SOUTHEAST ASIA TREATY ORGANIZATION

(SEATO PACT)
The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was an international organization for
collective defense in Southeast Asia created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense
Treaty, or Manila Pact, 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 were also in Bangkok. Eight members
joined the organization.

Primarily created to block further communist gains in Southeast Asia, SEATO is generally
considered a failure because 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
members lost interest and withdrew.

Origins and structure

The Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, or Manila Pact, was signed on 8 September
1954 in Manila, as part of the American Truman Doctrine of creating anti-communist
bilateral and collective defense treaties. These treaties and agreements were intended to
create alliances that would contain communist powers (Communist China, in SEATO's
case).[This policy was considered to have been largely developed by American diplomat and
Soviet expert 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.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, 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.

The organization, headquartered in Bangkok, was created in 1955 at the first meeting of the
Council of Ministers set up by the treaty, contrary to Dulles's preference to call the
organization "ManPac". Organizationally, SEATO was headed by the Secretary General,
whose office was created in 1957 at a meeting in Canberra, with a council of representatives
from member nations and an international staff. Also present were committees for
economics, security, and information. 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, and as Prime Minister of Thailand from September 1957 to 1 January 1958.

Unlike the NATO alliance, SEATO had no joint commands with standing forces. In
addition, SEATO's response protocol in the event of communism presenting a "common
danger" to the member nations 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).

Military aspects

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.

Australian No. 79 Squadron Sabres at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand,
deployed as part of Australia's commitment to SEATO.

After its creation, SEATO quickly became insignificant militarily, as most of its member
nations contributed very little to the alliance. While SEATO military forces held joint
military training, they were never employed because of internal disagreements. SEATO was
unable to intervene in conflicts in Laos because France and the United Kingdom rejected
use of military action. As a result, the U.S. provided unilateral support for Laos after 1962.
Though sought by the U.S., involvement of SEATO in the Vietnam War was denied because
of lack of British and French cooperation.

Both the United States and Australia cited the alliance as justification for involvement in
Vietnam. U.S. membership in SEATO provided the United States with a rationale for a
large-scale U.S. military intervention in Southeast Asia. Other countries, such as the UK
and key nations in Asia, accepted the rationale. 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 defence responsibilities expanded to include protection of USAF
aircraft using Ubon as a base for strikes against North Vietnam.

Cultural effects

In addition to joint military training, SEATO member states worked on improving mutual
social and economic issues. 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. 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. 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. SEATO's Skilled Labor
Project (SLP) created artisan training facilities, especially in Thailand, where ninety-one
training workshops were established.
SEATO also provided research funding and grants in agriculture and medical fields. In 1959,
SEATO set up the Cholera Research Laboratory in Bangkok, later establishing a second
Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Dhaka laboratory soon became
the world's leading cholera research facility and was later renamed the International Centre
for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. SEATO was also interested in literature, and a
SEATO Literature Award was created and given to writers from member states.

Criticism and dissolution

Though Secretary of State 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. In The Geneva Conference of 1954 on Indochina, Sir James
Cable, a diplomat and naval strategist, described SEATO as "a fig leaf for the nakedness of
American policy", citing the Manila Pact as a "zoo of paper tigers".

Consequently, questions of dissolving the organization arose. Pakistan withdrew in 1972,