Browse Items (100 total)

  • Tags: Kenneth Landon’s SE Asia Trips 1945-1966

Kenneth discusses traveling through Bangkok. As he had some extra time on his hands, he visited some old friends he had made in the area.

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Upon sending the reports of the arrested Burmese man to Gordon Gray, the National Security adviser to President Eisenhower, the stories were immediately relayed to the President himself! Kenneth exclaims he had never reported so quickly and directly…

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While Kenneth was in Hanoi, he often asked Ho about Bao Dai, who had been the emperor. Bao Dai had abdicated in favor of Ho Chi Minh. Kenneth told him he wanted to see Bao Dai, so he arranged for Kenneth to meet Bao Dai, who was an educated man, and…

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One of the OSS men, the son of a US senator, was murdered at the airport in Hanoi. He was mistaken for a Frenchman because he was brought up in France. When Kenneth was in Hanoi the senator called him to ask him to try to find out more about the…

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We begin on Kenneth's 1950 trip to Southeast Asia. The new King, King Phumipol, was going to get married and be crowned, and he was going to cremate his brother, King Ananda, before the marriage and coronation. Kenneth suggested that the US send the…

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Ho needed the help of the Americans to keep the French out of Indochina. Kenneth told Ho that he was the man who had drafted that policy, which really put him in tight with Ho. Many of the discussions Kenneth had with Ho were in the field of…

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There was no regular transportation between Saigon and Hanoi except under the authority of the French Admiral or the British General Gracie. At the time, there was only one plane in Saigon, a C-47, with bucket seats down the aisles. One of our OSS…

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Kenneth was going to fly to Hanoi, so he went to the airport but found no one there. He waited for hours before General Salan showed up, well fed and smelling of wine. The plane took off and Kenneth tried to have a conversation with the General. He…

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Kenneth had been working for several years, off and on, on a book about an American adventurer named Walter Gibson. Gibson had gotten crosswise with the Dutch, and they had thrown him into a prison called Weldebreton. He had been tried for various…

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Kenneth retells the story of his encounter with Prime Minister Sarit. This includes that, while traveling in 1960, he was personally invited to breakfast with Sarit. Again, he tells of Sarit speaking highly of him and recounting their dinner in which…

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Kenneth tells of his 1966 trip to Southeast Asia which would be his last. The Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) was trying to gather information in order that we might bomb the Ho Chi Minh trail. Kenneth was under strict orders, yet the…

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Kenneth tells of his first encounter with General Lyman Lemnitzer. At this point he was a two star General. Kenneth spoke quite boldly to Lemnitzer, explaining to him that he would be funding even when the General may have opposed the plan.

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After the British-Thai negotiations ended in Bangkok, Kenneth travelled over to Saigon and called on the High Commissioner, who was Admiral Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu. He had been sent out by DeGaulle. The Admiral gave Kenneth a nice lunch, with a…

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Kenneth tells of his experience flying in a C-54, which was a propeller plane. After flying on this sort of plane for a few days, he seemed to continue hearing the propellers. Those planes made an awful racket. The stops were fairly frequent because…

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In 1945, Kenneth traveled out to Thailand for the British-Thai negotiations, and one of his first trips out of Bangkok was to Cambodia. Kenneth tells of his travel with his escort guards, how it took several hours to drive through a marching Japanese…

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The soldiers dumped Kenneth off in front of the Hotel Metropole. Kenneth hauled his little tin trunk in to find out who was in charge to ask about getting a room. Well, all the rooms were filled. The manager said that here was no place that he could…

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From Rangoon, Kenneth went on over to Bangkok. There was an OSS mission in Bangkok, represented by James Thompson. On the Legation side, only one other American was there, having arrived the day before Kenneth to represent the USAF, Ted Grundahl. He…

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On his way to Bangkok from Paris, Kenneth flew over northern Africa past the pyramids. He could see the scene of devastation as a result of the war. They flew on across India, landing first in Karachi and then at Calcutta. From Calcutta, they flew to…

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In 1953, Kenneth traveled to northeastern Thailand. He used this trip to scout out some of the areas which the Mekong River project would impact. He noted, in these areas, the great work ethic of the Vietnamese over that of the Chinese.

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Kenneth and his fellow travelers had a brief stop in Maidan, and Kenneth talked to the consul. He then flew to Singapore, and from Singapore to Bangkok. 

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In that 1946 period in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh expressed great concern about the Chinese. He badly wanted them out of the country, just as he did the French. He couldn't get rid of them. They would manufacture and print phony Vietnamese currency up in…

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In Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh arranged for Kenneth to stay longer than he initially intended, in order to give Kenneth a good opportunity to move around Hanoi and see how conditions were. He also assigned Kenneth a car with a driver.

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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. 

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The conversation with General Salan played out after a while. There was nothing to eat or drink on board. The plane arrived in Hanoi late in the afternoon. By this point, Kenneth was "just miserable," dehydrated, having had nothing to eat or drink…

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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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