The US strikes back

The United States, Britain, France and other western colonial powers faced serious problems in the late 1940's. In Europe the Soviet Union, under Stalin's leadership, had firmly resisted the western powers attempts to establish their dominance over the continent, despite military provocation and nuclear blackmail Communist parties in France, Italy and Greece were making important advances. In Eastern Europe the people's democracies, under communist leadership, were consolidating their position after years of brutal fascist rule.

In Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos the United States poured military aid and millions of dollars into salvaging the French attempt to re-establish its colonial power. In the Philippines a similar effort was carried on to prop up the pro-American regime. And in June 1950 the south Korean government, which owed its political existence solely to Washington, launched an invasion of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north.

In 1951 the US and 47 other countries signed a peace treaty with Japan. At the time it was heralded as a 'soft' peace treaty; the US Government wanted to include Japan in its network of alliances surrounding People's China and the Soviet Union. The Australian and New Zealand Labour governments reluctantly bowed to the American view as they wanted a tougher settlement fearing a resurgence of Japanese militarism.

Speaking in Parliament in October 1951 1951, Mr Philip Connolly, a Labour member, pointed out that many signatories to the Peace Treaty were dependent on US economic aid. He went on to quote Chapter 22, Verse 7 of the Book of Proverbs: 'The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.' Needless to say, the US successfully excluded the Soviet Union and China from the peace treaty.

About this time the US concluded security pacts with a number of pro-western governments in Asia - Japan (1951), the Philippines (1951), south Korea (1953) and Taiwan (1954). One week before the Japanese Peace Treaty was signed, the US, Australia and New Zealand signed the ANZUS security treaty in San Francisco. While some historians have argued that this treaty was a guarantee of US protection against Japan in exchange for the 'soft' peace treaty, the Australian Minister of External Affairs, Mr R. G. Casey pointed out at the time'

It is incorrect to describe the Treaty as a guarantee by the United States exacted by us as a condition for entering the Japanese Treaty ... well before the ANZUS Treaty was drafted, the spokesmen of the Australian Government identified the immediate menace in the Pacific not as Japan but as Comunist Imperialism.'

By 1954 the western powers' attempts to defeat the revolutionary forces of Asia on the battlefield were going badly. The British were slowly getting on top of the guerrilla forces in Malaya, as was the pro-US government in the Philippines. However the revolutionary forces in these countries were never completely defeated. Korea had been ravaged but the north Koreans, aided by volunteers from China, stopped the advance of the "United Nations" troops, funded and directed by the American military machine. In Indochina the French finally met complete defeat at Dien bien phu.

A peace conference was held in Geneva to try and settle the political situation in Korea and Indochina. Here the western powers fell out. Under Secretary of State Dulles, the US still wanted to follow a relentlessly aggressive policy against China and the Soviet Union. The British Conservative Government had a finer appreciation that history was running out for the imperialist powers and Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden fought Dulles to reach [unclear: e] settlement in Indochina. When the [unclear: Geneva Aement] on Indochina was finally signed, the US walked out. Dulles refused to accept diplomatic defeat in Indochina and set about fanning the flames of war in Asia again.