Kenneth recounts Pote Sarisin's interaction with John Dulles. Dulles had been quite gruff, and Sarisin simply didn't know how to respond. Finally they worked it out, but not before many an awkward moment.
Kenneth tells of his transition between offices in his job with the Operations Coordinating Board. In the process, his beloved avocado tree got a chill and died. He had various offices in different buildings.
Ken and Margaretta fled from Thailand to India when the Japanese invaded. Kenneth was here when they reached this country in early 1944, and he found Ken a job with the State Department in the research section. What Ken did was much more "sedate"…
Kenneth explains his encounter with Ko Geng Hsui. He also discusses briefly the program at American University which he set up with a focus on Southeast Asian studies.
Kenneth discusses later seminar classes. After his first class, he was informed that the insurgency seminars were now to cover the entirety of the world. With this additional work, he had to make some changes to the seminar--a constant work in…
Also on Kenneth's list of things to do before he dies was to learn to play the piano. He found a teacher, a woman by the name of Mabes Imhoff, and became her only adult pupil. He skipped playing scales, going directly to more challenging pieces. He…
Kenneth talks about his experience leaving the OSS for the BEW, when the OSS tried to keep him from going. The experience served him well years later when he left the State Department for the White House staff in the 1950's. There was an…
Donovan, realizing that this was his last significant position in government, wanted to be remembered and make a difference. Jokingly, Kenneth suggested redirecting the Mekong River, as this could drastically impact southeast Asia. Donovan took to…
Kenneth recounts Martin MacLachlan speaking during the seminar. MacLachlan spoke of the youth movements happening around the world, and was incredibly knowledgeable on the subject. He joined one of the seminar groups in working on their current…
Roosevelt died before the end of the war, of course. Joseph McCarthy got going with his anti-communism in early 1950. Kenneth came into his office there one morning to find that his files had been dumped all over the floor. He gave the Haskell…
Kenneth tells of his elimination from the Operations Coordinating Board. McGeorge Bundy called a large group together to make the announcement. The entire group was to be abolished, as they weren't able to technically be fired. The members would…
Kenneth's book, The Chinese in Thailand, was bought up by the Japanese, and people and organizations could not find copies for themselves. Years later, at a meeting in Washington, Kenneth met a Japanese Intelligence Officer who had come to meet him.…
Kenneth was meeting with top government officials in Indonesia, among whom was a man named Sharir, whom Kenneth had first known in Washington. He was one of the revolutionaries and had come as a special emissary in the late 1940's to Washington.…
Kenneth recalls meeting with an old friend, the Consul General by the name of Drumwright. Drumwright had him over for the evening, taking him out to a wonderful party with orchestras, food, and fine Scotch whiskeys. Drumwright wanted to see and be…
Kenneth took off in a plane to meet with the Lao cabinet in Vientiane, Laos. The pilot was nervous about the airport in Laos, which had a very short runway. They made the landing successfully, but it was scary. Kenneth was the first American diplomat…
Kenneth was staying in a room, at $22 a month. When he moved over to the BEW and his salary jumped to $5600, he wrote to Margaret that he felt his future lay in government. The money was much better than he could earn in the academic world.
In his youth, Merle Cochran had spent time in France, and he had acquired a magnificent set of French furniture. When he finished his assignment in Djakarta, he sold that furniture to the government for a fancy price, enough to finance his retirement…
Kenneth tells of his transition between offices in his job with the Operations Coordinating Board. In the process, his beloved avocado tree got a chill and died. He had various offices in different buildings.
Kenneth gives an account of a conversation he had with Mrs. and Mr. True. Mrs. True was going on about the merits of Harvard, but Kenneth stood up for his son, Kip, who was attending Wheaton. Mrs. True argued that Harvard was significantly more…
Kenneth tells of his visiting Nelson Rockefeller's office. Rockefeller had a working fireplace. He had insisted upon this, and to further the elegance, he had flawless birchwood logs which he would burn.
Nelson Rockefeller, the Assistant Secretary for Latin American Affairs in the State Department, managed to have his chimney opened (many of the chimneys were not in working order). One day Kenneth had occasion to go in there, and he saw a load of…
At the first meeting of the Far Eastern section of the OCI, Kenneth's new chief bawled him out for contacting people all over the city that he thought might be of help to him. Kenneth never worried about protocol, so he never paid attention to the…
A group of Thai freed from Germany was held in New York and pretending that they didn't speak much English, so Kenneth was sent to speak to them. They were stunned when they heard Kenneth speak Thai. Most of the Thai people wanted to return to…
Kenneth would be expected back at Earlham Collge in January for the spring semester, but then Pearl Harbor happened, and all bets were off. During that period, there was quite an interest in Kenneth among various government agencies, which tried to…
Donovan brought a man named James Phinney Baxter down from Harvard to run the OCI, and he brought a number of men down from Harvard and Yale, and "the eastern seaboard boys began to take over." Both Yale and Harvard had Far Eastern departments.…