There’s strength in numbers
Fear of communism was very real in Australia. This fear was a major reason
for our involvement in the Korean War. In fact, during the early years of the
Cold War, much of Australia's foreign policy was directed at the
containment of communism. To strengthen that aim, Australia entered into
a number of treaties and alliances with other nations.
In this lesson, you first consider what is involved in foreign affairs and
foreign policy. You then examine the nature of, and the reasons for,
Australia's involvement in three post-war pacts — the Colombo Plan, the
ANZUS alliance and the SEATO organisation.
Foreign affairs
Section 51 of the Australian Constitution gives Parliament responsibility for
external affairs, now called foreign affairs. Since Federation, the Federal
Government has had, as one of its areas of responsibility, an external or
foreign affairs department.
Today, it is known as the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade
(DFAT). This department looks after such matters as foreign policy,
passports and consular affairs as well international interests like trade
security and global co-operation.
Activity 10
Colour in the circle beside the best answers to the following questions.
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Foreign policy is about:
a
actions on a matter or issue overseas that concerns
Australia or Australians
b
how a country treats its foreigners
c
government policy about foreign language
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2
Which of the following issues would be the concern of DFAT?
a
reforms in the workplace
b
refugees arriving from the Middle East
c
a strike of QANTAS workers
Check your responses by going to the suggested answers section.
Let’s now look at three of the foreign policy initiatives that were taken in
the post-war years.
The Colombo Plan
In 1950, concern about the poor economic position of South-East Asian
countries was discussed at a British Commonwealth conference on foreign
affairs. There was concern that poorer countries would be easier targets for
communist takeovers compared to nations that had strong, successful
economies.
Australian Minister for External Affairs, Percy Spender attended the
conference, held in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He suggested that
advanced countries such as Australia, Great Britain and Canada, should join
together to give assistance to the poor, developing countries within Asia.
The other foreign affairs representatives enthusiastically received Spender’s
suggestion. Seven Commonwealth countries drew up a six-year plan. The
countries were Australia, Canada, Ceylon, Great Britain, India, Pakistan and
New Zealand. They agreed to provide assistance in health, economic aid,
training, technical assistance, food supplies and education.
The following photograph gives you a taste of the Colombo Plan in action.
It was taken in 1955 and shows a foreign student studying, under the
Colombo Plan, with the Snowy Mountains Authority.
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Australia in the Vietnam Era
Source:
A Snowy Mountains Authority worker (under the Colombo Plan)
Snowy Mountains Authority Negative Number 6805, June 1955
Other countries were invited to join the Colombo Plan. In 1951, the USA
joined, as did Japan and the Philippines in 1954. More countries have since
lent their support.
Activity 11
Write ‘true’ or ‘false’ in response to these statements about the Colombo
Plan.
1
The Colombo Plan might stop poor countries turning to
communism.
_________
2
The Colombo Plan was made was made up of seven
communist countries.
_________
3
The Snowy Mountains worker is an example of the
Colombo Plan’s assistance in training foreign students.
_________
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
Today there are over twenty countries involved in assisting the countries of
Asia and the Colombo Plan, which was originally to have lasted six years,
has been extended indefinitely.
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The domino theory
Think about this. If you line up a series of dominoes so that they are just
two centimetres apart (like the illustration below), what will happen if
you gently knock down the first domino in the line?
Obviously, they will all fall down. You might be wondering what this has
got to do with history?
United States President Eisenhower first used the term ‘domino theory’ in
1954. He used the expression as a way to describe what he expected to
happen if one country in South-East Asia became communist. He believed
that if one nation fell to communism, then the other countries in the region
would also fall under communist influence. The following cartoon
illustrates Eisenhower’s theory.
The big question of the Vietnam era — where will the dominoes stop falling?
The US was not alone in this thinking. The domino theory also shaped
Australia's foreign policy for thirty years after World War II. During the
period when Robert Menzies was Prime Minister, many Australians feared
that the falling dominoes would lead all the way to Australia’s northern
coastline. This fear was a major reason for Australian involvement in two
alliances ANZUS and SEATO.
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Australia in the Vietnam Era
ANZUS
Australia developed much closer ties to the USA during World War II.
Following the war, Australia continued to be concerned about the
remoteness of the Pacific region. To formalise Australia’s growing
relationship with America, ANZUS was established.
ANZUS is an acronym. If the ‘A’ in ANZUS stands for Australia and
the ‘US’ stands for the United States what do you think is the third
country?
Australia, New Zealand and the United States signed the ANZUS Treaty in
September 1951. The main purpose of ANZUS was to satisfy both the
Australian and New Zealand governments that America would come to their
aid in the event of armed attack. In 1951, it was believed that the most likely
reason for any attack would be communist expansion.
Read the following source. It is taken from the ANZUS Treaty of 1951.
The formal language used is typical of a legal treaty.
Each Party recognizes that an armed attack in the Pacific Area on any of
the Parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares
that it would act to meet the common danger in accordance with its
constitutional processes.
Article IV, Security Treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United
States of America [ANZUS] San Francisco, 1 September 1951 cited in
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/1952/2.html
(accessed 7 November, 2005)
Activity 12
Colour in the circle that best answers the question on the ANZUS Treaty.
Which of the following best explains what the other signatories of the
ANZUS Treaty would do if Australia was attacked?
a
Treat the attack as a common enemy and investigate ways to
help Australia.
b
Immediately declare war on the attacker.
c
Wait to see if the attacker is also going to attack New
Zealand or the USA before declaring war.
Check your response by going to the suggested answers section.
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The signing of the ANZUS Pact was important. It was another step that
confirmed that America was now our closest military ally, rather than the
links that Australia had enjoyed previously with Great Britain.
In 1986 Australia and America reaffirmed their commitment to ANZUS.
However, the USA announced they would suspend their obligations to
New Zealand as they appeared in the treaty. This was the US response to
New Zealand’s refusal to allow entry of American warships (because the US
would not confirm whether their ships did or did not contain nuclear
weapons) into their waters.
It was our commitment to ANZUS that resulted in Australia’s involvement
in the ‘war against terror’ that followed the terrorist attacks on New York
and Washington DC on September 11, 2001.
SEATO
France had colonial power over much of Indochina from the mid to late
nineteenth century. That all changed in 1954 when the Communists took
control of Indochina.
In response to the French loss, an organisation was established to prevent
further countries in South-East Asia from falling under communist control.
Australia signed an agreement called the ‘Manila Pact’ which established
the South-East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO). Other members
included New Zealand, France, Great Britain, Pakistan, the Philippines,
Thailand and the United States of America.
SEATO agreed on economic, social and cultural co-operation between the
member countries. They also agreed to aid countries in South-East Asia who
came under armed attack.
The military component of SEATO depended on unanimous agreement
from all members. When drawing up the treaty, the members unanimously
agreed they would aid Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam in the case of
armed aggression.
The main body of the treaty didn’t single out communist aggression.
However, an additional paragraph at the end of the treaty specified that the
USA understood the military commitments outlined in the treaty were only
in response to communist aggression.
Not all of the SEATO members were actually in the South-East Asia region
outlined in the treaty. The treaty area was the area south of 21° 30' North
latitude. Which countries were within it?
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Australia in the Vietnam Era
Activity 13
Use an atlas to complete the following table.
SEATO countries within the
defined area
SEATO countries outside the
defined area
Check your responses by going to the suggested answers section.
The limitations of the SEATO agreement became obvious when, without
unanimous agreement, SEATO was unable to intervene in the Vietnam War.
In 1977, SEATO was disbanded.
Go to the exercises section and complete Exercises 1.7 to 1.9 as
directed by your teacher.
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