A Time For Skill

In the struggle for the good will of Southeast Asia, the sprawling, rich kingdom of Thailand (pop. 20.3 million) is a test case in diplomatic method. Thailand has long been friendly to the United States and has benefited from generous U.S. economic and military aid. But in recent months Thailand, like many another Asian country, has been drifting toward the left.

The drift is in some measure caused by the currents of democracy released by Field Marshal Pibulsonggram, Thailand's strongman Premier, who was much impressed by democracy (and by presidential press conferences) on his trip to the U.S. and Europe last year. As a result of his temporary lifting of press controls, accounts of the corruption that normally flourishes in Asian regimes -opium trading, influence peddling -have been brought into the light of day by Pibul's enemies. The stories have tended to discredit, by association, the Pibulsonggram regime's longtime ally, the U.S. An American businessman reported his upcountry customers asking: "If America is giving so much money to Thailand, why don't they make the government improve itself?" A resentful feeling that Thailand is bound too closely to the U.S. is also running high. A fortnight ago, as if in response to this complaint, the government announced the resumption of "normal trade relations" with Red China.

A Case for Diplomacy. "It's not that Thailand is turning pro-Communist," said a ranking Western diplomat. "It's that there is a feeling abroad that Thailand should be free to deal with all sides to her own best advantage." It was a situation that called for skilled U.S. diplomacy.

In recent years, under a succession of able ambassadors -Ed Stanton, William ("Wild Bill") Donovan and the late Jack Peurifoy -the U.S. embassy at Bangkok had had perhaps the ablest U.S. staff in Southeast Asia. The embassy is still staffed by men who believe that with proper understanding Thailand's drift can be controlled. But they have been strongly overruled by new U.S. Ambassador Max Waldo Bishop, 47, a truculent, table-pounding career diplomat, who in seven brief months has alienated many responsible Thais, demoralized his own staff and created ill will at SEATO council meetings.

Hear No Evil. Iron-jawed Max Bishop, in his first ambassadorial post, sees Thailand taking the disastrous course of China in the early '40s, and regards every criticism of the Thai government as Communist inspired. While the Russians and the Chinese woo Southeast Asia with honeyed words, Bishop's inflexible, chip-on-the-shoulder attitude grates on the easygoing, polite Thais. In his rush to ingratiate himself with Pibul (who smilingly referred to him recently as "my ambassador"), Bishop has ignored or antagonized regular foreign-office channels.

Time and again he has publicly ridiculed his staff before other Western and Thai officials. After a New York Times correspondent wrote several articles critical of the Thai regime, Bishop ordered staff members to submit written reports of what they had said to the correspondent.

Last month, after U.S. Air Force Secretary Quarles made informal arrangements with the Thai air force to sponsor the appearance of the U.S. Air Force Band, then in Thailand on a world tour, Bishop stepped in and announced that he, and not the Thai air force, would sponsor the show. Printed programs featured pictures of Ambassador Bishop and Thailand's Premier, none of the top Thai airmen, who thereupon boycotted the show.

At a recent dinner party Ambassador Bishop became so enraged with a prominent Thai that he shouted: "I don't care if you all go behind the Bamboo Curtain!" Max Bishop has a carrying voice, and its echoes are being heard with concern in Washington.

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