President Lyndon Johnson's 24-hour visit was aimed at shoring up support for the war in Vietnam. Protesters were outnumbered by enthusiastic crowds.
Americans
Events In History
29 March 1959
In the first half of 1959 Billy Graham and his associate evangelists Leighton Ford, Grady Wilson and Joseph Blinco held crusades in New Zealand and Australia which attracted large audiences.
21 January 1889
‘Professor’ Thomas Baldwin landed safely by parachute from a balloon floating high above South Dunedin.
17 April 1820
The American sealer General Gates – named for a War of Independence general and commanded by Captain Abimileck Riggs – had sailed from Boston in October 1818.
Articles
Nuclear-free New Zealand
The sinking of the Greenpeace protest ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland in July 1985 shocked the nation. The incident galvanised an anti-nuclear movement that had emerged in opposition to both French nuclear tests at Mururoa and American warship visits to New Zealand. Read the full article
Page 3 - Ship visits
The visit of the nuclear-powered frigate USS Texas in 1983 sparked protest in New
Page 4 - Nuclear-free legislation
Labour leader David Lange tried to work with the Americans, but their 'neither confirm nor deny' policy made a middle ground virtually impossible to
Temperance movement
Temperance was one of the most divisive social issues in late-19th and early-20th century New Zealand. Social reformers who argued that alcohol fuelled poverty, ill health, crime and immorality nearly achieved national prohibition in a series of hotly contested referendums. Read the full article
Page 5 - The decline of prohibition
Alcohol remained an important issue after the war, and the prohibitionists slogged it out with the liquor trade throughout the 1920s.
Main image: War brides leaving for the US
Before departing for the United States, a group of war brides pose with an American soldier in Albert Park, Auckland
