Philperiodicals

Illogical neutralism

Senator Eulogio Balao (1907-1977), a WWII veteran and head of Quirino’s anti-Huk campaigns, he was Secretary of Defense for President Magsaysay between 1956 and 1957. In June 1956, he published Illogical Neutralism in the Philippines Armed Forces Journal where he made a defense of the SEATO agreement that expressed the government's view on the issue. Balao saw WWII as an event that had waked Asian nationalism and independence after a period of docility and foreign rule, but he stated that neutrality, seen as a product of anti-colonial era anxieties, was an impulsive and baseless fear that could condemn weak nations to be devoured not by Western, but by Asiatic colonialism, such as the Japanese or the Russian. During a period marked by democracy, when no western country would consider colonizing, only Russia, due to its dictatorial and totalitarian nature, had colonies, Balao argued. Bllao partially expresses the fear that, after the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, only armed force could stop communism. For small, young countries such as the Philippines, that meant allying with “an unselfish America” through initiatives such as the SEATO to preserve freedom, religion, and a wholesome life that communism wasn’t seen to provide.

Fecha

1956

Fuente

“Illogical neutralism”, Philippines Armed Forces Journal, June 1956, pp. 36-40]

Relación

Cheng Guan, Ang. 2021. The Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation. London: Routledge.

Fenton, Damien. 2012. To Cage the Red Dragon: SEATO and the Defence of Southeast Asia, 1955-
1965. Singapore: NUS Press.
Woods, Colleen. 2020. Freedom Incorporated: Anticommunism and Philippine Independence in
the Age of Decolonization. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/74494.

Materia

Eulogio Balao
Philippines Armed Forces Journal
SEATO