David Lange at the Oxford Union Debate, BBC, 1985
One of New Zealand's best political tongues in action, in this case there's a mixture of prepared
debate and off-the-cuff responses to interjections. The Oxford Debate is an annual event, Lange
being the first Prime minister (or international leader) to be invited to speak. The topic was one
which had captured the headlines around the world - New Zealand's declaration of Nuclear Free status,
and subsequent refusal to allow U.S. nuclear armed of powered vessels into our ports.
Lange: Have you considered the proposition for one moment that that war that cost those casualties
may have entrenched within people the yearning for peace, the growth of democratic institutions, the
accountability of political representatives, so that none wishes to wage [in] conventional or nuclear terms, any war.
Why attribute to the presence of that awesome potential clash of fire power, a stability which your
politicians have been arguing they created. You can’t have it both ways. Either you are having a new
united Europe, marching to glory and to the exclusion of certain primary production from other countries...
or you have it there simply because you have counterpoised this terrible means of destruction.
Quest: Mr Lange, Sir, if I may address you as mate perhaps...We have been talking about the quality
of rationality. Now I’ve heard many reasons advanced for keeping American sailors out of ports. It usually
has something to do with the honour of the women involved or the property values of the ports. What I should
like to know sir is why you don’t do the honourable and the consistent thing and pull out of the ANZUS Alliance.
For whether you are snuggling up to the bomb or living in the peaceful shadow of the bomb, New Zealand benefits
sir. And that’s the question with which we charge, and that’s the question to which we would like an answer sir.
Lange: And I’m going to give it to you if you hold your breath just for a moment. I can smell the Uranium on
it as you lean towards me…
I want to pass over here to preparations which are constantly being made for the winnable or even survival of a
nuclear war. I will ignore those and wholeheartedly embrace the logic of the unthinkable war if it could be established
that the damage which could result from the collapse of that logic would be confined to nuclear weapon states.
Unfortunately and demonstrably it would not.
We in New Zealand used to be able to relax a bit, to be able to think that we would sit comfortably while the rest of
the world seared, singed, withered, were enraptured... And the fact is that we used to have this vision of our being some
kind of an antipodean Noah’s Ark. Which would from within it’s quite isolated preserve, spawn a whole new world of
realistic human kind. Now the fact is that we know that that is not achievable. We know that if the nuclear winter
comes, we freeze, we join the rest of you. And that means that there is now a total denouement as far as any argument
in favour of moral purpose goes. It is a strange, dubious and totally unaccepted moral purpose which holds the whole of
the world to ransom.
Rejecting the logic of nuclear weapons does not mean surrendering to evil. Evil must still be guarded against.
Rejecting nuclear weapons is to assert what is human over the evil nature of the weapon. It is to restore to
humanity the power of decision. It is to allow a moral force to reign supreme. It stops the macho lurch into
mutual madness. And for me, the position of my country is a genuine, long term affirmation of this proposition,
that nuclear weapons are morally indefensible and I support that proposition
Discussion Points
- Emotionally-toned words – "yearning for peace", "awesome potential", "stability", "accountability", "terrible means of destruction", "strange, dubious."
- Personal pronouns – "your politician", "You can’t have it both ways" talking to the ‘questioners’
- Reference to the UK’s decision to cut agricultural imports from NZ
- The Questioner: "…snuggling up to the bomb or living in the peaceful shadow of the bomb…"
- The great call – "I can smell the uranium on it as you lean towards me"
- The "unthinkable" – powerful word
- Personal pronouns – "we" referring to NZers
- Religious allusions – "Noah’s ark", "enraptured"
- Repetition – "Evil", "It is …"
- Emphatic ending – "That nuclear weapons are morally indefensible …"
