The American Military and a Complacent Kirk

On March 24th people from all over the country will converge on Christchurch to protest against the biggest and longest established American military base in New Zealand: "Operation Deepfreeze" at Harewood Airport.

Inspired by past successes in stopping the Americans from establishing an Omega Navigation Transmitter, and exposing the military nature of "Project Longbank" at Woodbourne and the satellite tracking station at Mount John, protest groups are expected to make a strong effort to force the Government to end American military activity at Christchurch airport. Plans are already well advanced to make the demonstration at Harewood, and the R.N.Z.A.F. base at Weedons just south of Christchurch, a successful prelude to the Springbok Tour.

"Operation Longbank" is the best disguised U.S. military operation in New Zealand. For 15 years the American and New Zealand Governments have successfully managed to misrepresent it as being purely a logistics activity in support of peaceful scientific projects in Antarctica. In fact the Deepfreeze base is a general purpose United States Navy/Air Force base, acting as a staging point for distribution of military air cargo through the South Pacific and as a link in a worldwide radio communication network. In Antarctica, Operation Deepfreeze provides important polar warfare training for U.S. Armed Forces. In addition numerous military research projects, many of then classified are based at Christchurch Airport from time to time.

After conducting very detailed research into the operations of Deepfreeze the Campaign against Foreign Military activities in New Zealand (Cafmanz) has clearly established that the American military have violated the provisions of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty which prohibits any military activity in Antarctica (but not the use of military personnel in civilian scientific operations). Cafmanz has called on the New Zealand Government to make a strong protest against these blatant violations at the next Consultative Meeting of parties to the Treaty.

Despite the fictitious stories told by American public relations officials about the "purely peaceful" nature of American operations in Christchurch and Antarctica, the Deepfreeze base is just one of the far flung outposts of the American military empire. Christchurch has become so well integrated into this empire that it even has its own U.S. Postal zip code number — 96690.

Inside this issue we are publishing for the first time, correspondence on the whole subject of American military bases in New Zealand between Owen Wilkes (on behalf of Cafmanz) and the Prime Minister, Mr Kirk. The Prime Minister's complacent reply to Mr Wilkes does not fit very well at all with his Government's policy of pursuing an independent foreign policy. Countries which are starting to increase their contacts with New Zealand, like the Peoples Republic of China and the Soviet Union, will no doubt find it hard to take Mr Kirk very seriously when they see how far New Zealand is involved in America's international military machine. Neighbouring countries in the Pacific and Asia might also wonder how genuine the Government is in its protests against French nuclear testing when it is harbouring an integral part of the world's most aggressive power.

For a long time it has been clear that the United States Government's military outposts around the world, far from being a necessary defence system against Russia and China, exist for the purposes of imperialist aggression. The Cuba Missile Crisis of 1962 and the Vietnam war are only two examples of the threat posed by American imperialism to world peace. The New Zealand Government must end U.S. military involvement in this country not only to protect the future of people here but also to help protect people in neighbouring countries, and to make a real contribution to world peace.