Word: seato
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...only international group conveniently at hand on whom South Viet Nam can rely is the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, made up of the U.S., Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan. Though neither South Viet Nam, nor neighboring Laos, nor Cambodia is a signatory of SEATO, all three countries are under the "protection" of the eight-nation alliance...
Thailand, a land of green canals, gilded pagodas and 20-ft.-high poinsettias, is headquarters for SEATO. Although the Thais are gentle people and not famous for stalwart struggle in the face of adversity (they surrendered to the Japanese with embarrassing speed in World War II, soon switched sides and happily declared war on the U.S.), they are bossed by tough Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, who has built a strong 100,000-man army with the help of $550 million in U.S. aid. A popular dictator, Sarit made his country prosperous, faces no serious domestic discontent, and has kept...
...ruled by India but is heavily Moslem in population. "Work on Mr. Nehru's nerves." Ayub urged Kennedy. He argued that the Kennedy Administration had highly overrated the importance of neutral India in its allocation of aid, and that more U.S. money ought to be channeled to SEATO ally Pakistan. Nehru was overrated, too, suggested Ayub: "People think he's thinking all the time-actually, he's just in a trance...
...that they had come to meet a talkative tiger. Days before in London, the plain-spoken President of Pakistan had demonstrated his old soldier's scorn for diplomatic niceties, had loudly broadcast his doubts about U.S. policy in Southeast Asia and threatened to "reexamine" his country's SEATO and CENTO commitments. At planeside, his grey guardsman's mustache bristling, Ayub was terse and blunt. "We naturally take deepest interest," he told President Kennedy, "in what goes on in this country-and especially what you do, sir." Then he strode to Kennedy's new bubble-topped Lincoln...
...Ayub: "We want to be able to make 'em take a pill, then poof, that's that.") But Ayub did not hesitate to tell Kennedy exactly what he thought of Nehru ("People think he's thinking. Actually, he's just in a trance"), and dismissed SEATO as a weak-spined organization, daring only to "send telegrams back and forth." He submitted to an hour of questioning at the National Press Club, and played host himself at a dinner for President Kennedy and for his old friend, Dwight Eisenhower. On another evening, he traded war stories with...