It was quiet Sunday night, Parliament was nearly deserted. The Herald office was the only room in the press gallery with a light still on when a backbench MP in the Labour Government came in the tell the duty reporter what was happening.
Next morning the front page lead reported that cabinet ministers had come under a full scale "fax attack" from party members worried that the cabinet meeting that day would accept a visit by a United States warship, USS Buchanan.
They had reason to be worried. Deputy Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer had spent the previous week carefully explaining how the Government proposed to make the decision without challenging the US Government's refusal to confirm or deny whether the conventionally-powered Buchanan was carrying nuclear weapons.
The fax attack, orchestrated by party president Margaret Wilson, former president Jim Anderton and his caucus colleague Helen Clark, had the desired effect. Whatever hopes Prime Minister David Lange had entertained that he could reconcile the anti-nuclear policy with the Anzus alliance, were dashed that night.
