A QUESTION OF LEGITIMACY: AUSTRALIA IN SEATO, 1954-1962

Abstract

This thesis discusses Australia’s role in the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization from 1954-1962, and contextualizes Australian involvement in the broader environment of the Cold War, especially in terms of its spread into the Southeast Asian region. Australia sought to actively engage with the defence of the region and balance its commitments among its traditional allies (Britain, New Zealand) and expand its engagement with newly independent Asian states, as well as the United States. SEATO offered an opportunity to tie these imperatives together; Australia saw the organization as a means to channel its broader grand strategy objective, forward defence. It attempted to do so by cultivating legitimacy for its involvement in SEATO in two ways, politically and militarily. The former meant communicating an agenda that presented the organization as constructive. The latter meant ensuring SEATO was a capable deterrent against Communist aggression. Both aims entailed consensus, but did not guarantee it.