The South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was the focal point of Western military efforts to deter, and if need be defeat, communist aggression in Southeast Asia between 1955 and 1965. This examines the role of SEATO during its first ten years as a military alliance. The book also details actions by member states (notably France and Pakistan) that led the United States, SEATO's primary advocate, to sideline the alliance in 1965, a move that precipitated its subsequent rapid decline.