Word: sarit
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...visit to Thailand two years ago, Lyndon Johnson said that the time had come for Southeast Asia to "separate the men from the boys" in its battle against Communist aggression. In every sense of the word, Thailand's Premier Sarit Thanarat was a man. A bluff, hard-wenching, hard-drinking soldier, Sarit was also a masterly pro-Western politician who stabilized Thailand's chaotic government and sagging economy, rooted out official corruption and cracked down hard on Communist infiltration. In the "domino" view of Southeast Asia, according to which the collapse of one country could knock over...
Trick Achieved. Though Marshal Sarit ruled Thailand as an absolute dictutor, he had a strong sense of responsibility toward country and people. "Anybody can stage a revolution," he said after seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1957. "The trick, once the revolution has been staged, is winning public approval." On doctor's orders, he went on the wagon, began housecleaning Thailand from top to bottom. He banned opium smoking, and when a rash of fires broke out in Bangkok's business district one winter, he ordered four Chinese merchants shot-a brutal but effective reminder that...
...Sarit slashed the price of rice, transportation and school fees, allocated as much money for education as for defense. He encouraged foreign investment and industrial expansion, had more than $500 million in foreign exchange reserves socked away, spurred a healthy 6% annual rise in the G.N.P. When Communist guerrillas stepped up their campaign of subversion in the scrubby, impoverished northeast provinces, Sarit set in motion a crash $300 million program of medical, economic and educational development that undercut the Red threat. Though his rule was absolute, he always knelt before Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, encouraged Thais to accept...
Three weeks ago, Sarit went to the hospital with complications arising from cirrhosis of the liver and a lifetime of hard living. Among his other ailments: enlargement of the heart, high blood pressure, kidney disease, congested lungs. From his hospital bed, he sang to his wife an old Thai ballad that begins: "The love of 100 mistresses could not be compared to the love one has for his own wife." The U.S. Army surgeon general rushed to Bangkok to treat Sarit, but his heart finally gave...
...Died. Sarit Thanarat, 55, Thailand's strongman since 1957; of cirrhosis of the liver, complicated by various other ailments; in Bangkok (see THE WORLD...