Founding of Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, or SEATO, was a collective defence alliance formed in 1954 by the Manila Pact. Its members were the United States, Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan, and its aim was to prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia following the French defeat in Indochina. Unlike NATO, it had no joint military command and few of its members were actually from the region, so it was never very effective. It provided a justification for the American involvement in the Vietnam War, but France and Pakistan gradually withdrew, and some members opposed US policy. The alliance was dissolved in 1977.

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