SEATO

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

SEATO's flag
Map of SEATO members, shown in blue.
Abbreviation	SEATO
Formation	8 September 1954
Extinction	30 June 1977
Type	intergovernmental military alliance
Headquarters	Bangkok, Thailand
Region served	Southeast Asia
Membership	8 nations  Australia  New Zealand  Pakistan (including East Pakistan, now Bangladesh)  Philippines  Thailand  France  United Kingdom  United States States protected by SEATO 2 nations  South Vietnam  Kingdom of Laos

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was an international organization for collective defense in Southeast Asia created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, or Manila Pact, signed in September 1954 in Manila, Philippines. The formal institution of SEATO was established on 19 February 1955 at a meeting of treaty partners in Bangkok, Thailand The organization's headquarters were also in Bangkok. Eight members joined the organization.

Primarily created to block further communist gains in Southeast Asia, SEATO is generally considered a failure because internal conflict and dispute hindered general use of the SEATO military; however, SEATO-funded cultural and educational programs left long-standing effects in Southeast Asia. SEATO was dissolved on 30 June 1977 after many members lost interest and withdrew.

The United States still considers the mutual defense aspects of its treaty active for Australia, France, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.

The Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, or Manila Pact, was signed on 8 September 1954 in Manila, as part of the American Truman Doctrine of creating anti-communist bilateral and collective defense treaties. These treaties and agreements were intended to create alliances that would contain communist powers (Communist China, in SEATO's case). This policy was considered to have been largely developed by American diplomat and Soviet expert George F. Kennan. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (1953–1959) is considered to be the primary force behind the creation of SEATO, which expanded the concept of anti-communist collective defense to Southeast Asia, and then-Vice President Richard Nixon advocated an Asian equivalent of NATO upon returning from his late-1953 Asia trip. The organization, headquartered in Bangkok, was created in 1955 at the first meeting of the Council of Ministers set up by the treaty, contrary to Dulles's preference to call the organization "ManPac".