Navy Secretary John Lehman and other American officials were prepared to write off New Zealand as a participant in the Western Alliance. But the curtailment of military co-operation by the Lange Government certainly did not mean that New Zealand's fundamental orientation had changed. Only dogmatists would equate a ban on nuclear visiting with non-alignment. US ideologues also expressed dismay at deviant trends in Australian security policy. In this case they were confronted by a willingness in Australian official circles to entertain revisionist ideas. As the Wellington pressure group, Just Defence, discerned, ‘Australia, in a strange reversal of the New Zealand situation, has a more independent thinking defence establishment and less independent thinking Government than us.’ In examining the regional ramifications of the ANZUS crisis, this chapter indicates that despite divergence in both concept and process, there was an element of parallelism in the Australian and New Zealand policy reviews. Moreover, the regional impact of the crisis needs to be considered with reference to sources of regional instability and the interests of South Pacific states, particularly their opposition to nuclearism. Developments in regional security also suggest that the disparities in the ANZUS relationship are likely to persist.

DEFENCE REVIEWS IN CANBERRA AND WELLINGTON

Whereas New Zealand had a defence review thrust upon it by the ANZUS crisis, developments in Australian defence policy had little to do with the dispute, but had similar sources in regional preoccupations and a quest for self-reliance.