According to the U.S. State Department, relations between New Zealand and the United States as of August 2011 are "the best they have been in decades." New Zealand is a major non-NATO ally of the United States.
United States and New Zealand share common ancestry and comparable histories, having both been British colonies with indigenous populations. Both states have also been part of a Western alliance of states in various wars. Together with three other Anglophone countries, they comprise the Five Eyes espionage and intelligence alliance.
History
The United States established consular representation in New Zealand in 1838 to represent and protect American shipping and whaling interests, appointing James Reddy Clendon as Consul, resident in Russell. In 1840, New Zealand became part of the British Empire with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. Although it gradually grew more independent, for its first hundred years, New Zealand followed the United Kingdom's lead on foreign policy. In declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939, Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage proclaimed, "Where she goes, we go; where she stands, we stand".
Conflicts fought alongside the United States
New Zealand has fought in a number of conflicts on the same side as the United States, including World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the Afghanistan War; it also sent a unit of army engineers to help rebuild Iraqi infrastructure during the Iraq War.
World War II
During the Pacific theater of WWII (1941-1945), significant numbers of US military personnel were deployed to New Zealand to prepare for crucial battles such as Guadalcanal and Tarawa; there were between 15,000 and 45,000 US servicemen stationed in New Zealand at any one time between June 1942 and mid-1944. The habits and spending power of these troops had various influences on New Zealand's culture.
Though relations were largely positive, some points of tension developed. For example, the 1st Marine Division, was tasked with loading reconfiguration from administrative to combat configuration during a strike by Wellington dock workers. The Battle of Manners Street also occurred in Wellington involving American servicemen and New Zealand servicemen and civilians outside the Allied Services Club in Manners Street after American servicemen in the Services Club began forcibly stopping Māori soldiers from also using the Club because of their skin colour. Many New Zealand soldiers in the area, both white (Pākehā) and Māori, combined in opposition. The battle resulted in a possible two American deaths and 1 New Zealand Serviceman being arrested, as well as a cover up.
After the war New Zealand joined with Australia and the United States in the ANZUS security treaty in 1951.
ANZUS Treaty
The Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS or ANZUS Treaty) is the military alliance which binds Australia and New Zealand and, separately, Australia and the United States to cooperate on defence matters in the Pacific Ocean area, though today the treaty is understood to relate to defence operations. Initially the 1951 ANZUS Treaty was a fully mutual collective security alliance between Australia, New Zealand and the United States, but this is no longer the case as the United States suspended its treaty obligations to New Zealand following the refusal to allow an American destroyer, the , into a New Zealand port in February 1985. A 1984 policy of a New Zealand nuclear-free zone meant that any ship thought to be carrying nuclear weapons was banned from New Zealand's ports, which meant all American naval vessels were essentially denied access due to the American policy to 'neither confirm nor deny' the presence of nuclear weapons.