SOUTHEAST ASIA: Unhurried Approach

After having been brought to a dead stop by defeat at Geneva, the U.S. last week began to bestir itself again in Asia. Out to seven prospective partners went copies of a new draft treaty designed to create a Southeast Asia defense coalition (SEATO). The treaty will be discussed next week at a meeting in Manila, with John Foster Dulles on hand to make the U.S. case.

Regrettably, only three Asian nations —Pakistan. Thailand and the Philippines —had accepted invitations; the others who would be present were Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand. According to the draft proposal, these SEATO powers would recognize that an armed attack against any part of the SEATO area would endanger them all, and would act to meet the common danger “in accordance with their own constitutional processes”—in other words, not automatically. In the likelier event of the Communist technique of “rotting from within,” Indo-China-style, the SEATO powers would “consult immediately.” This was hardly a firm pledge, but at least it would give the U.S. (or other nations) an opportunity to step into such situations if they wished. SEATO’s proposed boundaries would extend north to the 21° 30 min. parallel, thereby excluding Formosa from the zone of coalition defense.

A third plank in SEATO would be economic mutual assistance. The Thais and the Filipinos objected at once that such a SEATO was not strong enough. On the other hand, the treaty went just about as far as the British were prepared to go; the British wanted a “constructive, unhurried approach.” The British even hoped that one passage in the treaty draft might be changed, leveling SEATO not against “Communist aggression” but simply against “aggression.”