Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)

Abstract

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was a military alliance created to defend Southeast Asia against communist aggression and subversion during the Cold War. SEATO was the organization formed in 1955 to implement the Southeast Asia Collective Defence Treaty, also known as the Manila Pact, signed in Manila in September 1954. Signatory members included Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States of America (US). The roots of SEATO can be found in one of the main events of the Cold War: communist victory in the civil war in China, leading to the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in October 1949. SEATO's declared purpose was to organize collective security to deter, or if necessary defeat, Chinese communist aggression in the region. The treaty and the organization it produced were the direct response to the military victory won by the communistled Vietminh in their war to expel French power from Vietnam. The struggle to contain communism in Vietnam defined SEATO from start to finish; massive American military intervention sidelined SEATO in 1965. This led many scholars to dismiss SEATO as an abject failure. This is hasty, but it does stem from something central: the relationship between the nature of the alliance and the problems it confronted.

India in the Indo-Pacific

“…The establishment of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) in 1954 had brought out the political incompatibilities, mistrust, and discord between the Asian countries. SEATO was a US-led collective defence grouping against communism and included France, Great Britain, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and Pakistan (Farrell, 2011). In a letter detailing the conference, Nehru noted that some delegates were "committed to either NATO or SEATO and were thus parts of the American system of military pacts and alliances.…”