Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
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. Eight members joined the organization.
Not to be confused with South East Asia Cultural Organisation or Association of Southeast Asian Nations.Abbreviation
SEATO
8 September 1954
Bangkok, Thailand
Non-members protected by SEATO
Cambodia (until 1956)
Khmer Republic (1970–1975)
Laos
South Vietnam
Total: US$1.236 trillion
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.
Criticism and dissolution[edit]
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.[1] In The Geneva Conference of 1954 on Indochina, Sir James Cable, a British diplomat and naval strategist,[30] 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".[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.[31]
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.[8] South Vietnam was defeated in war and annexed by North Vietnam and France withdrew financial support in 1975,[12] and the SEATO council agreed to the phasing-out of the organization.[32] After a final exercise on 20 February 1976, the organization was formally dissolved on 30 June 1977 during the Carter administration.[12] Despite the dissolution of SEATO, its underlying collective defense treaty remains in force.[33]