U.S. Military Assistance to Southeast Asia

This paper will discuss the military assistance provided by the United States to various countries in Southeast Asia since 1973. The first part of the paper will briefly describe the history of U.S. military assistance since the end of the Second World War. The second part of the paper will examine the aid given to Southeast Asian countries after the Vietnam War. This section will look at the reasons for such aid and the changes in U.S. policy concerning such aid. This section will also discuss the provision of such aid from the viewpoint of the Southeast Asian countries receiving it. The third part of the paper will use the example of Thailand to show how such aid affects the policies of both the providers and recipients. The last part of the paper will postulate the future of U.S. military assistance to Southeast Asia.

The United States began selling and donating military equipment on a large scale soon after the end of the Second World War. This policy was largely in response to the beginning of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Disturbed and threatened by the Soviet willingness to extend its political and military influence, U.S. leaders saw arms transfer as a cost-effective method for countering the Soviets. The main program, begun in the 1950s, was the Military Assistance Program (MAP). MAP consisted of government grants of equipment, given mostly to European countries in the 1950s. Such grants diminished with ti

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reasons for providing such aid. When the levels of aid were threatened, ASEAN members began vocalizing concerns that the United States was turning away from Asia and focusing too much upon Europe. These concerns were allayed, somewhat, when the United States intensified its focus upon Asia after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and the Sino-Vietnam conflict in 1979. These events also caused the ASEAN members to step up their calls for increased U.S. assistance (Simon 5-8). During the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, the United States warned Vietnam and the Soviet Union to respect Thailand's borders; in response, both countries sent assurances that Thailand's sovereignty would be respected. The U.S. then agreed to send another $30 million in military aid to Thailand as a sign of U.S. commitment. In 1982, the Reagan Administration raised Thailand's military sales credit to $80 million. During the 1980s, the United States, under the leadership of the Reagan Administration, agreed to increase its military involvement in the region, chiefly through an increase in naval and air power in the Pacific (Simon 8-9). Developments in other parts of the world in the late 1970s and early 1980s also convinced the United States that th
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Approximate Word count = 2878
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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