The Asian 'theatre' - NZ and the Cold War

The Asian 'theatre'

Asia was another 'theatre' of the conflict. The Communist victory in the Chinese civil war led New Zealand to accept commitments to assist in the defence of Hong Kong, and it continued to recognise the defeated Nationalist regime, based on Taiwan, even after Britain had recognised the new Communist government in Beijing. New Zealand also gave military support to anti-communist South Korea, albeit under United Nations auspices, when the communist North invaded, and its troops came into open conflict with Chinese Communist forces. Although resisting American pressure to be joined to Japan in a Cold War alliance, it did ally with the United States (in ANZUS) in 1951, and in doing so committed itself to American Cold War policy in Asia.

At home, a number of public servants were removed from what were regarded as sensitive positions, while communists were accused of fostering industrial conflict. In 1951 a bitter waterfront dispute was fought out against a backdrop of Cold War rhetoric, with the National government denouncing militant watersiders as 'Communist wreckers'.

In 1954 the United States sought support in its effort to stop a communist takeover in Vietnam. When Vietnam was partitioned, it promoted an anti-communist front, leading to the establishment of SEATO. Although New Zealand joined this front, it put more effort into the Colombo Plan, which sought to combat the spread of communism by improving living standards in Asian countries. It also contemplated recognition of the Communist Chinese regime, but the United States demurred.

South-East Asian conflicts

In Asia New Zealand forces had helped to defeat a communist insurgency in British-ruled Malaya and to keep Laos neutral. The outcome of the brutal demolition of communist influence in Indonesia in 1965 was welcomed. In that year New Zealand had been (reluctantly) drawn by the United States into a protracted, controversial, and ultimately unsuccessful war to stop a communist takeover of South Vietnam. In 1971 New Zealand followed the United States lead in disengaging from Vietnam and pursuing détente both with the Soviet Union and China (which had been openly at odds with each other since the early 1960s). A mission was reopened in Moscow and diplomatic relations established with China.

Soviet-American (but not Sino-American) tension revived in the later 1970s. The United States combated communist activity in the disintegrating Portuguese empire, including East Timor, which was annexed by Indonesia in 1976. New Zealand accepted the fait accompli. United Vietnam remained a Soviet ally, and Prime Minister R.D. Muldoon highlighted Soviet naval activity in the Pacific and Indian oceans. In 1978 Vietnam invaded both Laos and Cambodia, but was not stopped by the United States. SEATO had died; New Zealand supported ASEAN, an association of non-communist South-east Asian nations, and still had troops in Singapore. New Zealand supported United States opposition to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 but avoided a trade boycott. Simultaneously (but, it seems, coincidentally), the Soviet Ambassador in Wellington, Vsevelod Sofinsky, was expelled for clandestinely donating money to a New Zealand organisation, the Socialist Unity Party.