Kenneth tells of the scholars on Southeast Asia who built on his work on the region. A man named Skinner, a professor at Cornell, studied The Chinese in Thailand, and came out with his own book on the Chinese in Thailand (Chinese Society in Thailand,…
There was a lot of partying during Kenneth's time in Bangkok. He went dancing almost every night. When the Japanese were in the country there were no nightclubs, but when the allied forces came in this all changed. By the time Kenneth arrived there…
As Kenneth had worked two jobs, receiving two full time incomes over the past year, in 1965 he was able to fully pay off the mortgage on the 4711 Fulton St. house in which they lived.
Peggy was sixteen at the time Kip was born, and she'd come home and help with the baby. She was going to Wilson High School. So was Bill. Carol was ten and attending school at Alice Deal Junior High. One night, Kenneth collapsed when he and Carol…
Peggy experimented with quite a number of boys in her dating. One night she went out with an Italian boy who was a real tough guy. She never dated that one again. She always had lots of boyfriends. One of them hoped to become a professional baseball…
Kenneth went to a party and played the piano. Life magazine, Kenneth thinks it was, had an article on how to play the piano in four or five lessons. He sat down with that, figured it out, and did it. All he had to know was the melody, and it showed…
Kenneth went over to Saigon with a picture of Harry Truman autographed by the President to former Emperor Bao Dai, who had fled from Hanoi up to Hong Kong, and then later had come down to head up the government of South Vietnam with the French…
Kenneth tells of Queen Ramphai Barni. He visited her farm, recalling the time that she had visited his home in Washington. She remembered the visit as well, and they had a pleasant time together.
Kenneth had good relations with the Thai. As such, he was to be honored with the Order of Exalted White Elephant award. However, as he was not a general, he wasn't able to receive the same ranking of White Elephant as the generals in the group. As…
During work in Thailand, Donovan was to create an aid program for General Pao. Kenneth, however, realized that General Sarit was a rising power, and that Donovan should also pay attention to him. Donovan created a plan for Sarit as well, this being a…
For recreation Kenneth would go out to Glen Echo, up the Potomac River outside Washington, where there was an amusement park, and swim in the public swimming pool. It was very crowded.
Kenneth goes to great lengths detailing his various reflections on the Country Team Seminar. Altogether, there were four five-week sessions and one instructors' course which was two weeks in length. There were 277 members to go through the program,…
Kenneth and Bill Donovan went up to the extreme northern part of Thailand for the repatriation of the KMT troops. Both the previous ambassador, Ed Stanton, and the ambassador to Burma, David Key, had been told to assure their respective governments…
Upon switching full time to American University, Kenneth retired from government service at the end of 1965. Dean Rusk hosted the reception for him, and awarded Kenneth a medal for his years of service.
Once again, years later, Kenneth met Mrs. Yipintsoi again and was asked to dinner with her after he spoke quite highly of her at a meeting with a few hundred women. Regrettably, he was unable to attend as he fell quite ill.
Kenneth tells of the return trip with Admiral Layton. He recalls the plethora of items that the Admiral and Bill Godel were returning with, including a three-wheeled bicycle taxi! Kenneth also tells that this was his first encounter with a to be…
In conjunction with the OWI broadcasts, there developed a need to send messages to San Francisco regarding the broadcasts, and the OWI people wanted some sort of simple code that could be typed out for this purpose. Kenneth thought up the idea of…
The communists in Calcutta sent out orders to communist cells in South East Asia to have a general uprising of all their guerrilla forces simultaneously. People were being shot on the highways and dared not drive at night. The US consul sent a cable…
In March, 1942, Kenneth wrote a handbook for soldiers in Thailand. We knew we would eventually be going in, and so there was a lot of talk about how to set up a military government. Somebody had to cook up a manual on this, as there were none.
The King was the son of his predecessor, whom Kenneth had previously known, if slightly. The two men spoke in Thai, using the common language. The King gave a dinner, and his wife came. He had told Kenneth that she never came to dinners for foreign…
Kenneth took a plane to Hanoi to be the guest of Governor Tri. He was sent in lieu of a man named Phillip Jessup who was supposed to have a special mission on behalf of President Truman to Hanoi, to be Tri's guest and to survey the situation in the…
Kenneth describes the period he worked at the University as a period of student unrest. Many protests occured, and he recalled speaking to large groups of people who were ready to disagree with him angrily. After making a slight joke, he eased the…
The military attaché, Karp Kunjara, later told Kenneth that he had no further problems. As a consequence of this incident, Pramoj's brother is just a relentless enemy of Kenneth. He even wrote about Kenneth in his newspaper, running him down, saying…
When World War II broke out, Kenneth had photographs of both sides of the peninsula all the way up to Burma, and also on the islands in the Gulf of Siam [and the Andaman Sea on the west side]. He had maps. And he had a ten-year file of Siamese…
Kenneth tells of the swimming pool at the White House. He was allowed to use this pool, however he usually would use the pool at the YMCA as he was able to horse around a little more.