uarter century's Western hostility to the communist regime that took power under Mao in 1948, China had been a pariah state in American eyes. Although America's entry into the Vietnam War was loudly trumpeted as a crusade to stop the godless forces of communism from subverting the rest the region, its real motive was the same old mixture of security interests and greed that motivated the Western colonial powers when they divided up China into spheres of influence several generations before.
As virtual client state of the United States during its ill-fated Vietnam adventure, Thailand was in a poor position to try to be very independent in its foreign policy, let alone
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