Word: seato
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Angry and fearful over President Kennedy's dallying in the Laotian crisis, a few SEATO members want Secretary of State Rusk to travel to Asian capitals and reassure them personally that the U.S. has their interests at heart. While it is true that the basic issue behind it--whether SEATO can work out a Laos policy all its members will accept--is pressing, their request for Rusk in person is unfortunate and smacks of a recent era in diplomacy when junketing was thought an adequate substitute for solid diplomatic achievement. It should not be heeded...
...Asia Treaty Organization in dealing with the Communist-backed insurrection in Laos. Reporters were startled, and Nhouy hastily explained: "We simply wanted to reassure our people that we have friendly nations with us. Foreigners in Vientiane have been digging trenches, and the population is worried. So we appealed to SEATO to put the people at their ease." Well, did the government want SEATO to intervene or not? "Of course not," said Nhouy. "If SEATO intervened, there would be a world war, and nobody wants that. Laos would become a battlefield...
...maneuvers his fire brigade in support of these difficult and divergent outposts on his frontier, he is in close touch with Washington, which must decide at all times how far he should commit his forces (unlike NATO membership, where an attack on one is automatically an attack on all, SEATO asks for a U.S. response under "its constitutional processes"). Felt's forces report to three commands whose headquarters are in Honolulu: ¶ PACAF (Pacific Air Forces), bossed by able, flamboyant old SACman General Emmett O'Donnell Jr., organizes its 650 combat planes into 35 squadrons-fewer than those...
Eventually all the lines of Pacific command, all the responsibilities of the joint command, come back to Don Felt. Felt the diplomat must preserve the momentum that is leading to SEATO's improvement. Felt the politician must get sufficient support from Congress for the U.S. military aid program. Felt the military commander must know about Communist military threats before they are full-blown so that he can back up national armies against external threats, give them time to train up to the skills of Chinese Communist or local guerrillas...
...Thailand is a "full and equal partner" in SEATO. Norway is a NATO partner, but has always refused to allow foreign forces and military equipment, including missile-launchers and atomic weapons, on its territory...