Word: pibul
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Died. Luang Pibul Songgram, 66, Thai strongman, who as Prime Minister from 1938 to 1941 and again from 1948 to 1957 changed the country's name from Siam to Thailand, turned it westward, or so he thought, with such Occidental laws as ordering men to kiss their wives before leaving for work each morning, ruled with a generally competent, militantly anti-Communist hand until a 1957 economic crisis led the Thai army to overthrow him; of a heart attack; in Tokyo...
Marshal Sarit, onetime heavy drinker now reformed (liver trouble) who raises orchids and roses in his spare time, seemed genuinely sorry that he had found it necessary to call in his tanks and troops to remove Pibul. "I would like to say," said the marshal wistfully, "that I am not pleased with what I am doing. I will always be grateful to the Prime Minister. He has done a great deal for the nation...
Sarit added that he hoped Pibul would return, and "even run for Parliament, if he likes." Others were less kind. Cracked a Western diplomat: "This is the end of government of the Pibul, by the Pibul. and for the Pibul...
Kept in Kep. As Sarit's troops were moving into position to take over Bangkok, the army radio broadcast frantic appeals for Pibul to surrender. "Please report, please report as soon as possible," said the military announcers. But Pibul, accompanied only by a military aide, was already speeding south at the wheel of his Thunderbird. Somewhere along the coast of the Gulf of Siam, Pibul and his aide boarded a navy LCM manned by his personal guards. Three days later Pibul and a skeleton personal staff disembarked some 200 miles away at the Cambodian seaside resort...
Though the ouster of Pibul meant the loss of one of the Orient's most colorful political personalities, there was reason to believe that, in the long run, the change in Thailand might prove one for the better-for Thailand as well as for its SEATO allies, including the U.S. Pibul had often been embarrassingly pro-U.S. in his public statements (though his personal newspapers were bitterly anti-American), and because both he and General Phao were personally unpopular with Thailanders, the U.S. has in recent months been sharing their odium. While the new government was settling...