though they do not prove; that more is involved in this _ operation than simply the-construction: of air. bases; for the purposes of bombing Vietnam. Y) .
Thailand, like the artificial entity of "South" Vietnam, was included in the 1954 Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. This farsighted military pact was undertaken by the Eisenhower government to lay the groundwork for precisely the kind of development that has subsequently taken place in south Vietnam -- namely, a revolution against the U.S.-supported ruling classes in Southeast Asia.
Like south Vietnam in 1954, Thailand was ruled by a "constitutionel" monarchy. Its king, Phumipol Adulyadej, Rama IX, dates his family back to the thirteenth century. Even today, although he has relinquished actual power to the prime minister, Phumipol lives in fabulous luxury, along with the other members of his feudal clique. On the other hand, 90 percent of Thailand's population of. nearly 20,000,000 are peasants who live in abject poverty.
These objective conditions, and Thailand's proximity both to ‘China and Vietnam were sufficient reasons for the Pentagon to consider establishing a military framework there long before the specific development of the Vietnamese war in its present phase.
Furthermore, the war in Vietnam has undoubtedly had an impact on the Thai population. The U.S> bases have been used day after day to pound their Vietnamese brothers.
Thus it is not at all surprising to see more and more evidence that the beginnings of an armed struggle against the Bangkok regime and the U.S. aggressors has.-begun to take shape in Thailand -precisely, no doubt, as-.John Foster Dulles expected in 1954. Several underground radio stations are known to be broadcasting revolutionary appeals to the Thai peasants [see World Outlook, June 8); and there are ‘signs that guerrilla attacks have been Launched in certain areas.
- ALL speculations ebout Washington ' s intentions in Thailand, however, were completely set aside by the publication last month of long excerpts from the January &, February 4 and 8 hearings of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign. Relations in which various officials of the Democratic Administration testified.
The excerpts were published in book form by Greenleaf Classics under the title The Truth About Vietnam, edited by Frank M. Robinson and Earl Kemp. “The book has an introduction by Senator Wayne Morse and a ®orewerd by Senator J.W. Fulbright.
Although the subject of Thailand occupies only a small part of the testimony included in The Truth About Vietnan, practically every time it:was mentioned, new light was shed on Washington s policy. en
In. his: ‘original statement to the Senate committee, January 28, Secretary of State Dean Rusk noted. that out of a $275 million supplemental. appropriation bill for-the.Agency for International Development [AID], some $7.5 million was allocated for expense in Thailand.
On February. a, “David. Bell, AID chief administrator, went into further detail on the reasons for spending money in Thailand.
"In Thailand, " Bell stated "ag the committee knows, there was an announcement from Peiping (Peking] a few months ago, that the same kind of attack which was launched several years ago in Vietnan, will be launched in the present year in Thailand. We have been anticipating this for the last 2 or 3 years and the American economic assistance. program has been helping the Thai Government develop a program for security and progress in the rural areas, particularly. in northeast and northern Thailand. That program has. made some headway."' : a
Bell continued, "LT had the opportunity to visit there a month ago, and was well impressed. The problem is very serious; there - are beginnings of the same kind of guerrilla attacks, sneak attacks, assassinations of civilian officials and. policemen in northeast. — Thailand which have been so characteristic of the difficulties in Vietnam. The problem in Thailand is an increasing one and we are helping the Thai step up their efforts to meet it."
Later in the ‘cross~questioning before the committee members, Bell had occasion to elucidate on the "guerrilla attacks." "When I was in Thailand in the first week in January," he stated, "there was an attack on a police post in which some six Thai policemen were murdered by an organized gang from a jungle base, and which is organized into some sort of -~ what they would call, I suppose -a liberation front of the same kind that exists in. ‘South Vietnan.
The senators were so horrified that ‘they. asked Bell if. $7.6 Doo: million would be sufficient to "throttle" the "danger." The... +;. Democratic administrator then explained that the $7.5 million . ne appropriation was actually only a supplement to a total program. of. $42 million. It included: "greatly strengthening the police forces" and ‘investment: in all kinds of equipment, training efforts, police equipment. , a
‘Thailana was mentioned one “other time in the course of the. hearings excerpted in The Truth About Vietnam. This was when Lt. Gen, James Gavin, the proponent of the so-called enclave theory of military strategy, mentioned what. the U.S. was doing in Thailand | as a good example of the extension of his theory:
"We now have. logistical deployment in Thailand, " Gavin explained, "in anticipation of troubles there ofa very serious. order of magnitude , harbors, bridges, highways, which are always” the forerunner of a proper and efficient deployment of troops that. will follow...
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