US ambassador loved NZ despite nuclear controversy

H. Monroe Browne, the United States ambassador to New Zealand when the relationship was strained by the anti-nuclear issue, has died. He was 89.

Mr Browne died at his home in California yesterday of a heart attack, the US Embassy in Wellington said.

National leader Robert Muldoon was Prime Minister when Mr Browne took up his post in Wellington in 1981.

By the end of his posting four years later, Labour was in power, under Prime Minister David Lange.

For many years the Labour Party had had a strong anti-nuclear policy, which included banning nuclear ships from New Zealand ports. That policy was in conflict with Anzus, a long-standing defence alliance between Australia, the US and New Zealand.

Mr Browne attended a crucial meeting between Mr Lange and US Secretary of State George Schultz soon after Labour won the 1984 election.

He came away believing that Mr Lange would persevere with Anzus, and that US ship visits would continue.

Not only was he proved wrong when New Zealand went nuclear-free in 1985, but as an owner of a racehorse called Lacka Reason, he suffered the Lange wit when his term expired. "You must be the only ambassador in the world to own a horse named after his country's foreign policy," Mr Lange told him.

Current US Ambassador Bill McCormick said of Mr Browne: "He loved this country and its people and kept in touch with many of his Kiwi friends."

- NZPA