790.00/4–954
No. 415
Memorandum of Conversation, by the
Officer in Charge of Thai and Malayan Affairs (Landon)
Subject:
- United Action Southeast Asian Nations.
Participants:
- The Secretary of State: The Under Secretary
- His Excellency, Pote Sarasin, Ambassador of Thailand
- Mr. Kenneth P. Landon, PSA
The Ambassador of Thailand, Pote Sarasin, called on the Secretary and, under instructions from his Government, informed him that the Government of Thailand accepted the invitation to join in arranging for a united front against Communist aggression as proposed by the Secretary,1 suggesting that the details should be developed in further conversations.
The Secretary expressed his gratification at the prompt and favorable response of the Government of Thailand and immediately [Page 707] called in Assistant Secretary McCardle2 and made arrangements for a press release.3
The Thai Ambassador asked the Secretary what the next move should be and he replied that the immediate problem was to secure the agreement of the other states in the area.
The Secretary then referred to his forthcoming trip to London and Paris and said that he would probably return to Washington on Monday the 19th and depart Tuesday the 20th for Geneva. The Thai Ambassador inquired whether he might see the Secretary on that Monday or Tuesday in order to be fully informed of developments at London and Paris. The Secretary replied that he, himself, would probably be too busy but he instructed Mr. Landon to make the necessary arrangements so that the Thai Ambassador might be informed fully on Monday the 19th before he, himself, departed for Geneva on the 20th.
During the preparations of the press release the Under Secretary, General Bedell Smith, came in and asked the Thai Ambassador whether his Government had taken any action in Bangkok in line with their previous conversation regarding the expansion of the Thai Armed Forces.4
The Thai Ambassador replied that his Government as yet had not discussed this matter at Bangkok but that he knew the Prime Minister and other high military officials in Thailand strongly favored increasing the Armed Forces from about 60,000 to as much as 120,000; that they had enough small arms; that, however, they lacked both trained men and the necessary financial support for soft goods, barracks, and such things.
The Under Secretary said that he believed the U.S. Government would consider favorably at this time a firm request from the Thai Government through the Chief of JUSMAG, General Gillmore, and the Ambassador, General Donovan, for necessary support and training for an army of about 90,000 men, including funds for soft goods. He added that he had already discussed this with Admiral Radford and other officials in our own military establishment and believed that the same consideration might now be given Thailand that this Government had given other nations in not limiting our aid to hard goods but including also soft goods where necessary.
The Thai Ambassador assured the Under Secretary that he would inform his Government immediately on this subject and believed [Page 708] that prompt action would be undertaken in this respect at Bangkok.
The conversation ended on a very happy note with mutual congratulations.
- See Landon’s memorandum of conversation, Part 1, p. 402.↩
- Carl W. McCardle, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.↩
- The news of the Thai response was included in a White House press release dated Apr. 10; the text is in Department of State Bulletin, Apr. 19, 1954, p. 590.↩
- No record of this conversation has been found in Department of State files.↩