Thailand: Strong & Popular

Perched on gold-brocaded teakwood couches flanked by elephant tusks, the two men made an incongruous pair. But, as lanky Lyndon Johnson said, Texas fashion, "Now is the time to separate the men from the boys" in Southeast Asia. And in the squat, stern person of Premier Sarit Thanarat, 52, Thailand had a man. After he seized power in a bloodless coup in 1957, Field Marshal Sarit posed the problem for himself. "Anybody can stage a revolution," he said. "The snag, once the revolution is staged, is to win public approval." He has succeeded remarkably well.

Change of Life. Nobody at...

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