutted his stuff at the Oxford Union debate and in some arenas in the U.S. At home, in his tight little islands, he has won plaudits, but he has also been told to watch it, for while principles are good, New Zealand is in no way threatened by the visits of nuclear ships and countries must trade so that their people can eat.

There is also, still, the matter of ANZUS. Everyone, including New Zealand, still says it is the cornerstone of peace in the Pacific.

But, if New Zealand believes that, and, furthermore, accepts that the U.S. believes it, they cannot cry for too long about being smacked for upsetting the alliance. Also, ANZUS has allowed them to have their defence pretty cheaply - less than three per cent of gross domestic product. Now, because they must maintain their forces, and take their fair share in regional defence cooperation with Australia and other Pacific countries, things will be more expensive, and difficult. They have lost access to large quantities of ANZUS intelligence, for instance.

Mr Lange is now back in his Wellington beehive. It is time to begin repairing the damage, real and notional, which his government’s stoutly-defended anti-nuclear policies have caused, not only to the stability and unity of the Pacific and to New Zealand, but also to the interests of many other countries.

The United States can help by being less publicly miffed than it has so far professed to be. Mr Lange can stop strutting the world stage and holding largely meaningless debates with people like the Rev Jerry Falwell. Indeed, Mr Lange may have started on this course by recently expressing the hope that he and U.S.Secretary of State Shultz might meet to talk it through when they both are in Malaysia for the regional conference next July. It would be a pity if Mr Shultz sent another under-gardener to talk with a sovereign nation’s prime minister, however awkward and argumentative that prime minister might be.