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 time, from $11 billion in the early 1950s, to less than $1 billion in the late 1970s. Arms sales began replacing the grants as military expenditures became a concern. As the cost of advanced weapons increased, foreign sales were seen as a way of recouping the cost of research and development, as well as overhead production costs (Brewer 222).
By 1977, sales under the Foreign Military Sales Program reached almost $7 billion, while agreements for future sal...