Bangkok was barely awake when the marines landed. Wearing canvas-covered helmets and fatigues, burdened with rifles and full field packs, men of the 3rd Battalion, 9th U.S. Marines, walked ashore from two U.S. transports. There were no crowds, no bands, no girls with flowers.
It was all business. Asked what he thought of his assignment, Battalion Commander Lieut. Colonel Harold Adams answered curtly: "When the President tells us to go some place, we go." The marines were in Thailand not only by presidential order but at the invitation of the government of...
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