Paper Tiger: New Zealand's Part in SEATO 1954-1977

Mark Pearson

1989

BOOK / ISBN 0-908772-09-2

NZ$5.00 (INCL. GST)

The SEATO alliance, now largely defunct, played a pivotal role in New Zealand’s policy of collective defence in the 1950s and 1960s, and was the country’s first major defence commitment involving both the United Kingdom and the United States.

Paper Tiger traces the origins of New Zealand’s interest in SEATO and describes the Government’s attitude to institutionalised co-operation among the eight Western and Asian Members.  It also reveals New Zealand’s scepticism about the policy of counter-insurgency, which brought Laos to the brink of war in 1961 and set the scene for Western intervention in Vietnam in 1965.  Underlying the narrative is an attempt to define the nature of New Zealand’s military and political interests in the alliance, as well as to outline the Government’s reaction to pressure from the allies, to play its part in the fight against communism in Southeast Asia.

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The SEATO alliance, now largely defunct, played a pivotal role in New Zealand’s policy of collective defence in the 1950s and 1960s, and was the country’s first major defence commitment involving both the United Kingdom and the United States.

Paper Tiger traces the origins of New Zealand’s interest in SEATO and describes the Government’s attitude to institutionalised co-operation among the eight Western and Asian Members.  It also reveals New Zealand’s scepticism about the policy of counter-insurgency, which brought Laos to the brink of war in 1961 and set the scene for Western intervention in Vietnam in 1965.  Underlying the narrative is an attempt to define the nature of New Zealand’s military and political interests in the alliance, as well as to outline the Government’s reaction to pressure from the allies, to play its part in the fight against communism in Southeast Asia.

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