Illogical neutralism

Senator Eulogio Balao (1907-1977), a WWII veteran and head of Quirino’s anti-HUK campaigns, 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 awoke Asian nationalism and independence after a period of docility and foreign rule. But he also 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, no western country (with the exception of the Soviet Union) would consider colonizing the Philippines.

Balao partially expressed the fear that, after the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, only an armed force could stop Communism.  For small, young countries such as the Philippines, that would mean allying with “an unselfish America” through initiatives such as the SEATO to preserve freedom, religion, and a wholesome life that Communism was not seen to provide.

“Illogical neutralism”, Philippines Armed Forces Journal, June 1956, pp. 36-40. In Open Access Repository @ UPD. 

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.