Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
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TWO PAPERS ON PHILIPPINE FOREIGN POLICY� The Philippines and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization The Record of the Philippines in the United Nationsi . TWO PAPERS ON PHILIPPINE FORKIGN POLICY The Philippines and the Southeast 1lsia Treaty Organ-iz·at ion by . Roger. M. Smit•h; The Record of the Philippines in the United Nations by i�-ru F. Somerts Data Paper.: • Number 38 Southeast .Asia Progr�:m • � • I .... D�pa�ment of Far••• .Eastetn-· St-µdies.� -1;..., •. Cornell Uniye�sity,, Ithaca.,. N.ew..York December, 1959 Price $2.00 THE CORNELL trnlVImSITY SOUT�ST ASIA PROORAM The southeast Asia Program was organized at Cornell University in the- Department of Far Eastern studies in 19SO. :rt is a teaching and research pro gram of interdisciplinary studies in the humanities, social sciences and some natural sciences. It deals with southeast Asia �s a region, and with the in dividual countries of the area1 · Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaya, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The activities of the Program are carried on both at Cornell and in Southeast Asia. They include an undergraduate and graduate . curriculum at Cornell which provides instruction by' specialists in South east Asian cultural history and present-day affairs and offers intensive training in each of the major languages of the area. The Program sponsors group research projects on Thailand, on Indonesia, on the Philippines, and on the area•s Chinese minorities. At the same time, individual staff' and students of the Program have done field research in every South east Asian country. A list of publicatoions relating to Southeast Asia which may be obtained on prepaid order directly from the Program is given at·othe end of this volume. · Information on Program star� , · fellowships1 require ments for degrees, and curre·nt·· course offerings will be found in an Announcement of the Department of Far Eastern studies obtainable from""llie-Director, South east Asia Program, Franklin Hall, Cornell university, Ithaca, New York. • • . I ·.. The Philippines and the' Southeast Asia Treaty Organizationp· by· Roger M. Smith I vJithin the past decade, the Philippines, in her attempt to formulate a satisfactory foreign policy, has had to contend with a basic dilemma inherent in her relations with oertain·key nations. On the one hand, the 'Philfppines, because _of her prox�ity to East Asia, has become: ·security conscious,· 'and -she�_p has sought to clarify and strengthen the United states defense cormnitment to her. On the other hand, she has experienced the need to identify herself with Southeast Asian nations, who have viewed with suspicion her affiliation with the United States. The establishment of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), whos e membership includes Australia, New Zealand,· the Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, France, Great Britain, and thep. United States, has appeared to offer her one possible solution to this dilemma. But ·pwhile the Philippines has been one of the most persistent advocates of a regional defense organization for Southeast Asia, she appears to have entered an important caveat with respect to her commitment to SEATO, It would thus seem that the Philippines has not on'.cy' called her willingness t_o . participate into question. but she has also raised an import�nt question about the validity of the ·regional approac·h to the . defense against ·communism in Southeast Asia. The crux of t_he problem. then, and the one under consideration here, is,p. What is the Philippine felt need with respect to SEATO, especially as it affects her external defense requirements? The Philippine desire for some kind of Southeast Asian l alliance may be traced to 1939. At that time,. Filipino. l 1. Felipe �Iabi angan, "Indic_at.ions of a Philippin�p_. Foreign · 11 Policy, in Philippine Papers, prepared for study meetings of.: the Philippine Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR). (Manila: �ilippine Council, IPR). July ,. 1939, l 2 nationalist sentiment advocated a united front of the colonies to counter-balance the gro��ing commercial and political poi.1er of Japan. But in terms of the radically different conditions originating in the post-war period, and particular]¥ because of the crumbling Nationalist China regime, President Elpidio QUirino voiced the concern of Filipinos with external �ecurity in March, 1949, when he cal�ed for an alliance among Asian nations to combat CollD'Tlunism.1 As far as India was concerned, however, Quirinons wish to inclwe Nationalist China and South Korea, and the plan's anti-Communist natu:re, conflicted with her neutral position. In addition, the United States declined. to give- its. support to the idea, apparently feeling that it was not within its interests to �do so. Qui·rino'sJ idea received a coo.1 reception from the United St:at·es ·Congress . The most that President Truman · was willing to do was to affirm that the United State's1 would help the Philippines to remain :·n11free and self-reliant, • and t·o watch with sympathetic interest· the efforts of the non-Communist Asian nations _to unite for political security.4 Undaunted, Quirino declared that United States support was not a necessary condition for the formation of the union. How ever, the Indian }fusition that any cooperative effort by Asians should be aimed at promoting a neutral position in the cold war evidently caused Quirino to change the goal upon which he had set his sights.n5 changing· tack, he specified that the emphasis of his proposed Pacific Union would be on polit�cal, economic and cultural, rather than'military, cooperation. ----------- 2. Good accounts of th�. Philippine eff9rts to create an alliance are found in Philippines Free Press, ��y 27, June 3, 1950i II I "The Baguio Conference' Philippine Yearbook 1950-1951 1 (Manila, 1951),. and Pedro L. Baldoria, "Alliance" in. the. Pacific,1 Saturday Mirror Magazine (Manila), October 3, 1953. 3. New York Times, August 9, 1949. 4. New York Times" August 11, 1949. 5. In this connection, see A. Appador ai, "India's Foreign Policy," International· Affairs XXV (1949) l, pp. 37-46, and M. N. Querol, "Freedom and Peace, Foundation of Philippine Foreign 11 Policy, Philippine_:·,: Yearbook. ' 1950-1951 (Manila, 1951), pp. 16, 18. '· 6. Republic of the Philippines, letter of Instructions of H. E. Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines, t� Hon. Carlos P. Romulo, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and other documents on the proposed Pacific Union, I1anila, August, 1949. 3 On May 26, 1950, Australia, Ceylon, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia met at Baguio. The Final Act of the conference provided for modest· oooperatir,n in the pcrlitical and economic fields, and for somewhat more cooperati·on in the social and cultural ·fields.. No agreement, however, was reached on any sort ·or lasting cooperi. ation among the participants. The whole question of the cold war and Cornmunis subversion was avoided, in accordance with pre-conference promises. 1 . Ac.�or..ding to one Filipino observer, Quirino ts effort was an extension .of Philippine domestic policy. 11The Philippines is interested in r_aising the ec,onomic levels of its· people, in making them live in peaoe and freedom with their neighbors.·.,�" To achieve these ends, the Philippines 11 needs the strength of' collective act ion and the assurance of collective security. 118 The Baguio Conference of 1950 may best be described as a small, first step forward toward regional c�operation. For Filipinos, howeve� , the problem- '�eemed to be whether small, first . steps were enough _and whether there would· be time in which to take the steps which must follow. · · The making of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty stems directly from a change in the attitude of the United States toward the general area of the Far East. No less important for this ':revolution in thinking· than the events leading up to the . Geneva Agreem�nts of 1954 were the earlier collapse of the Nationalist regime in China and the outbreak of the Korean war. American policy had been based on the expectation that China couid be: helped to become sufficiently unifi.ed and strong to ac.t, in friendly relationship with the United a stabilizing· . States, as force: inithe .area. This expec'tation had been abandoned by 1950;_. .._. and the outbre_ak of the Korean war confirmed the need .f�f-- some ·i altern�tive P◊ltoy, In connection with this change, negotiations were begun to secure a �ace treaty with Japan which would enable that: country to become ind·ependent and to recover itsis:trength. J?uri��, �-rie · . -- negotiations, the Philippine· government seems to· have expr_es.sed its unwillingness to conclude a treaty· with Japan unless it could be assured of American support in the event of renewed Japa�es� · .. .. 7, Secretariat of the Baguio Conference, Final Act and Proceedings of the -Baguio Conference of 1950, Manila, n. d., p. 508. 8. 11. N. Quer�l, op, cit., p. 16. 4 aggression.8 In order to secure her adherence to the Japanese peace treaty. the United states signed a treaty of mutual defense with the Philippines on August 30, 1951. 9 This agreement, which went into effect on August 27, 1952, was to remain in force in definitely, subject to one year•s notice of termination by either party. In Article III, provision was made for consultation between the two countries "whenever in the opinion of either of them the territorial integrity, political independence or security of either of the parties is threatened by external armed attack in the Pacific." Both the United states and the Philippines recognized I in Article IV, t.hat "an armed attack in the Pacific area" on either of them would be dangerous tc the "peace and safety" of both and each agreed to "act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes.n" The signature of this treaty did not mean, however, that the United States was yet willing to undertake specific commit : ments in all of Southeast Asia, It maintained this position : 1 until well after the advent of the Eisenhower Administration in January, 1953, and the deteriorating situation in Indochina throughout that year.