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 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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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,…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 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 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'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 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…
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 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…
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…