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 first expected much from the latest in a long line of Thai strongmen. A man with a notorious eye for the ladies, he was known as a hard-drinking army boss who had once shocked a dinner party at a Western embassy by slapping a bottle of cognac on the table and swigging from it all evening, explaining that his host's liquor was lousy. His sideline was running the lucrative national lottery. But after ousting Strongman Pibulsonggram, Sarit went off the bottle and then to work, house-cleaning Thailand from top to bottom. In La Guardia fashion, he roams the streets, checking on police and garbage men, dropping in on sidewalk cafes for a chat, handing out fines for tossing fruit peelings on the street. He also likes to set himself up as a one-man prosecutor, judge and jury, has personally tried defendants accused of crimes ranging from Communist terrorism to arson. In many cases, his verdict is death.

As a result, says one of his aides, Sarit's decisions "are not carried out the next day but immediately." A few months ago, when a pork shortage sent prices up, Bangkok's mayor at first tried persuasion; then Sarit went on the radio one night to announce that pork prices would be cut by 25%. Next morning they were. "He doesn't have to enforce his orders," explained one Bangkok citizen. "Sarit says the word and everybody obeys."

Efficient Aid. Sarit has cut the price of rice, bus fares and school fees, while boosting exports to $400 million and spurring a healthy 5% annual growth in the national production. U.S. aid, $300 million of it military and $241 million economic, has built a crack 100,000-man army, four main highways, 500 bridges and countless other projects, such as the $14 million power plant that Lyndon Johnson inaugurated last week. Sarit's Cabinet, mostly civilian, is probably the most efficient that the country ever had. Last year Sarit allocated as much money for education as for defense. Corruption, which is a tradition in Asia, is at a conventionalized minimum. "This place is amazing for Southeast Asia," said a U.S. diplomat. "The government reaches down to the village level." Added a U.S. aid official: "We can trace every expenditure down to the last nickel."

Thailand has no landlord problem, and having never been conquered by Europeans, no bitter memories of colonialism. Some 85% of the farmers own their own small but fertile plots. Young King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 33, whose passion is jazz, not politics, is the great-grandson of King Mongkut of The King and I fame and heir to a throne that dates back 700 years.

Northern Threat. Still, like everywhere else where living standards are low, Thailand has its problems. During the last few years before he seized power, Thai politicians were junketing off to Red China, and Bangkok newspapers showed a pronounced affection for Communism. No man to take chances, Sarit jailed the suspect politicians and muzzled the press but puts his faith in his economic program to deprive the Communists of the discontent on which they batten.

Sarit is alarmed at what he considers the U.S.'s retreat in Laos. Thailand's border with Laos is long and lightly guarded. Some 50,000 Vietnamese settled in northern Thailand during Indo-China's fight against the French, and they have been heavily infiltrated by Communist agents. A fortnight ago, Sarit learned of Communist plans to stage an uprising among the Vietnamese. He quickly corralled the plotters, interrogated some of the 100 prisoners himself, declared that he had found documents linking them to Communist guerrillas in Laos. Last week, after Johnson left, Premier Sarit headed north in typical fashion for a good-will tour by Jeep through the villages, where he chatted with elders and inspected irrigation projects.

Two months ago, Sarit was offering to send Thai troops into Laos to help the Boun Oum government, if the U.S. was willing to back him up. Now he feels sorely threatened, welcomed Johnson's talk of increased military aid. But he does not now want U.S. troops. Instead, his faith in U.S. resolution shaken, he is talking of shifting to a more neutral stance. Recently he apologized to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Nikolaev for being unable to like Communism, said he would welcome aid from any source. His apparent intent is not to swing Thailand into the Communist camp, but rather to get more closely in step with his neutralist neighbors (Burma, Cambodia. India), and take out insurance for the day when, conceivably, he might find Thailand increasingly exposed if the present erosion of the West's position becomes a collapse.

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