Word: sarit
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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...
...Security Council, President Kennedy decided to about double U.S. military aid for South Viet Nam, to some $80 million a year. Kennedy has already sent General Lyman Lemnitzer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Roving Ambassador Averell Harriman to Southeast Asia to reassure Thailand's Marshal Sarit Thanarat and South Viet Nam's President Ngo Dinh Diem. This week he will dispatch Lyndon Johnson to Saigon to see "what further steps could most usefully be taken" to bolster South Viet Nam against the Communist tide...
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...
...from the British and French that the only feasible course for apathetic Laos was Kong Le-style neutralism, the U.S. had pushed for and helped secure the victory for General Phoumi. But once ensconced in Vientiane, Phoumi (who is a second cousin and staunch admirer of pro-Western Strongman Sarit Thanarat in neighboring Thailand) showed no more zeal than any of his predecessors for running the Communists to ground. Though he is described as a "strongman," was he strong enough, or determined enough, to battle the Pathet Lao into submission and enforce peace? It seemed doubtful. Perhaps the best that...