SIGNED. We Were There: Operation Grapple.NZ's Involvement in nuclear testing.

We Were There: Operation Grapple : the Story of New Zealand's Involvement in the British Nuclear Weapons Tests at Christmas Island 1957-58. SIGNED BY AUTHOR Gerry Wright. Inscribed to previous owner.

Publisher: Gerry Wright, Auckland, 2007, first edition. VERY SCAREC. Good softback with shelwear and minor marks. 240 pages with photos.

In order to understand how the Royal New Zealand Navy came to play a small but significant in the United play part Kingdom's nuclear testing programme in the Pacific during 1957 and 1958, it is necessary to appreciate the extent to which New Zealand's foreign and defence policies then centred on the Commonwealthl . Th e t New Zealand Government supported the production and testing of atomic and thermonuclear weapons by the United Kingdom because it believed that this would materially enhance the security of New Zealand and the rest of the Commonwealth2 . It was therefore hardly surprising that the New Zealand Government should direct the Armed Forces to assist in the British nuclear testing programme, indeed the RNZN contribution to the programme was simply a somewhat unusual facet of the close Commonwealth defence relationship which dominated much of the Armed Forces' plans and activities.