The Manila Pact aka SEATO

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was an international organization and alliance for collective defense against growing communist influences mainly in Southeast Asia, the Philippines included. The treaty was signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines and Pakistan in Manila, Philippines on September 8, 1954. The treaty became effective in February 1955 and bound the countries to mutual aid to resist any armed attacks. It was assumed that one attack on any one of these countries meant that it was an attack on all the countries so therefore the countries did their best to aid their fellow treaty signature countries.

Historically, SEATO was supposed to mimic NATO and be the Southeast Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Its purpose was to ideally have military forces back up each member if the call for defense was needed.

Members of SEATO reflected strong forces within each of their region. The U.S. and the United Kingdom obviously were the western powerhouses. Other countries such as Australia, Thailand, New Zealand and the Philippines signified “westernized” nations in the Southeast Asian region.

Originally, Pakistan was not included but treaty forces felt that they needed East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to be a part of their organization because the country itself is so geographically near to Southeast Asia. They believed that this would tie together Mid-East and Southeast Asian countries.

In comparison to the NATO alliance, SEATO did not hold joint commands with other forces. Also, the attack on one treaty member did not automatically mean there was an attack on all members even if that was the ideal purpose. This was a weakness for the alliance, which caused discrepancy in support for each other. Following the disinterest of France following communist conflict in Cambodia, the United Kingdom also began to lose faith in SEATO causing SEATO to be unreliable as a secure organization. This caused the Philippines to not rely on SEATO as a form of protection against communist insurgencies within their own country.

Due to the lack of reliability and security among the members, and ultimate membership withdrawals, SEATO was disbanded on June 30, 1977.

-V. Armas