New Zealand's position - NZ and the Cold War

New Zealand's position

New Zealand's alignment and participation in the Cold War was determined by the decision of the 1940s Labour government to back the United States and Great Britain (that concord was crucial) in their disagreements with the Soviet Union. The decision was questioned, though not overturned, by the Left, with communists and others claiming that Labour had rejected both peace and socialism.

Thereafter, the story of New Zealand's involvement in the war echoes that of many small states in the Western alliance, such as Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Like them, New Zealand remained aligned; like them, the alignment was qualified in a number of ways. The most persistent qualifications were these: a preference (especially in the Labour Party) for social and economic rather than military solutions to Cold War problems, for détente rather than hostility, for nuclear weapons test bans rather than testing; caution in the expenditure of either financial or human resources in support of Cold War operations; national attitudes and concerns, including the influence of Australia and Britain, fear of Japan in the 1950s, and antipathy to nuclear weapons 'too close to home' in the 1970s and 1980s.

Regarded as a war, the Cold War was New Zealand's most protracted 'military' engagement. As the adjective suggests, however, open combat was the exception not the rule. New Zealand was involved in Cold War-related combat operations only between 1950 and 1953 (Korean War), 1949 and 1960 (Malayan Emergency) and 1965 and 1971 (Vietnam War).

The 'front line' of the Cold War in the 1940s lay across Europe and the Middle East. New Zealand provided crews for the Berlin airlift of 1948-49 and in its Middle Eastern commitment pledged in advance to send forces to that region in the event of open war with the Soviet Union. Although these commitments were easily accepted in New Zealand, the introduction of compulsory military training to back up the latter aroused controversy.

Response to nuclear escalation

In the late 1950s tension between the Cold War adversaries escalated as both sides enhanced and enlarged their nuclear weapons arsenals. New Zealand supported the West, but opinion was particularly exercised about atmospheric nuclear testing. Cold War tensions over other issues - the Chinese offshore islands, Antarctica, the former Belgian Congo, the building of the Berlin Wall, the deployment of missiles by the United States in Turkey and by the Soviet Union in Cuba - saw New Zealand supporting Western positions in forums such as the United Nations, while at the same time welcoming negotiated solutions, especially the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty.