Thailand: Holder of the Kingdom, Strength of the Land

• Share

(10 of 10)

siding with the stronger. For all their genuine anti-Communist convictions, the Thais might well develop serious second thoughts the day the U.S. began to pull out of Saigon.

Thailand's importance really rests on its key position in the heart of Southeast Asia, and in the promise of its resources to create a genuine revolution before the Communists can dig in. If Viet Nam has reached Mao's Stage 3 of massed battles in the revolutionary manual, Thailand is still in Stage 1. That is the organization of insurrection of the grass roots—and the Thais have a chance to arrest it there. Though the gunfire now resounds in Viet Nam, the vital core on which all Southeast Asia depends, as a glance at any map shows, is in reality Thailand. So long as the Land of the Free remains in the province of free nations, Southeast Asia is secure. And given enough time, its example of stability and security might ultimately spread out to heal and instruct its troubled, less favored neighbors.