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

• 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 US-Philippine 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