Kenneth tells of the swimming pool at the White House. He was allowed to use this pool, however he usually would use the pool at the YMCA as he was able to horse around a little more.
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 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.
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.
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…
Abbot Low Moffat received a tiger skull ashtray from the Thai government. When Moffat left Southeast Asian affairs, he also left the tiger skull. Kenneth took it upon himself to keep it in his office. When Nixon saw it, he claimed he would get a…
Kenneth tells of bringing the "biggest living thing in the state Department" with him to his new job. His avacado tree had been started by an old maid. Kenneth was asked to take care of it and he graciously agreed. The tree grew to quite some size.
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.
Kenneth recalls a story in which he was going to a dinner party with Malcolm MacDonald. Kip asked where he was going all dressed up, and Kenneth explained he would be attending a dinner for work. His son was shocked to hear he'd be going out to…
Needing a new position since his had been eliminated, Kenneth stumbles upon the Psychological Strategy Board. After talking with Elmur Staats, Kenneth found himself a job overseeing the area from Afghanistan to Vietnam to Indonesia, although Staats…
Wriston decided that the State Department needed to be restructured. In this, It was decided that, rather than having two different services, the departmental officer and the foreign service officer, it would be best if the two were merged into one.…
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,…
The communists in Calcutta sent out orders to communist cells in South East Asia to have a general uprising of all their guerrilla forces simultaneously. People were being shot on the highways and dared not drive at night. The US consul sent a cable…
Kip mentions the time when Thailand was admitted to the U.N., and a significant gift was given to Kenneth. He was involved in some way. The gift was from the family of the Thai ambassador.
Bill was a natural golfer. He could have been a professional golfer if he had wanted to. He had good timing, coordination, grace. Bill wanted to run the mile, so he went out for the track team at school. Later on, when he was living in Seattle, he…
One day Peggy decided to give a party. She held it in the Landons' living room. When the party was going, a large group of kids crashed the party uninvited. Peggy just told those fellows how they were going to have to behave. The boys were hunting…
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…
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…
The Queen sent word around that she would like to come to dinner at the Landons' home. She named the night and the time, which was the royal prerogative. The Landons had the dinner catered there at 4711. The Queen got quite emotional when she heard…
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…
During the war, the head of the Free Thai movement in Thailand was known as "Ruth" to the OSS. The head of the police was known as "Betty." These were their codenames. There were agents from the Free Thai movement in Washington during much of the…
The military attaché, Karp Kunjara, later told Kenneth that he had no further problems. As a consequence of this incident, Pramoj's brother is just a relentless enemy of Kenneth. He even wrote about Kenneth in his newspaper, running him down, saying…
There was an amusing incident when the Thai minister, Seni Pramoj had a quarrel with his military attaché, Karp Kunjara. Kenneth called the minister in and said that the quarreling and bickering with Colonel Kunjara was going to end immediately. The…
When Harry Truman became President, the Potsdam conference changed the war theater for MacArthur. This brought Lord Louis Mountbatten's command into Thailand and the Indochinese states south of the 16th parallel, with Chiang Kai Shek north of that.…