Word: thais
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Hanoi, in effect, is trying to fill one pocket by emptying another. The Pathet Lao troops are needed in northern Laos, where Chinese-supplied tribesmen are smuggling rifles to anti-Communist Meo guerrillas. According to Western and Thai intelligence, the insurgents last month killed 200 Pathet Lao troops assigned to guard a new highway...
...million people of this France-size land call their country Muang-Thai, which means land of the free. Thailand, in fact, is the only country in Southeast Asia that was never colonized by a Western power. For centuries the country has managed to survive the ambitions of would-be occupiers through a combination of diplomatic guile, compromise, opportunism and sheer luck...
More than 90% of Thais are practicing Buddhists, and the symbols of religion are omnipresent: young men in saffron robes practicing the 227 rules of tripitaka (the summation of Hinayana Doctrine), temples that dominate the jumbled skyline of humid, traffic-jammed Bangkok. Another symbol of Thai unity is the country's constitutional monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 51, whose official title is King Rama IX. A talented jazz saxophonist who was born in Cambridge, Mass. (where his father was a medical student), the shy monarch travels constantly throughout the country. He personally hands out diplomas to all graduates of state...
Keeping the countryside poor, however, is no longer an option for Bangkok. Kriangsak declared 1979 as the "year of the farmer" and launched an ambitious $2 billion rural reform program to be renewed annually. Said Kriangsak: "Thai farmers will eventually be standing proud and tall in the coming decade...
...THAILAND. Like most of the ASEAN forces, Thailand's 141,000-man army is designed for counterinsurgency and internal security. Its forces have not fought a major battle for about 150 years, although a few Thai units saw limited action in Korea and Viet Nam. While the Thai soldier would give a good account of himself if his country were invaded, he would be hamstrung by inexperienced leadership and unsophisticated weapons. The country's arsenal consists mainly of 149 aircraft and 150 U.S.-made M41 light tanks. On order are 149 British-made Scorpion reconnaissance vehicles that...