One of the biggest foreign policy flops that the United States ever pushed for was SEATO, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. After the success of NATO in creating an alliance of democratic nations dedicated to fighting the spread of communism, the US government pinpointed Southeast Asia as an area that could benefit from a similar treaty. This idea was especially spurred on by the domino theory, a concept that if one country fell to communism, it would spread to all of the surrounding countries as well. With the Korean War signifying a spread of communism through Asia, and the start of the Vietnam War imminent as well, democratic countries across the world were growing concerned about Southeast Asia and decided it was time to take action.
On September 8, 1954, the countries of France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand signed the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, which was the beginning of SEATO. One of the most hilarious things about it was that only two of the member countries were located in Southeast Asia, with the rest being international democratic powers. In comparison to NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), which was made up entirely of countries from the North Atlantic, SEATO failed to live up to its name and seemed like a foreign policy joke.
Even worse, SEATO did not make any major accomplishments and did little that made it a memorable organization. Besides being an attempt to signify the power and determination of democracy in an increasingly communist Southeast Asia, SEATO did very little at all. The organization failed to get any additional membership of Asian countries, maintaining only the Philippines, a country already aligned/associated with America, and Thailand, a country that remained dedicated to democracy.
Overall, SEATO was one of the biggest foreign policy flops in international history, while at the same time remaining unmemorable for accomplishing so little. While no obvious good came from the organization, examining the failures of SEATO may have helped these democratic powers to make smarter foreign policy decisions.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Southeast-Asia-Treaty-Organization
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/seato-established
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/seato
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Southeast-Asia-Treaty-Organization
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/seato-established
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/seato
This was an insightful post about how SEATO was a failure. Perhaps the failure of SEATO was similar to the failure of the League of Nations. While they failed for somewhat different reasons, the League of Nations was similarly a joke because it had no military force or method of enforcing any diplomatic actions. It seems that from these failures, we can learn that successful diplomacy can only come through the participation of the parties represented (i.e. SEATO should have more parties from SEA) and the presence of military forces to actually accomplish objectives.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/league-of-nations-failures/
Kenneth, I found your post quite enlightening. I faintly remember learning about SEATO, and now I know why it was faint. It seems that the reason behind SEATO's creation and eventual failure was the conflict in Vietnam. SEATO was formed in part because the US wanted an alliance that could deter Communist advances in Southeast Asia, subscribing to the then popular belief in the domino theory. As a result, the chaotic South Vietnam was technically under the protection of SEATO, and was part of the reason that the organization was formed. Unfortunately, when the conflict in Vietnam escalated to war, only a few countries in the alliance contributed military support, and even then it was tepid. After the war it was clear that the organization was weak and unsuccessful, and after a pittance of 188 soldiers from 5 countries conducted a routine training operation, the closing ceremony occurred and SEATO Was retired to the halls of history.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/seato-disbands