Word: thais
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...roar of modern war's destroying engines shook the gilded spires and jeweled pagodas of many-templed Bangkok last week. In answer to the Thai government's invitation, SEATO nations were staging their first joint maneuvers to show how fast they could come to the aid of their ally. A task force of U.S., British, Australian and New Zealand warships knifed northward through the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Siam. Crisp and impressive, 650 Philippine infantrymen rolled ashore from a U.S. seaplane tender in the harbor. U.S. Globemasters and Flying Boxcars, lugging men and arms from Japan...
Under cover of U.S., British and royal Thai jets, 6,000 U.S. soldiers rained down on Bangkok's Don Muang airport by parachute before the awed eyes of 250.000 Thailanders. Most impressive unprogrammed sight: the rescue in mid-air by one paratrooper of a comrade who jumped in the same stick but whose chute failed to open. Popeyed, rice farmers saw field guns and trucks larger than their houses drop from the sky. U.S. marines, landing from 30 helicopters, fought a mock battle against "enemy" strongpoints with flamethrowers and satchel charges...
...European NATO standards it was a small show, but by the third day, when some 28,000 men of six nations (France and Pakistan sent only observers) marched in colorful parade through Bangkok's streets, Thai officials felt that "Operation Firm Link" had shown their people that SEATO is much more than a "paper tiger...
...urbane Premier Pibulsonggram has been his chief of police, General Pao Sriyanonda. A heavy-lidded ladies' man who puts almost as much trust in his private astrologer as he does in his efficient and well-armed cops, Pao long ago established himself as the coming man in Thai affairs by the amazing skill with which he amassed money and the bacterial thoroughness with which he and his in-laws invaded the more vital organs of government...
Early this year, just when people were openly asking when Pao would be taking over the premiership, he ran into the worst sort of trouble that can befall a Thai statesman: star trouble. Thailand's best astrologers predicted in the newspapers that about the month of August, ruin would come upon one or two of Bangkok's mighty. Rumor said that Pao fired three astrologers in a row for providinig hin with unfavorable predictions. At the height of this horoscopic crisis. Preimier Pibulsonggram returned from a trip to the U.S., full of a lot of new ideas...