476. Memorandum of Conversation0
SUBJECT
- Call of the Thai Ambassador
PARTICIPANTS
- The President
- H.E. Visutr Arthayukti, Ambassador of Thailand
- Mr. Michael V. Forrestal
- Mr. H. L. T. Koren, Director, Office of Southeast Asian Affairs, Department of State
Ambassador Visutr, in presenting to the President an autographed picture of H. M. the King of Thailand, said that the President had been very thoughtful in choosing Mr. Sayre to present the President’s picture to the King. This was appreciated by the King and his people because Mr. Sayre was considered a great friend of Thailand; he was popular there and was known by his Thai name.
The President inquired how things were getting on in Thailand. The Ambassador noted that his Government was worried about conditions in the Northeast and was grateful to the U.S. for the assistance it was giving Thailand to cope with the difficulties there. The President said he understood there was some concern in Thailand over implications that may have been drawn from the recent reports of Senator Mansfield1 and the Clay Committee.2 The President said that the message he had just sent to the Congress on foreign aid should put this matter into the proper perspective. The voice of the Government was, after all, the voice of the U.S. The Administration was determined to fight hard to maintain the support through foreign assistance outlined in his message.
The President said that we considered the survival of Thailand essential to the security of Asia and he hoped that the Government of [Page 995] Thailand would not become discouraged. The Ambassador said that the Thai people fully appreciated U.S. assistance, to which the President replied that the U.S. appreciated equally the help of Thailand. The security, of Thailand was important to the strength of SEATO, which was the key to the security of Southeast Asia and the latter in turn to the security of the entire Free World and therefore to the security of the U.S. We counted on the maintenance of SEATO as interpreted by the Thai Foreign Minister and the Secretary of State in their joint communiqué.
What the President had stated was the policy of the United States Government, and the President hoped the Ambassador would explain this to his Government The President added that he hoped the Thai Government’s efforts to cope with their problems along the frontier would be pushed.
In closing the President repeated that the U.S. was grateful to Thailand for the support it gave to the U.S. He also asked the Ambassador to extend his warm thanks to His Majesty for his kindness in giving him his picture and said that it would be kept in the White House.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL THAI-US. Confidential. Drafted by Koren and approved by the White House on April 15. The time of this meeting is taken from the President’s Appointment Book. (Kennedy Library)↩
- The Mansfield report, entitled Vietnam and Southeast Asia: Report of Senator Mike Mansfield, Senator J. Caleb Boggs, Senator Claiborne Pell, and Senator Benjamin A. Smith to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, 88th Congress, 1st Session (Washington, 1963), was mildly critical of Thailand. The authors noted that Thailand did not have institutions for political change; its governments came to power by bloodless coups.↩
- The Clay Committee (officially the Committee To Strengthen the Security of the Free World) was a bipartisan, advisory group appointed by the President on December 10, 1962, to study U.S. foreign assistance. The committee was headed by retired General Lucius D. Clay. Its report, released on March 22, 1963, concluded that the U.S. aid program was “essential,” but it needed “substantial tightening up” and. “sharpened objectives.” (The Scope and Distribution of United States Military and Economic Assistance Programs: Report to the President of the United States by the Committee To Strengthen the Security of the Free World, March 20, 1963)↩