New Zealand Leader Says U.S. Wants Him Voted Out

New Zealand’s prime minister today accused the U.S. government of trying to force his party from power and implied that Washington is using methods akin to “totalitarianism” in its quarrel over nuclear-equipped warships.

David Lange has said the United States has imposed intelligence and defense sanctions against New Zealand because his Labor government refused to permit U.S. nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships to use New Zealand ports during military exercises.

Lange told a news conference that U.S. actions to scale down cooperation with New Zealand, a member of the ANZUS defense pact along with the United States and Australia, are “designed to embarrass us, to cause morale in the defense services to be affected.”

He said of the U.S. policy, “It is generally seen by the government as pursuing once more the strategy of having the situation in New Zealand changed to the point where a government is elected that will welcome nuclear weapons.”

Lange, who said he was told by a State Department official of the U.S. decision while on a stopover Tuesday in Los Angeles, said, “The type of pressure which large powers can exert over the small ones is seen by the people in a small democracy as being somewhat akin to the very totalitarianism we are supposed to be fighting against.”

Lange, whose party replaced a conservative administration last July, said sanctions can “cause an upsurge of support for the (anti-nuclear) policy--maybe an almost unrealistic nationalism can develop.”