Office of the Historian

406. Memorandum for the Record1

Washington, October 16, 1968.

SUBJECT

  • Conversation with General Praphat, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior, and Commander in Chief, Royal Thai Army
1.
(TS) General Praphat sent word in advance of his trip that he would like to have an extended conversation with me. Accordingly, he came to Walter Reed Hospital at 0930, 16 October, and we talked for approximately one hour. After exchanging pleasantries and a discussion of the Olympic Games, which he had attended during the opening ceremony, the discussion turned to more substantive items of interest.
a.
The Thai Volunteer Division should deploy on schedule and is making great progress in its training. It will be known as the “Black Panther Division.” Praphat is pleased with the performance of the Thai troops in Vietnam and proud of the volunteer division.
b.
The situation in Vietnam is now favorable to our side, but Praphat cautions that resistance against communist insurgency is a long-term undertaking.
c.
The communist insurgency in Northeast Thailand has declined, which situation he attributes to the difficulty the insurgents are having in getting supplies during the rainy season and the psychological impact of political problems in Communist China and the dilemma in which the leadership in Hanoi now finds itself.
d.
The communists have established a major guerrilla training base along the Lao-Cambodian border and near Thailand, close to the Lao-Thai-Cambodian border juncture. The camp is located at a segment of the Lao-Cambodian border that is under dispute. The training cadre consists of Thai, Lao, and Vietnamese personnel assisted by Chicom advisors. Thai pilots have seen the communist flag flying over this extensive installation. The camp has thus far trained four battalions of 800 men each, consisting of Thais and Thailand-born Chinese.
e.
Prince Sihanouk is an unpredictable individual who is attempting to play both ends against the middle and stay in power. The Free Cambodians (Khmer Serei) have a force of approximately 10,000, whose objective is to overthrow Sihanouk, and it would be timely to give this group encouragement and support. The Free Cambodians have been able [Page 905] to get arms and ammunition by looting Cambodian Army storage areas.
f.
The Thais have learned from agents that they have in Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh and through the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok that there is a regular flow of arms and ammunition of Chinese manufacture through Sihanoukville and thence to the communists in Vietnam. This flow of military stores and supplies increased at the time we restricted our bombing but has since reduced. These military stores are moved in boxes from merchant ships into a warehouse built for the Cambodians by the Russians. From there the stores are moved by truck during both day and night to storage points near the Vietnamese border. The cargo is camouflaged while enroute. From these storage points, the materiel is turned over to the North Vietnamese or Viet Cong, who move it across the border to their troops in South Vietnam.
g.
It is believed that this supply of military stores moving through Cambodia is based on an agreement between the Royal Cambodian Government and the Government of Communist China. Most certainly, Sihanouk knows about these arrangements. At the same time, Cambodian officers are profiting from the enterprise.
2.
(S) I have noted that the proposal to support the Khmer Serei was also mentioned to Admiral McCain by Praphat. Needless to say, I did not respond to his proposal.
W.C. Westmoreland
General, United States Army
Chief of Staff
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Thailand, Vol. VIII, Memos 7/68–12/68. Top Secret. Drafted by Chief of Staff of the Army, General William Westmoreland.↩