Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, East Asian Security; Cambodia; Laos, Volume XXI

17. Paper Prepared by the Manila Pact Working Group¹

MP(C)(55) D–2

Bangkok , February 23, 1955 .

MILITARY ADVISERS TO THE COUNCIL

1. Each member of the Council should be assisted by a Military Adviser. (At Chief of Staff or Theatre Commander level.)

2. The Military Advisers should:

a. Be prepared to attend meetings of the Council.

b. Meet periodically as required after consultations among the member governments.

c. Formulate their own rules of procedure and any necessary organizational arrangements.

d. Designate, as necessary, planning assistants to meet as required to work on agreed projects.

e. Ensure that military planning activities take into account various contingencies that might arise as a result of Communist subversive activities, through close coordination of planning and appropriate exchange of information between the Military Advisers, their planning assistants and other groups which may meet under the aegis of the Council in regard to subversive activities.

3. The activities of the Military Advisers might include:

a. Advising the Council on problems of military cooperation that may arise in connection with the implementation of the Treaty.

b. Review of the military situation in the area (essentially an intelligence estimate to be used in planning procedures).

c. Development of a strategic estimate on Southeast Asia.

d. Determination of possible courses of action to meet the current Communist threat in Southeast Asia and in the event of further Communist aggression in the Treaty area.

e. Exchange of planning information.

f. Exploration of ways and means of increasing the mutual effectiveness of the defensive effort of the member countries in the Treaty area.

g. Consideration of measures to be taken in each country to increase the security of classified information with a view to augmenting the effectiveness of an exchange of intelligence data.

1. Source: Department of State, FE Files: Lot 56 D 679, Bangkok Conference—Agenda. Secret. Enclosure to a covering memorandum from the Working Group to the Secretary General of the meeting. The Working Group held its last meeting in Washington on February 7. This and other agenda documents were apparently put in final form in Washington no later than February 7 and then postdated.