Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A study of the background to the Anzus pact between Australia, New Zealand, and the US, placing it in its Cold War context. The study demonstrates that the pact was designed not only to guarantee security and lead to a reconciliation with Japan, but also to protect bases from which atomic bombers could strike the Soviet Union in case of war, and discusses American and British post-war global strategic planning, the impact of the Korean outbreak, and collective security in Southeast Asia. Includes the Canberra Draft and later revisions. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

In this detailed yet persistently interesting study, McIntyre (Univ. of Canterbury, NZ) examines how the agreement among Australia, New Zealand, and the US, signed in 1951 and often called the Anzus Pact, came into being. He explores how this pact drew these two South Pacific nations away from Britain and toward the US (and how Britain sought to offset this shift), and he examines the way in which the pact made possible a "peace of reconciliation" by Australia and New Zealand with Japan. One of the book's strengths is that it describes the pact in worldwide terms, showing how it made possible Britain's continued role in the Middle East until the Israeli-French-British attack on Suez. One might expect greater discussion of the UKUSA Agreement, by which intelligence cooperation was parceled out between the four nations plus Canada. There is a brief epilogue on New Zealand's decision to back away from the US over the issue of nuclear-powered vessels in New Zealand waters. This is a study of interest to all scholars of Cold War history, the South Pacific, British or American postwar policy, and alliance systems. Upper-division undergraduates and above. R. W. Winks; Yale University