Kenneth now tells of the Chungking project. This was a possible venture in India and China to tap possible sources of information in Thailand and Indochina, and it was to be based in Chungking. Kenneth was seriously considering going out and setting…
Kenneth gives an account of the Country Team Seminar visiting the White House and meeting the President of the United States. this was a grand time for them, and the President received them quite well. The class was quite enthusiastic about the…
Kenneth discusses the end of the course. He describes the last two days as the best in the course--these were the days the seminar groups gave their presentations, and he found them to be extraordinarily professional. He was particularly impressed by…
Margaret wrote Kenneth that Candy, the bulldog Kenneth had acquired as a pet in Richmond, had bitten a child. Kenneth wrote back that he felt Candy should be disposed of. Margaret kept that dog, and two years later, when Kip was a baby, on March 27,…
The Dolly Madison saga, which happened in February, 1942. Dolly Madison was Kenneth's secretary, and she was madly in love with a reporter for The Washington Post, and a good one, named George. The man wasn't interested in marrying her, so she…
From Saigon Kenneth traveled to Bangkok and Calcutta to catch a military plane that took him to the Philippines. On the plane from the Philippines there were only two passengers. There was no place to sit, so they simply rolled up in blankets and…
Kenneth gives a detailed account of the end of the second week in the Seminar. Walt Rostow and the Attorney General both came this day. Kenneth spent some time talking with men from MIT. Kenneth is working on preparing materials for Africa and the…
Kenneth describes in detail the Executive Office Building. He goes on about a certain office or two, mentioning Rockefeller's office and open fireplace. He talks about the grandeur of the building, with large rooms, large doors, large…
Kenneth gives a detailed description of the fifth day of the seminar. He explains that he has a new librarian, Miss Idol. He also discusses the rapid growth of the library due to requests for documents. He tells his father's chicken story. Word also…
The whole mob of them would go down the stairs to the floor below where the coffee bar was. Half way down the stairs, there was a huge firehose all coiled up and ready to go in case of an emergency. There was a wheel that you whirled to turn the…
Kenneth remembers the first time he went to the theater, at age eight or nine. Mr. Jenkins, a printer for The Evening Republican, and Bobby Jenkins took him there. He recalls being photographed wearing the dress of Alice Jenkins after a party and…
Kenneth tells of a lovely arrangement of flowers. This was during the time of the recordings. The flowers were from Phil Bonsal's wife Margaret, who had sent the flowers to Margaret Landon.
Kenneth tells of the Landon's different career spurts. He describes them as quite fortuitous, as Margaret wrote her book, and the war spurred great interest in Southeast Asia. Kenneth was also fortunate in that he was the only one in the Foreign…
Kenneth gives a detailed description of the fourth day of the Seminar. He describes his daily routine, involving introducing speakers, a staff meeting, and other meetings he might have.
The Free Thai movement developed simultaneously among Thai students in Britain and the United States. It was under the direction of the Thai Legation in Washington and probably under the principal military attachés in Britain. Kenneth explains how…
Kenneth speaks of what an informal situation it was in Washington at the time. One could freewheel around the town in all the government agencies. He had his own phone book that he made up of all the people who were useful to him. So often he could…
Kenneth gives a detailed description of the golf game he arranged for the Prime Minister and the President of the United States. Originally planned as simply a lunch, Kenneth decided that, because they were both interested in golf, he would set up a…
Kenneth's mother, Mae, was anemic and was told by her doctor that she should have a stout or dark beer that would help her overcome her anemia. This was standard procedure in those days. The father, Brad, was preaching against alcohol consumption and…
One of the subjects Kenneth talked to Ho about was the many people he saw dying of smallpox. He saw people with pox all over them. People were emaciated. Ho told him that the starvation in Vietnam was terrible. He said that during the war the dykes…
In 1947 Kenneth was invited to give the Haskell lectures at the University of Chicago. It was one of the six most prestigious lectures in religion and philosophy in all of the US. A week before the lectures he loaded his material and came to Chicago…
Kenneth goes into detail on the last day before the seminar teams would give their presentations. They had all worked quite hard, and were putting in many hour to make their presentations completely professional in quality. This was also the first…
Kenneth tells of the latter part of the Country Team Seminar. He, as part of running the seminar, has some housekeeping to do with dealing with staff and scheduling lecturers. General Maxwell Taylor, special assistant to the President, was to be…
Kip remembers an article in the newspaper about the Landons working to put in a special new kind of grass on their terraces. When the Landons moved to 4711 Fulton Street in late 1944, there was no grass, no shrubbery, and no trees. The Landons…
While traveling, Kenneth came upon a seller of peacock feather hats. The seller required the buyer to provide the pheasants which might be used in the making of the hat. Kenneth, however, found a premade hat in the house, tried it on and, finding…
Kenneth elaborates on the purpose and function of the Operations Coordinating Board (OCB). He explains that it was set up under presidential directive, and how exactly it came to exist from the Psychological Strategy Board.