Arriving in Washington this week for a state visit, and to make a request for U.S. military and economic aid: Field Marshal Luang Phibun Songgram,* 58, Prime Minister of Thailand.
Early Life. The son of a rice farmer, Phibun developed an early aversion to the malodorous paddies, decided on a military career. As a bright young lieutenant in the Siamese army, he was rewarded with a four-year scholarship to study gunnery at Fontainebleau. France. In Paris in the '20s, he became friendly with Pridi Phanomyong, a Siamese political-science student who lived in the same pension; the two were destined to become...