0 - The Black Vault

i
THE BDIV CORPORATION
THEB • assisting the French with material support in v3rying degrees
0 intervening in conjunction with the British
0 takino military action with all those prepared to do so
0 working out a long range Southeast Asian alliance,
None
of these courses of action proved practical at the time.
Nonetheleis, the outcome of Lhe Geneva Conference did serve to catalvze the
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
At the highest levels of the
US government, the "loss" of the northeri half of Vietnam to the communists
was considered another retreat before communist expansion.
Secretary of Stata Dulles publicly drew two lessons from che
Geneva Conferene 17/
0 popular support was essential to combat communist subversion, and
. collective defense against aggression could not be devised after
the aggression was in progress.
Dulles moved promptly to counter further communist advances by spearheading
the development of a NATO-like collective security treaty for the
region, An international conference was convened at Manila late in the
summer of 1954 to devise such a security system,
[d, The Manila Conference of 1954: Formation of SEATO
The Geneva Accords were flawed from the very date of signing.
The DRV presumed that there would be a near term unification of North
a;.,. South Vietnam under their leadership, On the other hand, the GVN
immediately announced its intention L) resist, and the temporary demarcation
line, which was a key element of the settlement, soon became the basis
for conflict, Furthermore, President Eisenhower quickly let it be known
that the US did not feel "bound" by the accords, which to him were simply
the "best.. .under the circumstances."18/
In less than two months after Geneva,
the Southeast Asia
"Treaty Organization (SEATO) came into being. Composed of the US, Britain,
France, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand,
with South Vietnam,
Laos and Cambodia added as protocol nations, SEATO was
to be Lne new shield ag.ilnst further communist expansion. 19/
1-9