Browse Items (1041 total)

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…

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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…

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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…

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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.

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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"…

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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.

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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.

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Kenneth recalls a story in which John Dulles is to relay a new policy to the State Department. Upon noticing the incredible amount of people gathered, he commented to Douglas MacArthur that he couldn't comprehend why they might need this many people,…

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Kenneth tells of Jimmy Lay. Lay was the secretary under the National Security Council and had been secretary under Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. Kennedy got fed up with Lay, as Lay was accustomed to taking minutes of the meetings. When Kennedy…

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While in Bangkok, Kenneth met a man by the name of James Thompson who had been in the town for some time and received a letter from his wife in the US that she was divorcing him because he was not coming back.  Thompson was devastated by the letter…

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Kenneth encountered Bill Godel once again while in Singapore. Bill had been getting involved with the gun industry there, and thought Kenneth might join in. Kenneth explained that he could not, yet spent a nice evening with Bill.

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As the war really got going, people started coming into the State Department from the field, like John Davies, Jack Service, and fellows who were cashiered later on in the McCarthy era. John Davies was fired. Service made a fool of himself by making…

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Kenneth went to work researching the questions that President Roosevelt and Col. Donovan wanted answered, and when he had his report ready, he accompanied Donovan to the President's office. Donovan had told Kenneth how he had come to seek Kenneth's…

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Prince Dhani, the minister of education at that time, came all the way down from Bangkok to read Pridi's economic plan that Kenneth had obtained when he was still a missionary. The documents were classified and could not be in the public domain. The…

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Kenneth talks about how his temporary job became permanent. Several other men from the OCI, including a man named Gordon Bowles, who was a graduate of Earlham College, moved over with Kenneth to the BEW. Kenneth picked out bombing targets, locating…

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Dr. Tsiang had an apartment in that area, and the woman living in the apartment under him had been married to a Chinese man and had left him because he was sexually inadequate. Her apartment caught on fire, and in the aftermath, the place was such a…

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One outcome of the Chunking episode was that Remer, Kenneth's boss, had found someone to take Kenneth's job, on the assumption that Kenneth would be leaving them.

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Kenneth talks about his diplomacy travels to Southeast Asia. He describes his suitcase and the things he carried, whether it was for personal comfort, health, money, or documents for his meetings with people. He wrote frequently to Margaret and the…

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Kenneth explains how he obtained the classified documents of Regent Pridi Panomyong. It was through a Thai who was an aide to Pridi who wanted to marry a girl in the church at Trang, a Christian girl. He was not a Christian. He came to Kenneth to…

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Kenneth finished his PhD at Chicago, tried to become a pastor, then to introduce the teaching of Eastern religions and Philosophy in a number of universities, but never succeeded in any of his attempts. One day he decided to go around Illinois, Ohio,…

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Kenneth gave a dinner for the people in the department of religion at the end of his Haskell lectures. People came and they chatted for a while before Kenneth invited everyone to have dinner. He had prepared for it the best he could, but still he had…

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Kenneth asked a soldier if he could help Kenneth get into Hanoi, twenty miles away. The soldier answered that many soldiers would be going into town for rest and recreation, that is to eat and be merry with the girls. As a way to get to Hanoi,…

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Kenneth explains what the OCI or Office of the Coordinator of Information was. William Donovan was convinced that war was coming, and that the United States would get into it, and that we lacked intelligence information. We didn't know much about the…

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One of the reasons Margaret and Kenneth resigned from mission work had to do with the role of the national church in Thailand vis-a-vis the missionaries. They both believed the mission was absolutely backward and without vision, that the mission…

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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…

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