MultilateralThe alliance era
Pakistan signs the Manila Pact
Pakistan became one of eight members of SEATO, an anti-communist alliance in which Washington and Karachi had different enemies in mind.
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Treaty
Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty
The Manila Pact
Signed at Manila by eight states
Treaty
Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty
The Manila Pact
Signed at Manila by eight states
What happened
Representatives of Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States signed the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty in Manila on 8 September 1954, creating the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)1,2. Its purpose was to prevent communism from gaining ground in the region; only two of its members, Thailand and the Philippines, were in South-East Asia itself1. Pakistan's East Wing (today Bangladesh) gave it a geographical link to the treaty area.
Each party agreed that armed attack on any member in the treaty area would endanger its own peace and safety and that it would act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes. But the United States attached an understanding: its commitment under Article IV applied only to communist aggression, and in the event of other aggression it would only consult2.
Different perspectives
The American understanding mattered to Pakistan. Pakistani officials told American diplomats in 1954 that, faced with Indian criticism, Pakistan had to seek a source of support, and they continued to press for a settlement in Kashmir3. Pakistani scholars have since argued that the country joined SEATO and the Baghdad Pact chiefly to gain American aid and backing against India rather than out of fear of communism4. Washington saw the pact in global Cold War terms.
Legacy
SEATO never developed into an integrated military command and played little role in Pakistan's wars. Pakistan grew disillusioned when its allies did not support it against India in 1965 and 1971; it announced its withdrawal from SEATO on 8 November 19726,7, and the organisation was dissolved in 19775.
Sources
- Milestones: Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), 1954, Office of the Historian, US Department of State · Official
- Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty (Manila Pact), 8 September 1954, Avalon Project, Yale Law School, 8 September 1954 · Primary document
- Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Volume XI, Part 2, Document 820 (telegram, October 1954), Office of the Historian, US Department of State, October 1954 · Primary document
- Security Game: SEATO and CENTO (Jabeen and Mazhar), Pakistan Economic and Social Review, University of the Punjab · Scholarly
- The United States and Pakistan, 1947–2000: Disenchanted Allies (Dennis Kux), Woodrow Wilson Center Press / Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001 · Scholarly
- Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), Encyclopedia.com · Reference
- Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–7, Document 311, Office of the Historian, US Department of State, November 1972 · Primary document
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