Labour PM's widow says his chief adviser is reinventing history with his book about old nuclear wounds
 The destroyer USS Buchanan was at the centre of the Anzus nuclear furore that engulfed the government of Prime Minister David Lange who died in 2005. Photo / File
The destroyer USS Buchanan was at the centre of the Anzus nuclear furore that engulfed the government of Prime Minister David Lange who died in 2005. Photo / File

David Lange's former chief adviser Gerald Hensley has come to the conclusion that the former Prime Minister lied about his early involvement in the anti-nuclear crisis that gripped the fourth Labour Government.
But Mr Lange's widow, Margaret Pope, says her husband never trusted Mr Hensley because of his views on Anzus and she is sceptical about how he will be portrayed in his book.

"David inherited him from [former Prime Minister Rob] Muldoon and he did not trust him and he wanted him to go but Gerald would never take the hint," she told the Herald.
"The reason why he didn't trust him wasn't anything to do with Gerald personally but because he was so much of the world view that said we had to be in Anzus, no matter what."

The old nuclear wounds are being re-opened with the publication of Friendly Fire, by Mr Hensley, on how the nuclear policy led to the collapse of the Anzus pact.
Mr Hensley was then head of the Prime Minister's Department and worked closely alongside Mr Lange and the United States over the first proposed US ship visit after the 1984 election.

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