ABSTRACT
The 1950s saw Thailand's overriding concern, its national security, well protected at little cost, and despite the occasional signs of Bangkok discontent, it remained the "pampered member of Southeast Asia Treaty Organization." In 1961-62, Thailand had been asked to pay the price of solidarity as America resolved to cut its losses in Laos. Washington did stop short of sending actual American troops to Laos, but a low-key approach from the start might have enabled Bangkok and Moscow to reach an accommodation allowing the Thai to regain their traditional influence over the Mekong valley, while North Vietnam, through the Pathet Lao, continued to dominate the hills. The real reasons for the abandonment thereby of a territory of peculiar importance to Bangkok were to be found elsewhere. South Vietnam had had a long-standing fascination for John Kennedy himself, and he viewed it as a much more appropriate theatre for making a stand against the communist challenge, now stemming chiefly from Hanoi.
