“The Monsoon Asia of Geographers”

Since its creation as a specialized agency of the UN (1948), the WHO faced a number of geopolitical challenges associated with the Cold War. Between 1949 and 1957, the USSR and its allies withdrew from the WHO, citing ideological differences with the US, as the latter did not recognize the indivisibility between health and social and economic problems. On the contrary, the US argued that poverty was the breeding ground of communism, and since disease led to poverty, eradicating disease would prevent the spread of communism to newly independent countries. The WHO became captive to US national interests during the 1950s and embarked on a narrow program of disease eradication and regionalization.

The first WHO Director General Brock Chisholm (1948–53) advocated decentralization as a pragmatic step to meet diverse health needs in different parts of the world. The WHO headquarters characterized the central and south-eastern parts of Asia, including the Indonesian archipelago—“the Monsoon Asia of Geographers”—as a single epidemiological area. The SEARO—the WHO's first regional office established in 1948 in New Delhi—during its first decade, launched mass campaigns against endemic diseases. This chapter argues that between 1948 and 1960, the SEARO had to balance between ensuring compliance of member states with prescriptions of international aid agencies and liaising with the WHO headquarters for increased budgetary allocations for Southeast Asia.