ABSTRACT
Successful initiatives for closer regional cooperation have often been attributed to one essential ingredient: the regional nations themselves. Early initiatives reveal that there was support amongst Asian nations at the end of the Second World War, and a significant barrier to closer cooperation in Asia was constructed by different policy objectives amongst the regional nations. However, some of these nations were keen for the support of the United States for their initiatives and until such backing was forthcoming, regional cooperation was hampered. In Southeast Asia, communist movements were challenging the renewal of colonial power in the region. Ideas about containing communist influences in Southeast Asia through some form of collective structure started to appear in United States policy in early 1949 in some State Department memorandums and telegrams. The non-communist countries with the most interest in the idea of an Asia-Pacific security alliance were Australia, the Philippines, South Korea and the Chinese Nationalist Government.
