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Former Thai foreign minister Thanat Khoman dies at age 101

2018-07-10T21:35:02Z

SungHodgetts70:

BANGKOK (AP) - Thanat Khoman, who as Thailand's foreign minister helped cement his country's close relations with the United States during the Vietnam War, has died at age 101, his family announced. His death was attributed to natural causes. U.S. diplomats who dealt with Thanat described him admiringly as shrewd and above all, dedicated to seeking advantage for his country. Shifting international politics saw Thanat move from being an advocate of close links to Washington to a promoter of regional balance by establishing relations with China, which had been a Cold War bogeyman. "He defended Thailand's interests with grit and grace," U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Glyn Davies said in a statement after Thanat's death Thursday. FILE - In this Oct. 3, 1961, file photo, then-Thailand's Foreign Minister Thanat Khomanthen, left, talks with then-U.S. President John F. [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội] Kennedy at the White House in Washington. Thanat, who as Thailand�s foreign minister helped cement his country's close relations with the United States during the Vietnam War, has died at age 101, his family announced Friday, March 4, 2016. His death was attributed to natural causes. (AP Photo/Bill Allen, File) Thanat is credited with being a major force behind the 1967 founding of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional grouping which this year is seeking to evolve into a full-fledged ASEAN Economic Community. After working in the Foreign Ministry under three military dictatorships, Thanat entered politics, serving as leader of the Democrat Party, the country's oldest, in 1979-82 and as a deputy prime minister in 1980-82 before withdrawing from public life. Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai described Thanat on Friday as "visionary and ... very determined in protect the interests of our country." Born on May 9, 1914, Thanat studied law at the University of Paris before joining the Thai Foreign Ministry in 1940 and serving in his country's embassy in Japan, which after occupying Thailand in World War II became its nominal ally. Returning to Thailand before the war ended, he joined the anti-Japanese underground. He resumed his diplomatic career with a posting in Washington in 1946-47, returning there as ambassador in 1957-58. He was named foreign minister in 1959, a job he held until 1971, when he was dismissed in a move thought to be linked to his advocacy of rapprochement [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội] with China. Thanat's name is most closely associated with the Rusk-Thanat Communique of 1962 - issued with then-U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk - which pledged that the United States would come to Thailand's aid in case it faced aggression. Communist advances in neighboring Laos were the impetus for the agreement, whose importance for both countries grew as communist forces stepped up pressure in South Vietnam as well. The agreement drew Thailand closely into the American orbit, indirectly leading to massive amounts of development aid and the stationing of tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel at air bases around the country used for missions against Vietnam. But when Thanat realized by the end of the 1960s that Washington was unlikely to stick it out in Vietnam, he began urging a realignment of Thailand's foreign relations to [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html vtr.org.vn] win China's favor. Diplomatic relations were established with China in 1975, after Thailand's military rulers had been ousted and U.S.-backed governments in neighboring Indochina were defeated by communist forces. By 1976, the U.S. military was gone. "Thanat Khoman was a convinced nationalist and worked well with the United States, as long as he felt the relationship was mutually beneficial," veteran U.S. diplomat John Gunther Dean recalled in a 2000 [http://search.Huffingtonpost.com/search?q=oral%20history&s_it=header_form_v1 oral history] interview for the State Department. "As time went on, Thanat's close relationship with the United States became progressively more strained and he became vocally critical of the U.S. on many subjects." "Thanat favored Asians working together in their own national interest and not relying on one single foreign power for leadership," said Dean, the U.S. envoy to Thailand in 1981-85. Thanat, whose survivors include daughter-in-law Sirilaksana Khoman, a leading anti-corruption activist, is to be cremated after traditional Buddhist funeral rites. Advertisement

Today in History 6 3

2018-07-01T10:40:39Z

SungHodgetts70:

Highlights in history on this date: 1788 - A party led by Lieutenant Philip Gidley King lands on Norfolk Island to establish a British settlement. 1836 - Alamo mission in San Antonio, Texas, falls to Mexican army after 13-day siege in which Davy [http://www.wordreference.com/definition/Crockett Crockett] and 186 other defenders die. 1857 - The US Supreme Court rules that escaped slave Dred Scott cannot sue for his freedom because as a slave he is property, not a citizen. 1888 - Death of Louisa May Alcott, US author of Little Women, aged 56. 1899 - Felix Hoffman patents his formula for acetylsalicylic acid, which he calls aspirin. 1900 - Death of Gottfried Daimler, German motor engineer who made the first motorcycle. 1930 - Pre-packaged frozen food produced by the company set up by Clarence Birdseye goes on sale for the first time in the US. 1944 - US heavy bombers stage the first American raid on Berlin during World War II. 1945 - German city Cologne falls to US First Army in World War II. 1946 - France recognises Vietnam as free state within Indochina Federation. 1951 - Death of Ivor Novello, Welsh composer and playwright. 1953 - Georgy Malenkov succeeds the late Joseph Stalin as premier of Soviet Union. 1957 [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội] - Two former British colonies of Gold Coast and Togoland form independent West African nation of Ghana. 1965 - US Defence Department announces that 3500 Marines are being sent to South Vietnam, the first US ground combat troops committed to fighting against Communist guerrillas. 1967 - Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of former Soviet leader Josef Stalin, requests asylum at the US embassy in New Delhi. 1973 - Death of US author and 1938 Nobel Literature prize winner, Pearl Buck, who wrote The Good Earth. 1983 - Donald Maclean, a British diplomat who became a Soviet spy, dies in Moscow. 1987 - A British ferry, the Herald Of Free Enterprise, capsizes off the Belgian port Zeebrugge, drowning 193 people. 1991 - George Carey becomes Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the world's 70 million Anglicans. 1992 - A computer virus called Michelangelo strikes thousands of personal computers around the world. 1995 - The US dollar plummets to 92.70 yen, its lowest level against the Japanese currency anywhere since modern exchange rates were established in the late 1940s. 1997 - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II launches the first official royal web site. 2003 - An Algerian passenger jet crashes in the Sahara Desert shortly after takeoff, killing 116 people. 2009 - North Korea threatens South Korea passenger planes amid rising tensions on Korean Peninsula, prompting some other airlines to re-route flights. 2012 - The US, Europe and other world powers announce that bargaining will begin again with Iran over its fiercely disputed nuclear efforts amid rising talk of war. 2015 - Lawyers for Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan visit the convicted drug traffickers on Nusakambangan, the Indonesian prison island where they are to be executed. 2017 - Nepalese authorities say Australian man Matthew Jones has died of apparent altitude sickness near the Mt Everest base camp. Today's Birthdays: Michelangelo, Italian renaissance artist (1475-1564); Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (1806-1861); Valentina Tereshkova, Russian cosmonaut and first woman in space (1937-); Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand opera singer (1944-); Mary Wilson, US singer of The Supremes fame (1944-); David Gilmour, British musician (1946-); [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html vtr.org.vn] Steve Vizard, Australian businessman and TV personality (1956-); Shaquille O'Neal, US basketball player (1972-). Thought For Today: Le sens commun n'est pas si commun (Common sense is not so common). - Voltaire, French author and philosopher (1694-1778). Advertisement

User:SungHodgetts70

2018-07-01T10:40:33Z

SungHodgetts70: Created page with "I am Sung from Ris-Orangis. I am learning to play the Viola. Other hobbies are Singing. Check out my website - [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4..."

I am Sung from Ris-Orangis. I am learning to play the Viola. Other hobbies are Singing. Check out my website - [http://www.vtr.org.vn/cam-nang-du-lich-bac-kinh-5-ngay-4-dem.html tour bắc kinh từ hà nội]