Parallels seen in U.S. action on N.Z., Libya

Press, 7 February 1986, Page 14

Parallels seen in U.S. action on N.Z., Libya

PA Wellington An American news media commentator who has interviewed the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, says there are parallels in the Reagan Administration’s response to New Zealand and to Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, Libya’s leader.

.In both' cases, the response was heavyhanded, said Dr Ronald Sider, who is in New Zealand as a speaker at World Vision’s national conference.

The United States president, Mr i Reagan, was “unusually heavy-handed” for an American leader, Dr Sider said. Dr Sider lectures at a Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He is an outspoken pacifist, the author of a book, “Nuclear Holocaust and Christian Hope,” and joint editor of an international Christian journal, “Transformation.” He interviewed Mr Lange on the Issue of peace and disarmament, the policies the Government is pursuing, their implications, and how they relate to Mr Lange’s faith.

Dr Sider congratulated New Zealand on its anti-

nuclear policies, saying he thought smaller nations could take a lead in “exploring different paths.” He said he was "relieved to be in New Zealand” when asked how, as a pacifist, he felt about current super-Power tensions and nuclear posturing.

Dr Sider believes that the New Zealand policy of not allowing nuclear ships in dock is important and “appropriate.” He concedes that there may be a cost to smaller nations for such policies, but it will probably not be “drastic.” Dr Sider said the "unusually heavy-handed” Mr Reagan would not be president for ever. Mr Reagan was enormously popular, however, and was an intuitively brilliant politician. “He knows how to play the American psyche, he knows how to persuade the American people.” Most people still favoured a nuclear freeze, Dr Sider said. The industrial-military complex was powerful and it would be difficult to counter its influence if a United States President wished to slash military spending.