Western Intelligence and SEATO's War on Subversion, 1956–63

Abstract

Between 1955 and 1963 Western intelligence agencies regularly met in Thailand under the auspices of the SEATO defence pact. The proceedings of the Committee of Security Experts (CSE) demonstrate a number of internal tensions within Western intelligence and between them and Asian security bodies. A study of the CSE also demonstrates the difficulty in employing counter-subversion strategies when they impinge on democratic rights. The multilateral CSE largely failed in its stated objectives while SEATO was increasingly by-passed by the United States, which pursued a more unilateral course culminating in the Vietnam War.

Notes

I would like to thank Michael Boyle for his insightful comments.

The documents used in this study come from the National Archives of Australia, Canberra. Their main files are designated by alpha-numeric descriptors, e.g. A1878 followed by an item number e.g. SE/10/5. The main archive series for documents of the Committee of Security Experts (CSE) is A9954.

Clive Christie, Ideology and Revolution in Southeast Asia 1900–1980 (London: Curzon 2001) pp.124–6.

Ibid., p.129.

Nicholas Tarling, The Fall of Imperial Britain in South-East Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1993) p.181.

This was a view which was ‘widely shared’. Charles Colby (with Peter Forbath), Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA (London: Hutchinson 1978) p.143.

Ralph McGehee, Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA (New York: Sheridan Square Publications 1963) pp.69–80.

Matthew Jones, ‘“Maximum Disavowable Aid”: Britain, the United States and the Indonesian Rebellion, 1957–58’, The English Historical Review 114/459 (November 1999) pp.1179–216.

For a good account of Britain's involvement with SEATO, see Peter Busch, All The Way with JFK? Britain, the US and the Vietnam War (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2003).

Timothy N. Castle, At War in the Shadow of Vietnam: US Military Aid to the Royal Lao Government, 1955–1975 (New York: Columbia University Press 1993) p.36.

George Modelski, ‘SEATO’, in Francis A. Beer (ed.) Alliances: Latent War Communities in the Contemporary World (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1970) p.194.

Greg Pemberton, All The Way: Australia's Road to Vietnam (Sydney: Allen & Unwin 1987), p.112.

Castle, At War in the Shadow of Vietnam (note 9) pp.36–40.

Busch, All The Way with JFK? (note 8) pp.10–11, 33–5.

Richard J. Aldrich, Gary D. Rawnsley and Ming Yeh T. Rawnsley (eds.) The Clandestine Cold War in Asia: 1945–65 (London: Frank Cass 2000) p.1. Aldrich et al. nominate Dien Bien Phu in Southeast Asia. Later American planners came close to using nuclear weapons during the Vietnam War.

Ibid., p.3.

Ibid., p.3.

Busch, All The Way with JFK? (note 8) p.10.

For instance, John Ranelagh, The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA (London: Sceptre 1988); Evan Thomas, The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA (New York: Simon & Schuster 1995); Colby (with Forbath), Honorable Men (note 5); Victor Marchetti and John Marks, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence (London: Jonathan Cape 1975); William Blum, The CIA: A Forgotten History (London: Zed Books 1986).

Stephen Dorril, MI6: Inside the Covert World of her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service (New York: The Free Press 2000); Richard Deacon, C: A Biography of Sir Maurice Oldfield (London: Futura 1985); Jonathan Bloch and Patrick Fitzgerald, British Intelligence and Covert Action (Dingle: Brandon Books 1984).

On Malaya and intelligence, see for instance: Karl Hack, ‘British Intelligence and Counter-Insurgency in Malaya’, Intelligence and National Security 14/2 (Summer 1999) pp.124–55; Simon Smith, ‘General Templar and Counter Insurgency in Malaya’, Intelligence and National Security 16/3 (Autumn 2001) pp.60–78; Aldrich et al., The Clandestine Cold War in Asia (note 14).

(No author) Collective Security: Shield of Freedom, with a foreword by the Secretary General of SEATO, Pote Sarasin (Bangkok: SEATO Publication 1963).

Cable from Australian Embassy, Washington, 29 November 1955, A1209/79 Item 61/1299.

Memorandum on RSC Operations, 16 May 1957, in A1838/287 Item 2471/6 Pt 2, pp.20–26.

Ralph McGehee, Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA (New York: Sheridan Square Publications 1983), p.72.

Joseph Burkholder Smith, Portrait of a Cold Warrior (New York: Ballantine Books 1981), pp.139–48.

Australian Delegation report of 10th meeting of CSE, A1838/269 Item TS688/7 Pt 8, pp.30–39.

Nigel West, MI 5 1945–72: A Matter of Trust (London: Coronet 1983). West refers to him as ‘Suppell’.

‘SEATO: The Intelligence Problem’, dated 30 April 1956, A1838/2 Item 563/10/11.

A1838/269 Item TS688/7 Pt 7.

A1838/287 Item 2471/6 Pt 2.

A1838/287, Item 2464/4 Pt 2.

Letter from UK High Commissioner to Prime Minister's Department, 16 August 1955, A1209/79 Item 61/1299.

Mark Pearson, Paper Tiger: New Zealand's Part in SEATO, 1954–1977 (Wellington: NZ Institute of International Affairs 1989) p.77.

Cable from Australian Embassy, Washington to Dept of External Affairs, 12 March 1960. A1838/287 Item 2464/12/1.

Richard M. Bissell, Jr, with Jonathan E. Lewis and Frances T. Pudlo, Reflections of a Cold Warrior: From Yalta to the Bay of Pigs (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 1996) p.146.

Ibid., pp.146–7.

Joseph Burkholder Smith, Portrait of a Cold Warrior (New York: Ballantine Books 1981) pp.136–9.

Ibid., pp.199–200.

‘Nature of the Communist Subversive and Insurgent Threats to the Treaty Area’, A9954, Item SE 13 D34. The French analysis is at SE/13/D-34 ADD.

‘Thirteenth Meeting, CSE, Delegation report’, A1838 Item 2464/13 Pt 3.

A1838 Item 688/18/3/2, 5 February 1964.

Note by Deputy Director, Operations, A9954/1 Item SE/12/D39.

A9954, Item SE/10/D-4, US comments on Agenda Item 6, 30 April 1959.

Collective Security: Shield of Freedom (note 21).

‘Historical Review of the Communist Threat to the Treaty Area’, 20 May 1959, A9954 Item SE/10/D-13.

‘Communist Exploitation of Elections’, Paper contributed by Pakistan. A 9954 Item SE/13/D8.

‘General Paper on Communist subversive and insurgent threats’, contributed by Thailand. A9954 Item SE/10/D1 Addendum 3.

A1838 688/18/3/2 Annex; A9954 Item SE/12/D-28.

‘Action Taken by Council on Tenth Meeting of Committee’, A9954 Item SE/11/D13.

‘Action Taken by member Governments’, 25 November 1959, A9954 Item SE12/D27.

Stephen Fitzgerald, China and the Overseas Chinese: A Study of Peking's Changing Policy 1949–1970 (London: Cambridge University Press 1972) pp.100–101, 116–17. See also ‘The Chinese Cultural Offensive’, in A9954 SE/12/D-28.

‘The Chinese Cultural Offensive’, 2 December 1959, A9954 SE/12/D-28.

Ibid.

‘Travel to Communist Countries’, A9954/1 Item SE/13/D40.

‘Travel to Communist Countries. Notes by CSE Liaison Officer’, A9954/1 Item SE/13/D43.

Effectiveness of Civic Action Programmes in Reducing the Threat of Communist Subversion’, 11 October 1960. A1838/287 Item 2464/13 Pt 2, 185–200.

A1838/287 Item 2464/13 Pt 2, 204–9.

Delegation Report by C.H. Brown (ASIO), A1838/287 Item 2464/13 Pt 3.

External Affairs cables in A1209/79 Item 61/1299, pp.98ff.

From an account provided by Michael Boyle, former ASIO officer based in Bangkok 1962–64.

Ibid.

A1838/285 Item 2471/1 Pt 6, pp.13–44.

Ranelagh, The Agency, p225.

Pearson, Paper Tiger (note 33) p.62.

‘Report on the Office of the Special Assistant in SEATO’, 13 October 1966. A1838/265 Item 2471/1 Pt 6.

Ibid., pp.7–8.

Pearson, Paper Tiger (note 33) p.49.

Obituary of Wrigley, Daily Telegraph, 17 January 1995, cited in Dorril, MI6 (note 19) p.713.

Aldrich et al., The Clandestine Cold War in Asia (note 14), p.5.