Office of the Historian

535. Letter From the Ambassador in Thailand (Johnson) to Prime Minister Sarit Thanarat1

Bangkok, November 7, 1959.

Excellency: I am pleased to inform you that we have now received information with respect to the allocation of grant financial aid to Thailand for the Fiscal Year 1960. The total amount of Defense Support, Technical Cooperation, and Special Assistance funds will be approximately $23,115,000.

Although the total amount of economic aid funds appropriated by the Congress this year was approximately 20 per cent less than in Fiscal Year 1959, the amount allotted to Thailand was reduced only approximately 4 per cent or less than $1,000,000. The reduction in the case of Thailand was also proportionately less than for other Far Eastern countries. USOM will inform the TTEC of the details in accordance with established procedures.

The foregoing figures, of course, do not include United States economic assistance to Thailand in the form of Development Loan Fund and other such financing of Thai economic development.2

With kind personal regards, I remain,

Respectfully yours,

U. Alexis Johnson3
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 792.5–MSP/11–1059. Confidential. The source text is a copy transmitted as an enclosure to despatch 290 from Bangkok, November 10.↩

  2. On the following day, Sarit responded with a note of thanks in which he attributed Thailand’s favorable treatment to Johnson’s unremitting efforts. (Ibid., 792.5–MSP/11–1059)

    Earlier, on November 5, Johnson had informed Sarit by note that in fiscal year 1960 the United States would be able to provide Thailand with two-three times the amount of petroleum supplied in fiscal year 1959. (Enclosure to despatch 335 from Bangkok, December 8; ibid., 792.5–MSP/12–859) See footnote 2, Document 515.

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  3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩