Word: seato
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...roar of modern war's destroying engines shook the gilded spires and jeweled pagodas of many-templed Bangkok last week. In answer to the Thai government's invitation, SEATO nations were staging their first joint maneuvers to show how fast they could come to the aid of their ally. A task force of U.S., British, Australian and New Zealand warships knifed northward through the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Siam. Crisp and impressive, 650 Philippine infantrymen rolled ashore from a U.S. seaplane tender in the harbor. U.S. Globemasters and Flying Boxcars, lugging men and arms from Japan...
...exercise was billed grandly as SEATO's "first joint international sea, air and land maneuvers." Thailand, which thought it up, declared that all eight nations had been invited to participate. The Thais' idea was to show how fast SEATO power could come to the aid of Bangkok, in a demonstration that SEATO is no "paper tiger." The U.S. Navy called it "Operation Firm Link" and declared it was intended to "signify the close-knit ties among the SEATO nations...
Last week Operation Firm Link demonstrated that the links are far from firm. The Philippines and the U.S., which had been asked long ago, would be on hand all right. But neither the Thais nor the U.S. military officials on the spot mentioned the project to the other SEATO powers until early last week-despite the fact that the SEATO council sits in Bangkok and the operation is scheduled for this week...
Instead of a show of solidarity, the air was full of complaints and refusals. Pakistanis said sulkily that the invitation had come too late for them to send troops, complained privately of being left out of the original planning. New Zealanders felt the same way. That left SEATO looking embarrassingly like an all-U.S. tiger-as critics have charged it was all along. At week's end, Australia and Britain gallantly swallowed their pride, and rustled up a handful of naval vessels to join this week's maneuvers. On its first trial run, SEATO was creaking badly...
Pakistan over Kashmir and the North-West Frontier, Pakistani leaders have waited for a word of public support from Washington. To them, $450 million in past U.S. military and economic aid has simply not assuaged the sudden pain. Complains Pakistan, anchor of both the SEATO and Baghdad anti-Communist pacts: the more that neutral India and Egypt play up to the Reds, the more economic aid Washington seems eager to force upon them. Last week U.S. Ambassador Horace Hildreth † went on the Pakistani radio to quote figures showing that neutral nations have received one-twelfth as much monetary...