Good riddance

The South-East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) has been a hollow shell for quite some time. And its formal liquidation, therefore, comes as no surprise. No tears need be shed for the end of this anachronistic set-up that was based on wrong assumptions and misguided universalism. The communique issued by the six-nation council after its New York meeting offers no specific reasons for winding up the SEATO, except suggesting that the momentous developments in Indochina have had their traumatic effects on this ‘brainchild’ of the late John Foster Dulles. Left to itself, the US would have liked continuation of the organisation. It, however, had no choice in view of the mounting opposition to the alliance in the Philippines and Thailand. Britain, New Zealand and Australia also wanted SEATO to continue its services as they thought it to be useful for peace and security of the region. But peace for whom and at what price? SEATO’s usefulness had ceased the day US President Nixon landed at Peking airport. The whole thrust of SEATO was supposedly directed against the advance of communism in the region and this surely did not fit in with America’s open flirtation with Mao’s China. That only made the Asian members of the alliance distrust the American policy in South-East Asia. The Thais and the Filipinos felt perturbed at Washington’s new postures. Since they suffered in other ways because of their association with SEATO, their unabashed alignment made them suspect in the eyes of the Third World and the target of uncompromising communist hostility.