:Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

{{Short description|Collective defense organization (1955–1977)}}

{{Not to be confused with|South East Asia Cultural Organisation|ASEAN{{!}}Association of Southeast Asian Nations}}

{{Infobox organization

| name = Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

| image = Flag of SEATO.svg

| image_border =

| size =

| alt = SEATO flag

| caption = SEATO's flag

| map = Map of SEATO member countries - en.svg

| mcaption = Map of SEATO members in 1959, shown in blue.

| abbreviation = SEATO

| motto =

| formation = 8 September 1954

| dissolved = 30 June 1977

| type = Intergovernmental military alliance

| status =

| purpose =

| headquarters = Bangkok, Thailand

| location =

| coords =

| region_served = Southeast Asia

| membership = {{Collapsible list|title=8 states

|{{flag|Australia}}

|{{flag|France}}

|{{flag|New Zealand}}

|{{flag|Pakistan}}

|{{flag|Philippines}}

|{{flag|Thailand}}

|{{flag|United Kingdom}}

|{{flag|United States|1960}}

}}
Non-members protected by SEATO{{Collapsible list|title=3 states

|{{flagcountry|Cambodia (1953–1970)}} (until 1956)

:{{flagcountry|Khmer Republic}} (1970–1975)

|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Laos}}

|{{flag|South Vietnam}}

}}

| languages = {{Collapsible list|title=6 languages

}}

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was an international organization for collective defense in Southeast Asia created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty signed in September 1954 in Manila, Philippines. The formal institution of SEATO was established on 19 February 1955 at a meeting of treaty partners in Bangkok, Thailand. The organization's headquarters was also in Bangkok. A total of eight members joined the organization in its lifetime.

Primarily created to block further communist gains in Southeast Asia, SEATO is generally considered a failure, as internal conflict and dispute hindered general use of the SEATO military; however, SEATO-funded cultural and educational programs left longstanding effects in Southeast Asia. SEATO was dissolved on 30 June 1977, after many of its members lost interest and withdrew.

Origins and structure

File:CongressBuilding SEATO.jpg in Manila, hosted by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on 24 October 1966]]

The Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty was signed on 8 September 1954 in Manila,{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=1}} as part of the American Truman Doctrine of creating anti-communist bilateral and collective defense treaties.{{Sfn|Jillson|2009|p=439}} These treaties and agreements were intended to create alliances that would keep communist powers in check (Communist China, in SEATO's case).{{Sfn|Ooi|2004|pp=338–339}} This policy was considered to have been largely developed by American diplomat George F. Kennan. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (1953–1959) is considered to be the primary force behind the creation of SEATO, which expanded the concept of anti-communist collective defense to Southeast Asia.{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=1}} Then-Vice President Richard Nixon advocated an Asian equivalent of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) upon returning from his Asia trip of late 1953,Toledano, Ralph de (1969). One Man Alone: Richard Nixon. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. pp.173–174. {{LCCN|71097942}} and NATO was the model for the new organization, with the military forces of each member intended to be coordinated to provide for the collective defense of the member states.{{Sfn|Boyer et al.|2007|p=836}}

The organization, headquartered in Bangkok,{{Sfn|Leifer|2005}} was created in 1955 at the first meeting of the Council of Ministers set up by the treaty. This was contrary to Dulles's preference to call the organization "ManPac" (Manila Pact) to avoid public identification of the pact with NATO.{{Cite report |url=https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-A-1.pdf |title=United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967 |publisher=Department of Defense |volume=IV. A. 1. |language=en |quote=it is interesting that Dulles was so concerned with avoiding a public identification of SEATO with NATO that he tried to have the new treaty called 'MANPAC,' for 'Manila Pact.' |quote-page=A-14 |section=NATO and SEATO: A Comparison |section-url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_States_–_Vietnam_Relations,_1945–1967:_A_Study_Prepared_by_the_Department_of_Defense/IV._A._1._U.S._MAP_for_Diem:_The_Eisenhower_Commitments,_1954–1960}} Organizationally, SEATO was headed by the Secretary General, whose office was created in 1957 at a meeting in Canberra,{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=184}}{{Sfn|Page|2003|p=548}} with a council of representatives from member states and an international staff. Also present were committees for economics, security, and information.{{Sfn|Page|2003|p=548}} SEATO's first Secretary General was Pote Sarasin, a Thai diplomat and politician who had served as Thailand's ambassador to the U.S. between 1952 and 1957,{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=186}}{{Sfn|Weiner|2008|p=351}} and as Prime Minister of Thailand from September 1957 to 1 January 1958.{{cite web |url=http://www.cabinet.thaigov.go.th/eng/pm_his.htm |title=History of Thai Prime Ministers |publisher=Royal Thai Government |access-date=22 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110426162320/http://www.cabinet.thaigov.go.th/eng/pm_his.htm |archive-date=26 April 2011 }}

Unlike the NATO alliance, SEATO had no joint commands with standing forces.{{Sfn|Hoiberg|Ramchandani|2000|p=60}} In addition, SEATO's response protocol in the event of communism presenting a "common danger" to the member states was vague and ineffective, though membership in the SEATO alliance did provide a rationale for a large-scale U.S. military intervention in the region during the Vietnam War (1955–1975).{{Sfn|Maga|2010}}

Membership

File:President Marcos and US President Johnson at the SEATO Conference at Malacañang Palace in 1966.jpg]]

File:LBJ meets with Ferdinand Marcos in Manila 1966-10-23.JPG, First Lady Imelda Marcos, and US President Lyndon Johnson conversing at the Manila Conference of SEATO members on the Vietnam War in Manila in October 1966]]

Despite its name, SEATO mostly included countries located outside of the region but with an interest either in the region or the organization itself. They were Australia (which administered Papua New Guinea, until 1975), France (which had recently relinquished French Indochina, by 1955), New Zealand, Pakistan (which, until 1971, included East Pakistan, now Bangladesh), the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom (which administered Hong Kong, North Borneo and Sarawak) and the United States.{{Sfn|Hoiberg|Ramchandani|2000|p=60}}

The Philippines and Thailand were the only Southeast Asian countries that actually participated in the organization. They shared close ties with the United States, particularly the Philippines, and they faced incipient communist insurgencies against their own governments.{{cite web |title=Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), 1954 |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/seato |publisher=Office of the Historian. U.S. Department of State |website=Milestones: 1953–1960 |access-date=2019-03-14}} Thailand became a member upon the discovery of the newly founded "Thai Autonomous Region" in Yunnan (the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in South West China) – apparently feeling threatened by potential Maoist subversion on its land.United States Psychological Studies Board (US PSB). (1953). US Psychological Strategy Based on Thailand, 14 September. Declassified Documents Reference System, 1994, 000556–000557, WH 120. Other regional countries like Burma and Indonesia were far more mindful of domestic internal stability rather than any communist threat, and thus rejected joining it.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18430820 Nehru Has Alternative To SEATO]. (5 August 1954). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842–1954), p. 1. Retrieved 3 October 2012. Malaya (independence in 1957; including Singapore between 1963 and 1965) also chose not to participate formally, though it was kept updated with key developments due to its close relationship with the United Kingdom.

The states newly formed from French Indochina (North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) were prevented from taking part in any international military alliance as a result of the Geneva Agreements signed 20 July of the same year concluding the end of the First Indochina War. However, with the lingering threat coming from communist North Vietnam and the possibility of the domino theory with Indochina turning into a communist frontier, SEATO got these countries under its protection – an act that would be considered to be one of the main justifications for the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.{{Sfn|Blaxland|2006|p=138}} Cambodia, however rejected the protection in 1956.{{Sfn|Grenville|Wasserstein|2001|p=366}}

The majority of SEATO members were not located in Southeast Asia. To Australia and New Zealand, SEATO was seen as a more satisfying organization than ANZUS – a collective defense organization with the U.S.{{Sfn|Brands|1987}} The United Kingdom and France joined partly due to having long maintained colonies in the region, and partly due to concerns over developments in Indochina. The U.S., upon perceiving Southeast Asia to be a pivotal frontier for Cold War geopolitics, saw the establishment of SEATO as essential to its Cold War containment policy.

The membership reflected a mid-1950s combination of anti-communist Western states and such states in Southeast Asia. The United Kingdom, France and the United States, the latter of which joined after the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty by an 82–1 vote,{{Sfn|Hearden|1990|p=46}} represented the strongest Western powers.{{Sfn|Tarling|1992|p=604}} Canada also considered joining, but decided against it in order to concentrate on its NATO responsibilities with its limited defense capabilities.{{Sfn|Blaxland|2006|p=138}}

=Budget=

Average of contributions to civil and military budgets between 1958 and 1973:Pierre Journoud, De Gaulle et le Vietnam: 1945–1969, Éditions Tallandier, Paris, 2011, {{ISBN|978-2847345698}}.{{pn|date=August 2023}}

United States: 24%
United Kingdom: 16%
France: 13.5%
Australia: 13.5%
Pakistan: 8%
Philippines: 8%
Thailand: 8%
New Zealand: 8%

=Secretaries-General=

Secretaries-General of SEATO:

Name	Country	From	To
class="wikitable"
Pote Sarasin	{{Country\|Thailand}}	5 September 1957	22 September 1958
William Worth (acting)	{{Country\|Australia}}	22 September 1957	10 January 1958
Pote Sarasin	{{Country\|Thailand}}	10 January 1958	13 December 1963
William Worth (acting)	{{Country\|Australia}}	13 December 1963	19 February 1964
{{Interlanguage link multi\|Konthi Suphamongkhon\|th\|กนต์ธีร์ ศุภมงคล\|de\|Konthi Suphamongkhon\|vertical-align=sup}}	{{Country\|Thailand}}	19 February 1964	1 July 1965
Jesus M. Vargas	{{Country\|Philippines\|1936}}	1 July 1965	5 September 1972
{{Interlanguage link multi\|Sunthorn Hongladarom\|th\|สุนทร หงส์ลดารมภ์\|de\|Sunthorn Hongladarom\|vertical-align=sup}}	{{Country\|Thailand}}	5 September 1972	30 June 1977

Military aspects

File:Sabre Mk32s RAAF in Thailand early 1960s.jpg in Thailand, deployed as part of Australia's commitment to SEATO|alt=A monoplane aircraft with three men and a fuel tanker truck. One of the men is wearing military uniform and the other two are clad only in shorts. The aircraft is mainly painted grey, but is marked with the Royal Australian Air Force roundel and stripes on its tail. The tail of another aircraft of similar appearance is visible in the background.]]

After its creation, SEATO quickly became insignificant militarily, as most of its member nations contributed very little to the alliance.{{Sfn|Blaxland|2006|p=138}} While SEATO military forces held joint military training, they were never deployed because of internal disagreements. SEATO was unable to intervene in conflicts in Laos because France and the United Kingdom rejected the use of military action.{{Sfn|Grenville|Wasserstein|2001|p=366}} As a result, the U.S. provided unilateral support for Laos after 1962.{{Sfn|Grenville|Wasserstein|2001|p=366}} Though sought by the U.S., involvement of SEATO in the Vietnam War was denied because of lack of British and French cooperation.{{Sfn|Grenville|Wasserstein|2001|p=366}}{{Sfn|Hearden|1990|p=46}}

Both the United States and Australia cited the alliance as justification for involvement in Vietnam.{{Sfn|Blaxland|2006|p=138}} U.S. membership in SEATO provided the United States with a rationale for a large-scale U.S. military intervention in Southeast Asia.{{Sfn|Maga|2010}} Other countries, such as the UK and key states in Asia, accepted the rationale.{{Sfn|Maga|2010}} In 1962, as part of its commitment to SEATO, the Royal Australian Air Force deployed CAC Sabres of its No. 79 Squadron to Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. The Sabres began to play a role in the Vietnam War in 1965, when their air defense responsibilities expanded to include protection of USAF aircraft using Ubon as a base for strikes against North Vietnam.{{Sfn|Stephens|1995|p=36}}{{cite book |author=Independent Review Panel |title=Report to the Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence |date=9 July 2004 |url=http://www.defence.gov.au/medals/Content/+060%20Reviews%20and%20Reports/Complete%20Ubon%20Report.pdf |access-date=1 May 2011}}

Cultural effects

File:seatostamp.jpg for SEATO]]

In addition to joint military training, SEATO member states worked on improving mutual social and economic issues.{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=183}} Such activities were overseen by SEATO's Committee of Information, Culture, Education, and Labor Activities, and proved to be some of SEATO's greatest successes.{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=183}} In 1959, SEATO's first Secretary General, Pote Sarasin, created the SEATO Graduate School of Engineering (currently the Asian Institute of Technology) in Thailand to train engineers.{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=186}} SEATO also sponsored the creation of the Teacher Development Center in Bangkok, as well as the Thai Military Technical Training School, which offered technical programs for supervisors and workmen.{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=188}} SEATO's Skilled Labor Project (SLP) created artisan training facilities, especially in Thailand, where ninety-one training workshops were established.{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=188}}

SEATO also provided research funding and grants in agriculture and medical fields.{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=189}} In 1959, SEATO set up the Cholera Research Laboratory in Bangkok, later establishing a second Cholera Research Laboratory in Dacca, East Pakistan.{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=189}} The Dacca (now Dhaka) laboratory soon became the world's leading cholera research facility and was later renamed the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh.{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|pp=189–190}} SEATO was also interested in literature, and a SEATO Literature Award was created and given to writers from member states.{{cite web|url=http://ppat.dbp.gov.my/ppat2001/trislipa.htm|title=Literary Trends and Literary Promotions in Thailand|last=Boonkhachorn|first=Trislipa|access-date=24 April 2011}}

Criticism and dissolution

Though Secretary of State John Foster Dulles considered SEATO an essential element in U.S. foreign policy in Asia, historians have considered the Manila Pact a failure, and the pact is rarely mentioned in history books.{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=1}} In The Geneva Conference of 1954 on Indochina, Sir James Cable, a British diplomat and naval strategist,{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1359279/Sir-James-Cable.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1359279/Sir-James-Cable.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Sir James Cable |date=13 October 2001 |work=www.telegraph.co.uk |publisher=Telegraph Media Group |access-date=29 March 2011}}{{cbignore}} cabled the Foreign Office and described SEATO as "a fig leaf for the nakedness of American policy", citing the Manila Pact as a "zoo of paper tigers".{{Sfn|Franklin|2006|p=1}} As early as the 1950s Aneurin Bevan unsuccessfully tried to block SEATO in the British Parliament, at one point interrupting a parliamentary debate between Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and Leader of the Opposition Clement Attlee to excoriate them both for considering the idea.{{Sfn|Campbell|2010|p=222}}

Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia reported that Foster Dulles went to great efforts to convince him to join SEATO; however, he refused because "I considered SEATO an aggressive military alliance directed against neighbors whose ideology I did not share but with whom Cambodia had no quarrel".{{cite book |last1=Sihanouk |first1=Norodom |title=My War with the CIA The Memoirs of Prince Norodom Sihanouk |date=1973 |publisher=Pantheon Books |page=75}} However, this statement is misleading, as Sihanouk later aligned the Kingdom of Cambodia with Communist governments and political parties such as the China and North Vietnam, Khmer Rouge, which directly opposed Cambodia's proclaimed neutrality and contributed to internal conflict and regional instability. This contradiction calls into question the inconsistency of his "commitment to non-alignment and neutrality."{{sfnp|Osborne|1994|p=152}}{{Clarification|reason=Sentences are not coherent. Full citation needs to be placed in the references.|date=January 2025}}

In the early 1970s, the question of dissolving the organization arose. Pakistan withdrew in 1973, after East Pakistan seceded and became Bangladesh on 16 December 1971.{{Sfn|Page|2003|p=548}} South Vietnam was defeated in war and annexed by North Vietnam and France withdrew financial support in 1975,{{Sfn|Hoiberg|Ramchandani|2000|p=60}} and the SEATO council agreed to the phasing-out of the organization.{{cite news |title=Thai given mandate to dissolve SEATO |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0lQ0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=YbkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3661%2C2633318 |newspaper=The Montreal Gazette |date=25 September 1975 |access-date=8 July 2012}} After a final exercise on 20 February 1976, the organization was formally dissolved on 30 June 1977 during the Carter administration.{{Sfn|Hoiberg|Ramchandani|2000|p=60}} Despite the dissolution of SEATO, its underlying collective defense treaty remains in force.{{cite web |url=http://www.almc.army.mil/ALU_INTERNAT/CountryNotes/PACOM/THAILAND.pdf |title=Thailand |work=Army Logistics University |publisher=United States Army |access-date=6 July 2012 |quote=Despite the dissolution of the SEATO in 1977, the Manila Pact remains in force and, together with the Thanat-Rusk communiqué of 1962, constitutes the basis of U.S. security commitments to Thailand. |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502004607/http://www.almc.army.mil/ALU_INTERNAT/CountryNotes/PACOM/THAILAND.pdf}}

Notes

References

{{cite book|title=Strategic Cousins: Australian and Canadian Expeditionary Forces and the British and American Empires |first=John C. |last=Blaxland |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7735-3035-5 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press}}
{{cite book|ref={{harvid|Boyer et al.|2007}}|title=The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People|edition=6th AP |first1=Paul |last1=Boyer |first2=Clifford Jr. |last2=Clark |first3=Joseph |last3=Kett |first4=Neal |last4=Salisbury |first5=Harvard |last5=Sitkoff |first6=Nancy |last6=Woloch |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-618-80163-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/boyersenduringvi00paul}}
{{cite journal |last=Brands |first=Henry W. Jr. |date=May 1987 |title=From ANZUS to SEATO: United States Strategic Policy towards Australia and New Zealand, 1952–1954 |journal=The International History Review |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=250–270 |doi=10.1080/07075332.1987.9640442}}
{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/pistolsatdawntwo0000camp/13960/t6wx5mm07 |title=Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown |publisher=Vintage |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-84595-091-0 |location=London |oclc=489636152}}
{{cite book|first=John K.|last=Franklin|title=The Hollow Pact: Pacific Security and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization |year=2006|isbn=978-0-542-91563-5}}
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{{cite book|last1=Hoiberg|first1=Dale|last2=Ramchandani |first2=Indu|year=2000 |title=Students' Britannica India, Volume Five |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica (India) |url=https://archive.org/details/studentsbritanni05hoib/page/n5/mode/2up |isbn=978-0-85229-760-5}}
{{cite book|last=Jillson|first=Cal|title=American Government: Political Development and Institutional Change|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2009|isbn=978-0-415-99570-2}}
{{cite book|last=Leifer|first=Michael|title=Michael Leifer: Selected Works on Southeast Asia|editor=Chin Kin Wah, Leo Suryadinata |year=2005|publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies |isbn=978-981-230-270-0}}
{{cite book|first=Timothy P.|last=Maga|year= 2010|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-1-61564-040-9|title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Vietnam War, 2nd Edition}}
{{cite book|title=Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, From Angkor Wat to East Timor, Volume 2|editor-first=Keat Gin|editor-last=Ooi|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2004|isbn=978-1-57607-770-2}}
{{Cite book|last=Osborne|first=Milton E|title=Sihanouk Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness|year=1994|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=978-0-8248-1639-1}}
{{cite book|title=Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia|editor-first=Melvin E.|editor-last=Page|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2003|isbn=978-1-57607-335-3}}
{{cite book|title=Going Solo: The Royal Australian Air Force, 1946–1971|first=Alan|last=Stephens|publisher=Australian Govt. Pub. Service|year=1995|isbn=978-0-644-42803-3}}
{{cite book|title=The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: Volume 2|first=Nicholas|last=Tarling|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1992|isbn=978-0-521-35506-3}}
{{cite book|title=Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA|first=Tim|last=Weiner|publisher=Random House Digital|year=2008|isbn=978-0-307-38900-8}}

External links

[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/usmu003.asp Copy of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty (Manila Pact); 8 September 1954], from Yale Law School
{{Internet Archive short film|id=gov.archives.arc.2569671|name=Big Picture: Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) Nations}}

Category:20th-century military alliances

Category:Military units and formations established in 1954

Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1977

Category:Organizations based in Bangkok

Category:1954 in the United States

Category:Cold War alliances and military strategy

Category:Cold War treaties

Category:Former international organizations

Category:Military history of Southeast Asia

Category:Anti-communist organizations

Category:International military organizations

Category:Intergovernmental organizations established by treaty