I have spent some time in NZ. The country has a large hard-core left that blames America for every bad thing in the world. We saved their ass in WWII and they thank us by kicking out our navy, at least until the next time they need us.
There's a former World War 2 US Marine Corps base just up the road from where I live in New Zealand. They were a bunch of brave lads who trained here for a while and went on to fight their way through some tough times in the Pacific. They and their fellow US servicemen also introduced some strange foreign ways to NZ: things like milkshakes, hamburgers, coffee bars and softball. Some of them even took home Kiwi wives, which was the sore point behind a few legendary bar brawls.
I went to see an extensive museum exhibition telling the story of those Marines not so long ago. So they are remembered and honoured. Our gratitude to them for helping to "save our ass".
However, we also think we played a pretty fair role in any ass-saving that went on. More than 200,000 Kiwis served in the armed forces in WW2, not bad for a country of only 2 million. We suffered more than 11,000 dead in places such as Greece, Crete, North Africa, Italy, the Battle of Britain, the Pacific, and in the skies over Germany. It's worth remembering that we were at war for two years before the US joined in - and most welcome your boys were.