What is SEATO?

Title

What is SEATO?

Creator

Copeland, W. W.

Language

English

Year

1968

Subject

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

From the Free World, February 1968 issue.

Fulltext

WHAT IS SEATO? The South-East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) cele brated its 13th birthday on September 8, 1967, with the dedication of a new and permanent headquarters building in Bangkok by His Majesty Phumipol Adul yadej, the young and popu lar King of Thailand. Where did SEATO come from? It was born in Mani la in 1954, fathered by eight nations faced with, or con cerned with, an aggressive communist threat against the very -existence of developing nations in Southeast Asia. Many of these had come into being after the Second World War and were struggling with politi cal, social, and economic problems in efforts to build a secure life for their peo ples. In this time of change and insecurity, communist lead ers exploited social unrest and nationalistic feelings among the peoples of the region. Communist move ments, directed and aided from the outside, kept try ing to take over, sometimes by direct external aggres sion, sometimes by insur gency. In the Philippines, in the area then called In dochina, in Burma and the Malayan peninsula, the threat reached critical pro portions. In 1949, Mao Tse-tung’s communists se cured control of the whole Chinese mainland. In June 1950, the communist North Korean army invaded the Republic of Korea in a bold effort to seize that new na tion. The effort was thwarted, after a fierce struggle, by the forces of several nations under the United Nations aegis, end ing in an uneasy armistice in 1953. By early 1954 the com munist-led Viet Minh had seized much of the north ern province of Tonkin and had advanced into Laos, driving^ toward the border of Thailand. Thailand made Panorama an urgent appeal to the United Nations Security Council for a team of peace observers to investi gate developments along its frontier with Laos. This reasonable request obtained nine affirmative votes and one abstention, but was vetoed by the Soviet Union. In July 1954, the Geneva Agreement was signed, divid ing Vietnam at the 17th pa rallel and ostensibly ending the conflict in Indochina. There was hope among peo ple throughout the world that this could mark the be ginning of a new era of peace. Still concerned about the communist threat on its northeastern border, Thai land decided to have re course to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. This article authorizes col lective defense treaties. The Manila Conference of September 1954 brought the representatives of eight na tions together to find a way to meet the threats to free dom in the area, since the Soviet veto nad prevented the UN Security Council from taking effective ac tion. Their answer was a collective defense organiza tion which included Austra lia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United King dom and the United States. The representatives of these eight nations drew up and on September 8, 1954, sign ed the Manila Pact which brought SEATO into being. What is it all about? In short, SEAlO’s mis sion is twofold^ On the one hand it aims to stem di rect, overt communist ag gression by creating and maintaining the necessary military defenses or deter rent power. How does SEATO work? A Council of Ministers, comprising the foreign min isters of member nations, governs SEATO. It meets annualy to determine poli cy and to review the pro gress of SEATO activities. The meetings alternate be tween the various capitals. The last meeting was in Washington in 1967, the next one will be in Welling ton in April 1968. The Council of Ministers is represented at SEATO headquarters by Council Representatives, consisting of the ambassadors to Thailand of each member nation and August 1968 27 a representative of the Thai Foreign Office. The council representatives meet month ly with the Secretary-General of SEATO to review poli cy, programming and plan ning and to consider SEATO projects. The Secretary-General, who is the executive head of the organization, is res ponsible to the council when it is in session, and at other times to the council represen tatives. He directs a staff of international officers. Under the Council of Mi nisters are the military ad visers. These are officers of member governments at their theater command or chief-ofstaff level. They meet twice yearly to review the miKtary situation in the area and to approve the work and plans of the Military Planning Of fice (MPO), located at SEATO headquarters in Bangkok. The MPO plans are tested in annual prog rams of military exercises — maritime, amphibious, air ground and command-post. They provide for a combina tion of fighting forces which understand each other’s me thods, weapons and lang uage. Thirty-four exercises have been held over the past 11 years. SEATO has no standing forces, as in the case of NA TO, because this is consi dered unrealistic in terms of the strategic situation in Southeast Asia. It relies instead on the rapid combi nation of forces trained to work together and has de monstrated in actual maneu vers that these forces can be speedily assembled and efficiently coordinated to carry out concerted actions. SEATO is not concerned with overt communist at tack alone but also with countering and preventing communist subversion. As sistance to member nations in this field is a primary consideration of the Secre tary-General of SEATO, Lieutenant-General Jesus M. Vargas, former Chief of Staff and former Secretary of De fense of the Philippines. General Vargas operates from firsthand experience in fight ing insurgency. He played a leading role in breaking the back of the communistled Huk’s attempt to seize power in the Philippines more than a decade ago. Secretary-General Vargas places high value on 28 Panorama SEATO’s civil program. “Security is essential,” he says, "but progress in the social, economic, and related fields is imperative. It is axiomatic that military strength alone is insufficient today to en sure national security. The armed forces are a shield but behind that shield must be a strong economy coupled with social progress.” Over the years, SEATO has striven to strengthen the nations of the area in vital social, economic and cultural fields through pojects carried on by SEATO or by mem ber nations, either indivi dually or collectively. SEATO has sponsored a number of studies on the requirements of its Asian members for skilled labor for their developing indus tries. Two technical train ing schools were established in Pakistan as models for. the training of technicians throughout the countryi In Thailand, the skilled labor project provides nearly half of the technical trailing fa cilities available in the coun try. Twenty vocational schools have been established on the basis of existing car pentry schools in major pro vincial towns in Thailand. The SEATO Technical Training School in Bangkok offers a course for future technical supervisors, fore men and skilled workers in the Thai armed services schools and workshops. This is a bilateral project by Aus tralia and Thailand, under SEATO sponsorship. Similar projects have been under taken in the fields of educa tion, health, tribal research and community development. An outstanding project is the SEATO Graduate School of Engineering in Bangkok, a unique regional school open to graduates from all countries in Southeast Asia. It offers courses in five branches of civil engineering, leading to a master’s degree, and the school has now been expanded into the Asian In stitute of Technology, which will become independent and shed its SEATO sponsorship. SEATO is also concerned with health problems, and has sponsored a medical re search laboratory and a cli nical research center in Bang kok. The first deals with research into the causes and treatments of diseases which ravage the area — malaria, haemorrhagic fever, liverfluke. The second, the August 1968 29 SEATO Clinical Research Center, seeks improved meth ods of diagnosis of the ma jor diseases of Southeast Asia and is doing research on the treatment and medical man agement of patients. Another project is the SEATO Cholera Research Laboratory in Dacca which has become the world’s ma jor institution of its kind. The cholera laboratory has already made notable ad vances in the treatment of the disease and continues studies into its causes and prevention. — By W. W. Copeland in the Free World, February, 1968 issue. KITCHEN Such is life. It is no cleaner than a kitchen; it reeks of a kitchen; and if you mean to cook your dinner, you must expect to soil your hands; the real art is getting them clean again, and therein lies the whole morality of our epoch. — Honore de Balzac 30 Panorama

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