Browse Items (92 total)

  • Tags: Kenneth Landon at the State Department 1939-1988

Peggy and Margaret tell of how they acquired a fine piano. The piano was a Steinway grand piano, and when Margaret caught wind of it being for sale at a reasonable price, she went ahead and bought it! 

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Margaret tells of how one day the Landons' bulldog, Candy, took baby Kip's entire head in its mouth. Peggy had to drive her high-heeled shoe into Candy's belly to save the baby. Kip received first aid, but there was no serious damage. The event put…

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Margaret tells of Anna Fyshe visiting and playing their piano. Anna Fyshe, having been trained professionally, was not asked to play. When she did sit and play, however, she commented that it was quite a fine piano and was thrilled to have had the…

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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.

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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…

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Kenneth recalls his time in Wilkesboro visiting with Uncle Henry and several of his cousins. Henry was a Colonel and Kenneth enjoyed going around with him because people were friendly and respected him.

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The Landons had returned to Chicago and Kenneth was out one night, speaking at a church. He was on his way back when he ran onto a middle-aged lady and began talking with her. The two were well into the conversation when they suddenly realized that…

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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.…

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sc38-1178-web.jpg
Kenneth, now not having work because his position had been abolished, looked to solve his situation. He found Walt Rostow's office to be of interest, and did some work for him without anyone's knowing, as technically it wasn't allowed under mandate.

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At the State Department, Kenneth's official title was International Relations Officer, Southeast Asian Affairs. He worked chiefly with Thailand to begin with. Then for a time he also handled Indonesia. The State brought someone in to be the Chief and…

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When he later worked on the Operations Coordinating Board, he often said that he had been given the best outdoor job in town. He was officially assigned to follow up on all operations to carry out U.S. policy in countries from Afghanistan to the…

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In 1953, William Donovan became our ambassador to Thailand. A woman named Ruth, who headed the passport office, warned him that he needed to cultivate a relationship with the desk officer for Thailand if he wanted things to go well. She was an old…

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As Donovan has been recently appointed to be the Ambassador to Thailand, Kenneth must brief him on what this might entail. As Kenneth spent several weeks with Donovan in Thailand, he explained Thailand's relation to other countries of South and…

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Upon being appointed to Thailand, William Donovan needs to meet with Walter Robertston. Kenneth phones his office and tricks him into having a meeting with Donovan, as he was in the office listening to the phone conversation. When the time seemed…

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Kenneth tells of Seni Pramoj. Pramoj greatly disliked Kenneth, yet when he filed a complaint with the State Department, Kenneth was the one able to respond to him. Later, Pamoj became Prime Minister of Thailand. 

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Kenneth describes the structure of the Foreign Service Institute. He explains how he might be a dean of one program, yet overall how he was an associate dean.

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Kenneth tells of the security at airbases which were prepped to bomb the Ho Chi Minh trail. He says that their security was extremely lax, and he thought that it would be quite easy for the Vietnamese to come in and sabotage the planes. 

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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.…

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Kenneth explains how the OCB worked, emphasizing the two different sides--that of policy and that of operations. He goes on to indicate that he was on the operations side and goes into how exactly that played out with his time on the OCB. 

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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.

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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…

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Kenneth gives a detailed description of the golf game he arranged for the Prime Minister and the President of the United States. Originally planned as simply a lunch, Kenneth decided that, because they were both interested in golf, he would set up a…

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Kenneth speaks of what an informal situation it was in Washington at the time. One could freewheel around the town in all the government agencies. He had his own phone book that he made up of all the people who were useful to him. So often he could…

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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.

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The whole mob of them would go down the stairs to the floor below where the coffee bar was. Half way down the stairs, there was a huge firehose all coiled up and ready to go in case of an emergency. There was a wheel that you whirled to turn the…

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