Browse Items (1041 total)

Kenneth was standing in line for more than an hour to get his car checked. The car passed the inspection and the man who was supposed to change the sticker on the windshield just ignored him. Kenneth pulled out a book and started reading, completely…

In March of 1942 Kenneth delivered the Taft lectures at Cincinnati. That was his beginning as a professor of Oriental philosophy. The event was stimulated by the course in Chinese philosophy that he had presented at Earlham. The lectures were…

In 1941 Kenneth Landon kept an office in the Library of Congress, where he enlisted the help of Shio Sakanishi, a Tokyo-born Japanese expert working in the Division of Orientalia. Horace Poleman, who became one of Landon’s best friends, worked with…

In October, 1941, Kenneth had a tooth pulled at a "speed dentist's." The man had six chairs and was working them all at the same time, pulling out teeth. It was like a barber shop. The procedure cost $2. Kenneth recalls the dentists he used in…

Kenneth recalls going up to stay at a British hill station after his operation for appendicitis and listening to British gentlemen there discussing what they would do when the Japanese attacked, and of how easily a small group of them could link…

Margaret returns to Kenneth's first weeks in Washington and the report he presented, based on his knowledge of the terrain in Thailand. She says that when she and Kenneth were in the final years of their second tour in Siam that the Japanese were…

Kenneth left the OCI for the BEW in part because the Harvard folks couldn't get along with him about the Chinese he spoke. Margaret points out that Kenneth spoke the Swatow dialect, Taichu, that was commonly spoken among the diaspora of Chinese in…

Margaret returns to the name of Baxter, looking up the Baxters in a biographical dictionary. James Phinney Baxter III. She reads about his work as president and lecturer at several colleges. When the OCI became the OSS, he became Deputy Director of…

Margaret explains how, in World War I, President Wilson discovered that the US had no such thing as an intelligence service, and so began to address this issue, but the little that he did at that time had probably disappeared when WWII started. The…

During that initial three weeks, Kenneth had two offices, one in the Triangle Building, and one in the Library of Congress, a research office, with full facilities and the availability of the stacks. That was when he discovered all of the Thai…

Kenneth and Margaret tell about Kenneth's earliest exchanges with the government about Southeast Asia. They talked about when the Japanese could attack Thailand, why the Japanese were in Indochina and how far, if they attack Thailand, they could…

Kenneth and his family were in Gull Lake vacationing when the call from Washington came in. The person was inquiring about Kenneth's knowledge of Souteast Asia and the Japanese intentions for Thailand. The caller ended by promising to send Kenneth a…

Kenneth tells of his time in Washington working for the government on Foreign Affairs. He recalls a co-worker set to fire him (and did fire him) but later found out Kenneth had become the Dean of Area Studies at Foreign Services Institute. He tells…

Kenneth is asked by Margaret about the assasination of Ngo Dinh Diem. Kenneth replies that he was not involved--that was Ambassador Notling's doing.

Kenneth tells of his serving on the admissions committee of the Cosmos Club. Customarily, one would only serve for three years. However, after replacing a member who resigned, and finishing that members two years on the committee, he was able to stay…

Kenneth and Margaret did a fair bit of diplomatic entertaining. One evening they had Queen Ramphai Barni and Prince Supsowat over for dinner. The Queen's brother was sure to note that he was the member of the royal family that likes Margaret's book…

Marshall Sarit of Thailand came to dinner with the Landons in 1958. When Kenneth and Sarit were on the porch, Sarit noted the wild animals which lived in the same area as the Landons. Noting they weren't afraid of him, he concluded Kenneth had the…

While Kenneth was traveling in Bangkok in 1960, Prime Minister Sarit requested Kenneth for breakfast. Through the course of the breakfast, Sarit talked quite highly of Kenneth. As it turns out, the entire thing was televised, and many invitations…

After the Thai-British negotiations in 1946, the Thai government wanted to give a gift to Kenneth. However, Kenneth had the reputation of not accepting gifts of any value. The government had a policy that fine statues of the Buddha could not be taken…

Ho Chi Minh knew he couldn't give Kenneth a gift, and didn't offer him one. He was a clever man, and what he did was give Kenneth a tortoiseshell vanity case for Margaret. 

Margaret tells the story of "The Pakai Affair". It started when Margaret spent the year battling some health issues and couldn't fulfill her responsibilities at the school. Her illness became part of the plan of Bertha Blount, one of "the villain[s]…

The Landons were trying to persuade the Thai Christians to tithe to support their new pastor, Charlie Hak, but the response was not good. Previous missionaries had created a lot of what the Landons called "rice Christians." They were not anxious to…

Margaret tells of the family animals. Izzy and Lizzy were two hornbills that Kenneth had brought home from his last tour. They liked fruits, especially the jack fruit. The Landons also had a small Japanese dog  called Suzy, and a long, thin, Siamese…

In one of her letters Margaret wrote that she had always thought, and at some point felt, that she didn't do anything important. Kenneth was the one on the road all the time doing what really mattered. Kenneth joked that he was just dashing around.

In May 1930, Kenneth wrote concerning his father and dresses. Margaret tells of the fine dresses Victorine Smith had picked up for Brad to send to Margaret. Brad deemed them too expensive and returned to the store to exchange them for cheaper dresses…
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