Word: sarit
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Boeing 707 had barely rolled to a stop at Bangkok's Don Muang Airport last week when the tall, tanned Texan set to work. Looking straight across the welcoming red carpet at Thailand's tough little Premier Sarit Thanarat, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson declared: "We will honor our commitments for the cause of freedom. We will stand by our friends. We will not falter, Mr. Prime Minister. We will not fail...
Brass Tacks & Corn Pone. Thailand posed especially delicate problems for Johnson. One of the strongest anti-Communist nations in Southeast Asia, Thailand was fast losing its faith in the U.S. after the debacle in neighboring Laos. Johnson set the mood for his reassuring talks with Sarit by stopping off at Bangkok's SEATO headquarters building to deliver a blunt statement. "It is sometimes difficult to understand how a man-or a nation-can treasure liberty for himself," said Johnson, his voice sharpening as he spoke, "and be totally unconcerned for it when it involves other people...
...three sessions together, Johnson and Sarit got down to brass tacks. At one point, the Vice President bemused the Premier by making a solid point with some corn-pone rhetoric: "My daddy taught me back in Texas what to do when you see a snake. We take a hoe off the wall and get him: Now, there are lots of snakes around here. We have our hands on the hoe handle. Are you going to grab the handle with us so we can get those snakes together...
When the Premier and the Vice President finally emerged from their ornate conference room, Sarit put his hands on the hoe by agreeing to send his Foreign Minister that night to the 14-nation conference on Laos in Geneva. The Thais had been disgustedly boycotting the meeting, because they felt-justifiably-that it was bound to give Laos to the Communists. Said a relieved U.S. State Department aide: "It's a lot more effective to have the Thais there spelling out the hopes and fears of the Asian nations than to have the U.S. trying...
Against Softness. Strong and relatively prosperous, Thailand is in no immediate danger. In the event of trouble. Strongman Sarit can call on a 90,000-man army, well-trained and equipped by the U.S. But the Thais, who wanted to send troops to Laos (and actually did beef up the Laotian army with a few volunteers), are angry at what they consider U.S. softness. Officials in Bangkok hinted that Sarit might take the precaution of trading in his pro-Western stand for a more neutralist line...