Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, East Asia and the Pacific, Volume XII, Part 1

790.5/8–3154

The Australian Embassy to the Department of State

secret

Washington, 31st August 1954.

Aide-Mémoire

1. The Australian Government has welcomed the establishment of SEATO on the assumption that it would provide a firm basis for military planning in the area and a means whereby preparations could be made to cope with direct or indirect Communist aggression. The Australian Government has given public assurances that if such an organisation is established it is prepared to make an increased military contribution to the defence of the area.

2. This policy was laid down at a time when the United States Government was calling for the urgent establishment of a defence organisation in South East Asia and appeared to be willing to participate fully in it. The Australian Government is therefore considerably disturbed at recent reports which appear to indicate that the United States does not now contemplate that any concrete military functions should be carried out by the organisation set up under the treaty. If this should turn out to be the case, then the value of the proposed treaty to Australia would be drastically diminished. The difficulties with which the United States Government would be faced at the present time in making precise commitments under SEATO are fully understood. At the same time the Australian Government feels there is a real danger that the present United States attitude might lead to a treaty without “teeth” of any kind, or to a treaty into which it would be very difficult to put any “teeth” subsequently.

3. It would also appear that, at a time when United States policy regarding the military functions of the organization has undergone a change, the United States view also seems to have hardened that the treaty should be aimed specifically at Communism. In these circumstances it seems that Australia might get the worst of both worlds. On the one hand Australia would be criticised in Asia for joining an organization which would be dominated by great non-Asian powers and which would be criticized as constituting a provocation to the Chinese, while on the other hand Australia would obtain no assurance that additional military protection would be given to an area which is strategically vital to Australia. It will be appreciated moreover that such a treaty would involve the Australian Government in considerable embarrassment domestically. The Australian Government would be attacked for subscribing to a treaty which seemed valueless, and there would be a danger that present public support for an expanded Australian defence effort would be dissipated. The Prime Minister recently impressed on Parliament that the present situation in South East Asia calls for an international arrangement in the region under which all parties would be ready to undertake commitments. Australia’s willingness to undertake such commitments in peacetime represents a real innovation in Australian policy.

4. In some respects the effect of present American thinking about SEATO is to provide little more than a commitment to act in the event of Communist aggression, without any effective understandings among the Allies as to what that action should be.

5. It is the Australian Government’s earnest hope that the United States Government will agree to the establishment of effective military machinery under the proposed organization and will themselves participate in planning for the defence of the area. To this end Australia will press for inclusion in the text of the treaty of a specific undertaking that parties would “concert their military planning”. The Australian Government hopes that the United States Government will be able to accept this.

6. The Australian Government fully appreciates the difficulties involved (partly for security reasons) in detailed military planning among seven or eight nations. But the Australian Government considers that close contacts among, and joint military planning by, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand are essential. The latest American position, as presently understood, could give Australia less than the already existing Five Power Staff Agency; and the future even of this organization seems in doubt in view of its virtual suspension at the request of the United States.

7. Like the United States, the Australian Government also contemplates economic activity being conducted outside SEATO. But a SEATO which is competent to discuss all these things should exercise this function at any rate to some extent, even though effective work in some directions may be done by smaller groups and possibly outside SEATO. Consequently in the Australian Government’s opinion, regular and fairly frequent meetings of SEATO representatives are needed, and would be expected by Australian public opinion.