425. Editorial Note
The issue of direct Communist aggression against Thailand, which was raised in telegram 1055 to Bangkok (Document 424), was discussed at the daily White House staff meeting on January 25, 1962. According to a memorandum by Ewell, January 25, the discussion went as follows:
“I asked Kaysen why the cable to Thailand reassured Sarit on direct aggression but was much less precise in the field of indirect aggression. He said the thinking on this was that Sarit’s immediate concern seems to be that we would hide behind the British and French in SEATO and not respond if he were attacked, so they reassured him that we consider this a bilateral as well as a multilateral responsibility. The inference is that if Sarit would raise the indirect aggression problem subsequently, they would deal with that problem at the time. It was also mentioned that we have made an economic commitment to Thailand on the irrigation projects. The general approach was that we tell them that if the projects don’t cost more than $40 million we would support them; if they cost more than that, we would have to reconsider whether we would support them.” (National Defense University, Taylor Papers, Daily Staff Meetings, Jan.–Apr. 1962, T-124–69)