Frustrated Alliance: The United States and the Pacific Pact, 1949-1951

An important component of the United States’ foreign policy after World War II was the creation of regional security arrangements in many parts of the world. Much has been written about the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a key element in the U.S. strategy of containment of the Soviet power during the Cold War. But why was there no NATO in the East Asia? This paper examines the rise and fall of the initiative to create a Pacific Pact in 1949-1951. It was originally proposed by President E. Quirino of the Philiphines as a military alliance of all anti-Communist Asian countries headed by the USA. The United States at first expressed disinterest in the Pacific pact proposals fearing the participation of South Korea and Taiwan but later offered its own plan, which than had been rejected. This analysis reveals that US policymakers were not in fact unwilling to form a multilateral military alliance in the Pacific until at least the early 1950s. An examination of why American Pacific pact proposal failed helps clarify the origins of the several security treaties which than shaped so-called San Francisco System. This paper also explains why the final postwar U.S. security arrangements in the Asia- Pacific region did not take a NATO-type multilateral alliance form.

Keywords

Pacific Pact, Cold War, U. S. foreign policy, Asia-Pacific region, E. Quirino, J. F. Dulles

Received

13.03.2020

Publication date

13.03.2020

Number of characters

63599

Cite

GOST	Sidorov A. Frustrated Alliance: The United States and the Pacific Pact, 1949-1951 // Novaia i noveishaia istoriia – 2020. – Issue 1 C. 127-146 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://nni.jes.su/S013038640008191-8-1 (circulation date: 26.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S013038640008191-8
MLA	Sidorov, Andrey "Frustrated Alliance: The United States and the Pacific Pact, 1949-1951." Novaia i noveishaia istoriia 1 (2020):127-146. DOI: 10.31857/S013038640008191-8
APA	Sidorov A. (2020). Frustrated Alliance: The United States and the Pacific Pact, 1949-1951. Novaia i noveishaia istoriia (1), pp.127-146 DOI: 10.31857/S013038640008191-8

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