Example research essay topic: South East Asia World War Ii - 1,982 words

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During World War II New Zealand greatly depended upon Britain and her Royal Navy to provide New Zealand with security and protection throughout the Pacific region. But after a while New Zealand and Australia as neighbouring countries began to provide their own defence for the Pacific. So when Britain began to build Naval Bases in Singapore, both Australia and New Zealand contributed to its cost. Also the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Navy were established in order to provide more protection. Even though New Zealand was becoming more independent in providing most of their security, she still depended a lot upon Britain and this trust and dependence broke when the Pearl Harbour was attacked sinking two of Britain^s battleships ^Prince of Wales^ and ^Repulse^ and the fall of Singapore did contribute to New Zealand drift from Britain for security. So New Zealand turned to the United Stated of America for security in the Pacific.

Now New Zealand began to take responsibility for foreign affairs and had her own for! eign policies. Since WWII New Zealand had close relations with Australia considering that they are neighbouring countries. So in 1944 New Zealand and Australia signed the Canberra Pact. After the war the two countries agreed to set up a ^regional zone of defence^ in the South West and South Pacific including Australia and New Zealand and the islands north and north west of Australia across to Western Samoa and the Cook Islands.

Through the Canberra Pact the governments of the two countries agreed that on matters of common interest they will consult each other before expressing their views to others. The two governments also agreed to establish an advisory regional organisation, which could be called the South Seas Regional Commission, on which there might be representatives of Australia, New Zealand, Britain, France and USA. New Zealand now looked upon to the United Nations for security for she too believed in maintaining world peace through collective security. New Zealand joined the fifteen specialised agencies of the UN which aimed at raising living, health and educational facilities to backward countries to prevent causes of war and international bitterness.

Also she supported formations of economic and social council, contributed to the annual budget and took responsibility for Western Samoa. New Zealand also tried to establish security through the Commonwealth. There are Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting (CHOGM) every two years where all the heads of states from all forty nine countries in the Commonwealth come and discuss their activities and plans for the future. Through the Commonwealth New Zealand was mainly active in relations of the Pacific and Asia and all the Pacific members would meet at the South Pacific Forum and CHOGRM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meetings). From 1945 New Zealand wanted firm ties with USA. USA was mainly interested in Pacific because communism had started spreading world wide by then.

By 1949 China was fully communist. In 1950 Communist North Korea supported by the USSR invaded South Korea and USA was involved in helping South Korea. So USA was anxious to conclude a generous peace treaty with Japan in the hope of ensuring that Japan cooperated with the non-Communist countries. USA also want Australia and New Zealand to support her in this cause against communism.

But they still regarded Japan as a threat to their security and made it clear that an agreement needs to be signed reassuring them that Japan rearming will not affect the security of the Pacific in any way. So in 1951 the ANZUS pact, a defence treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States was signed. This defence treaty agreed upon discussing any international disputes the parties may be involved in and find a solution peacefully. The parties of the treaty agreed to develop and maintain their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack. One of the most important articles in the ANZUS treaty was article III which said ^The Parties will consult together whenever the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened in the Pacific. ANZUS was a landmark in New Zealand foreign policy for this was the first treaty signed by New Zealand that which didn^t include Britain.

In 1949 Britain, New Zealand and Australia consulted to help plan defence with Malaya and to coordinate defence agreements. So in 1955 ANZAM was established. This was not a treaty but a defence agreement so it did not involve commitment of troops. ANZAM was designed to coordinate regional defensive policies between the three parties. Communist struggle in South East Asia continued even after the Korea War. So in 1954 New Zealand along with Australia, Britain, France, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and the United States formed a collective defensive treaty based on the Asian region, the South-East Asia Treaty Organisation.

SEATO was mainly aimed at preventing the spread of communism in the Pacific, so New Zealand was protected from communism through this treaty. To help prevent any further spread of communist forces, Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam were added to the list of SEATO signatories. For Australia and New Zealand SEATO was more than just a prevention of communism. New Zealand accepted SEATO because it further strengthened ties with the United States and it brought Britain back into defensive arrangement in the region. In Article III of the treaty the desire to promote economic and social development in the region is expressed. Also, SEATO involved New Zealand in South East Asian affairs more directly then ever before.

For the first time we had Asian allies. New Zealand developed good ties with Australia, the United States, Britain, the rest of the Pacific and Asia after post-war years but many events took place causing relationships between these countries to change within the 1970 s and 1980 s. One of the major events that changed the relationship between New Zealand and USA was the Vietnam War against the Viet Cong guerillas. This took place from 1965 to 107. USA pressured New Zealand and Australia for support.

So New Zealand started to support by sending civilian medical teams and trained army engineers. USA wanted more support so Australia agreed to send troops but New Zealand refused and actually risked damaging her relationships with USA and Australia. When the Vietnam Government asked for help from New Zealand, she did send troops even though there opposition from churches, other groups, individuals, the Labour oppositions and the Secretary of Defence. USA still pressurised New Zealand to give more support and one could say that they almost bribed the New Zealand government b!

y increasing niversity grants and stressing the importance of ANZUS. New Zealand sent more troops to Vietnam to fight in the army side by side with USA The reasons for sending troops were that New Zealand has to support collective security and according to SEATO New Zealand had to help USA in this cause. Other reasons were that the American market was very important to our economy and anyway we were getting ressurised by USA for support. But it was obvious that there was no threat to New Zealand by the Viet Cong and she should have never got involved in a Civil War. So since 1968 to the 1970 s there were mass protests demonstrations held to show their disapproval and one of the major events that took place were the street marches in 1971. This greatly damaged the relationship between New Zealand and USA and because USA lost the war it felt even worthless that we sent troops of men and let them die for a cause hich did not effect them nor the country they lived in.

New Zealand was involved in the development of financial institutions in aid of countries which are in need of finical backing. She supported the Asian Development Bank as well as World Bank. A target figure of one present of the gross national product has been set for countries such as New Zealand when determining how much aid should be given. In 1964 and 1970 the United National criticised New Zealand of failing to reach this target of one percent. This slightly damaged the relationship between New Zealand and the United Nations.

Another major even that changed and damaged the relationship between New Zealand and USA was in 1984 the newly elected Labour Government deciding not to grant nuclear equipped warships access to New Zealand ports. This change threatened to undermine ANZUS and upset defensive arrangement for South Pacific region. The United State Department was faced with a thorny dilemma. In the past it had maintained a policy that neither confirmed nor denied policy of unclear weapons in board US ships. In this context the issue sparked off a as much wider debate, some of the questions that arose were ^does ANZUS provide effective security for New Zealand? , does ANZUS make a nuclear attack on New Zealand less or more likely? and how important is ANZUS to the friendly ties between New Zealand and USA?

The New Zealand Government declared that ANZUS does not require New Zealand to accept nuclear weapons: ^nuclear weapons have no relevance to our defence. New Zealand will never acquire nuclear weapons and does not expect friendly powers to use them on its behalf^ (The Defence Question, p. 11) Discussions were held throughout 1985 between New Zealand and the United States. They were afraid that the New Zealand^s ^no-nukes^ policy will be adapted by other small states. The immediate cost of New Zealand^s policy was soon felt when military intelligence was denied to New Zealand an! d several ANZUS military exercises were cancelled. Some United States Congressmen went as far s the threaten restrictions which would have curtailed access to New Zealand^s major beef market.

As a result of New Zealand^s anti-nuclear policy, it took her out of the ANZAS alliance structure. Then in the 1980 s arose the problem on unclear testing in the Pacific. Atmospheric nuclear testing has been conducted by Britain, China, France and the United States in the Pacific region even since 1945. All except France stopped unclear testing with the 1963 ^s treaty banning atmospheric testing. In 1975 France^s testing went underground. In 1973 the Labour Government opposed renewed testing at Moruroa Atoll.

So in the same year Australia and New Zealand governments took the issue of French testing in the region to the nternational Court of Justice and the Court ordered a can on nuclear testing but France continued to ignore this order so New Zealand and Australia were still left with the nuclear testings in the South Pacific Region. In 1985 a protest was organised by Greenpeace Flagship Rainbow Warrior. Before the ship could leave for the test region in was sunk at its mooring in Auckland, with the loss of one life. the Rainbow Warrior incident showed that France was determined to continue nuclear testing and this strained the relationship between New Zealand and France. Ever since World War II New Zealand had strived to achieve security through different agreements such as ANZAM, ANZUS and SEATO. But also through the years her relationships with countries such as USA changed due to the nuclear war ships and the Vietnam war.

Also her relations with France deteriorated due to their illegal nuclear testings in the Pacific. As a small country New Zealand increasingly followed a more independent foreign policy into he 1980 s. Even through good years and bad years New Zealand became more and more independent and was in charge of most of the Pacific epson^s economic and social development with her neighbour Australia. Because of the security offered by ANZUS was taken from New Zealand it is important for New Zealand to establish strong relations with Asia trade and aid to stabilise her security in the South Pacific and South East Asia. By Nimandra de J. Seneviratne 32 d

Research essay sample on South East Asia World War Ii