SOUTHEAST ASIA: New Directions

Just before South Viet Nam's doughty President Ngo Dinh Diem set off last week on a four-day state visit to neighboring Thailand, he was tactially informed that his favorite white sharkskin suit would not be proper at the Royal Thai court. He dispatched an aide on an emergency trip to Hong Kong, but when Diem took one look at the Western-style cutaway, striped pants and grey top hat that the aide brought back, he snorted in disgust and refused to wear them.

Next day when Diem's C-47 touched down at Bangkok's spick-and-span...

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