Transcript US and Southeast Asia From SEATO to ASEAN Outline • US strategies of containment – original formulation – SEATO – Indochina and the Philippines • ASEAN –

US and Southeast Asia
From SEATO to ASEAN
Outline
• US strategies of containment
– original formulation
– SEATO
– Indochina and the Philippines
• ASEAN
– Post-Cold War changes
• U.S. and ASEAN
– Economy and security
Containment 1950s-1980s
• US foreign policy treated Southeast Asia
as an arena for competition with the Soviet
Union
• Former US Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger: ``Our objective was to purge our
foreign policy of all sentimentality”
Appeal of Communism
• It seemed to be the wave of the future
– dramatic economic and technological
advances of the Soviet Union
– anti-colonialism
– ``importance by association” psychology
– opportunity for greater personal power
– public disappointment and resentment at the
poverty and violence after independence
Architect of Containment
• George Kennan’s original formulation
called for the coordinated use of political,
economic, and military influence to prevent
the expansion of Soviet control in vital
regions
Original Formulation
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Traditional Russian sense of insecurity
Stalin’s need for a hostile world
S.U. was not primarily a military threat
A long-term containment of Russian
expansive tendencies will lead to
– "either the break-up or the gradual mellowing
of Soviet power."
``Truman Doctrine” (1947)
• ``It must be the policy of the United States
to support free peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by armed minorities
or outside pressures”
• Implies that substantial US support could
be counted on anywhere, not just in those
vital regions
Economic Strategies
• In late 1940s, economic assistance was
the central pillar of anti-communist policy
– Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe
– The ``arsenal of democracy”
• technological and economic resources
Early Aid to Southeast Asia
• US pressured the Netherlands to give
independence to Dutch East Indies colony
• US-Indonesia economic and technical
assistance agreement in 1950
• US aid programs to Thailand and Burma in
1950
Militarization in Policy
• US strategic shift of containment toward
reliance on military strength in 1950s
• Obligated US to ``bear any cost” against
communist incursions anywhere in the
world
SEATO (1954 - 1977)
• Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
• Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty
• Australia, France, Great Britain, New
Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines,
Thailand, and the United States
• oppose further Communist gains in
Southeast Asia
SEATO (1954 - 1977)
• Headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand
• SEATO's principal role was to sanction the
U.S. presence in Vietnam, although
France and Pakistan withheld support
• Unable to intervene in Laos or Vietnam in
‘60s and ‘70s due to its rule of unanimity
• SEATO was ultimately disbanded in 1977
Arc of Containment
``Falling Domino" Principle
• President Eisenhower (1954-04-07):
– ``beginning of a disintegration that would have
the most profound influences”
– ``the possible sequence of events, the loss of
Indochina, of Burma, of Thailand, of the
Peninsula, and Indonesia”
– ``the possible consequences of the loss are
just incalculable to the free world”
``Falling Domino" Principle
• Simplistic perception of a monolithic
Communist bloc
• Simplistic assumption that societies and
politics in the vast, diverse Asia-Pacific
region were essentially all alike
A Source of Misperception
• The communist-hunt of 1947-1953 in US
– Federal Employee Loyalty Program
– House Un-American Activities Committee
– Internal Security Act
– Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed
communists had infiltrated S.D. and US Army
• purged the Administration of its best senior
Asia expertise
US in the Philippines
• Philippines became a cornerstone of US
``containment” in Southeast Asia
• US shored up the Philippine government
with advisors and assistance
• US upgraded its two bases in the
Philippines
– Clark Air Force Base and the Subic Naval
Base
Clark Air Force Base
• Damaged by a volcanic
eruption in 1991
Subic Naval Base
• The air and naval bases
became the most consistent,
visible, and emotional of the
issues that troubled USPhilippine post-war relations
• Natural disaster and the end of
Cold War made these bases
less desirable to US
Subic Bay
• Closed in 1992
• Philippine government converted it
into a special economic zone to
attract investment
– Subic Bay Freeport Zone
– Commerce and tourism
• 1996 APEC Summit
ASEAN: overview
• Association of Southeast Asian Nations
• 10 member states
– Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, &
Vietnam
• home to over 600 million people
• combined GDP of US$2.4 trillion
ASEAN: founding (1967)
• 5 founding members:
– Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia,
Philippines
• Bangkok Declaration of 1967:
– accelerate economic growth
– promote regional peace and stability
– contain the spread of communism
End of Cold War
• ASEAN Free Trade Area
– initiated at ASEAN summit in 1992
– comprehensive program of regional tariff
reduction
– program later broadened and accelerated
– reaffirmed during Asian Financial Crisis of
1997-1998
• ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015
End of Cold War
• Expansion of ASEAN
– 1995: Vietnam
– 1997: Laos
– 1997: Myanmar
– 1999: Cambodia
ASEAN: external links
• A joint forum with Japan was established
in 1977
• A cooperation agreement with the
European Community was signed in 1980
• ``ASEAN + 3”: regular series of meetings
at the cabinet and head-of-government
levels with Japan, China, and South Korea
since 1997
U.S. and ASEAN
• U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement is
America’s first FTA in Asia (2007)
• U.S. was the first non-ASEAN country to
name an ambassador to ASEAN (2008)
• U.S. signed ASEAN Treaty of Amity and
Cooperation (TAC) in 2009.
• U.S. was the first country to establish a
permanent mission to ASEAN (2010)
U.S. and ASEAN
• The US-ASEAN Trade and Investment
Framework Agreement (TIFA) was signed
in 2006.
• Four ASEAN countries: Brunei, Malaysia,
Singapore, and Vietnam, are participants
in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
trade agreement negotiations with the
United States.
U.S.-ASEAN Trade
• ASEAN ranks 4th after Canada, Mexico,
and China as a goods export market for
the United States
– $76 billion in goods and more than $22 billion
in services to ASEAN in 2012
– 78% increase since 2001
• The US is the 3rd largest trading partner
for ASEAN ($234 billion in 2012)
– 71% increase since 2001