New Zealand Responses to the Peaceful Atom in the 1950S
Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, Vol. 139, p. 51–62, 2006 ISSN 0035-9173/06/010051–12 $4.00/1 Prospects for Enrichment: New Zealand Responses to the Peaceful Atom in the 1950s matthew o’meagher Abstract: The origin of the anti-nuclear movement in New Zealand is discussed. An assess- ment is made of the impact of the New Zealand Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament on New Zealand politics and foreign policy. Keywords: Anti-nuclear movement, New Zealand, New Zealand Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, politics, foreign policy, ‘Atoms for Peace’. INTRODUCTION ful atom’ was the only or even the main fac- tor preventing New Zealand embracing the anti- This paper forms part of a wider study of the nuclear cause until the 1970s and 1980s; anti- history of anti-nuclear New Zealand before it be- communism, anti-Japanese sentiment, faith in came famous, its roots if you will, on which the and friendship towards the two original West- transformations in that nation’s identity and ern nuclear powers, and a host of factors spe- foreign policy of the 1970s and 1980s would cific to the arms race itself were more impor- grow. The heart of that project is the story tant. Nevertheless, Eisenhower’s initiative, in of a peace group I first researched as a student tandem with a coincidental burst of hope that two decades ago, the New Zealand Campaign this country might have uranium deposits of its for Nuclear Disarmament (NZCND). This coun- own to exploit, did revive official and popular try’s first exclusively anti-nuclear national or- interest in the peaceful uses of atomic energy, ganisation, it tried to convert New Zealanders to just as it did elsewhere in the world, thereby the disarmament cause in the early 1960s, and diverting New Zealanders’ attention away from was a local manifestation of the second stage of more disturbing nuclear developments.
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