 Strange lands, odd customs and unfamiliar civilizations have become a common site to personnel of the United States Army. Men and women whose mission today takes them into once mysterious regions of a shrinking globe. Of these distant places, none is more exotic than the ancient kingdom we used to call Siam. And few are of greater importance to the cause of freedom in Southeast Asia, which once appeared on our maps as Siam, is the home of a people whose recorded history goes back more than 700 years. To the people of Thailand, the name of their country means, literally, Land of the Free. The country's location, almost completely surrounded by nations which have known independence for only a few years, makes it a key area in a peninsula threatened by communism. Thailand is a member of CETO, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization whose headquarters are in Bangkok. Her consistent support of the free world has contributed greatly to the strength of the free world's position throughout Asia. The Royal Thai Army boasts some of the best trained soldiers not only of Asia, but the world. All males are required to register for the military service at the age of 18, a military conscription program similar to that of the United States. From this pool of manpower, the Thais have been able to construct an efficient, diversified military force. Thailand has an unexcelled record of devotion to the cause of freedom, extending back to World War I. Within two days of the outbreak of hostilities in Korea, Thailand had announced her intention of supporting the United Nations efforts in that country. The capital city of Bangkok is today a center for many United Nations activities in Southeast Asia. Throughout her long history, Thailand's primary goal, like other nations, has been to preserve her political independence. Thanks in large part to the wisdom of her past leaders and the historic abilities of the Thai soldier, she has succeeded in this effort to a greater extent than most of the world's nations. Thailand's water transport system, an interconnected network of rivers, branch streams and canals, is widely used to distribute agricultural products through heavily populated areas. In addition to the normal problems of defense, familiar to Americans, Thailand must also provide security for the villages along the country's 3,700 miles of inland waterways. Continuous attention to the need for preparedness has given Thailand the longest uninterrupted history of independence in Southeast Asia. Thailand, in fact, was never really conquered, despite its temporary submission to the Japanese in 1941. In this era of history, in this part of the world, United States aid to such independent anti-communist nations takes many forms. Much of it, of course, is directly military, as in this paratroop training exercise. The states involved are the newly activated First Special Forces Group of the Royal Thai Army and the United States First Special Forces Group from Okinawa. The demonstration plays to a large, enthusiastic, but not entirely military audience. A slight miscalculation leaves one trooper literally up a tree, but with no harm done. The readiness with which these new forces have taken to the air is a matter for congratulations all around. A modern army, like those of Napoleon's time, still travels on its stomach. It also travels a whole lot faster, for security today often depends upon the ability to move troops to remote areas with a swiftness that would have seemed fantastic to military commanders of less than 50 years ago. A modern highway, by providing arteries of quick access to all parts of the country for armor, infantry and artillery, is a direct contribution to military preparedness. But its value goes far beyond matters purely military. Thailand has some 7,000 miles of highway network. Much of it, however, still needs considerable improvement and connecting roads to ensure maximum usefulness. Today, approximately 60% of the country's roads are classified as all-weather roads, but very few will permit carrying heavy loads for long distances. In Thailand, as elsewhere in Southeast Asia, much of the country's potential development has been delayed by the lack of adequate transportation. Road building, with limited equipment under difficult conditions, is a specialty of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. A major contribution to defense against Communist subversion, an adequate road network not only facilitates military measures, but invariably raises the local standard of living. The Thai government's 10-year program for highway construction and rehabilitation, being carried on with United States assistance, has already proved its effectiveness in stimulating commerce and communication among the people of the country itself, many of whom have known little more of their proud heritage than what lies within a short distance of their own village. Until recently, roads have rarely been regularly maintained, and during the rainy season, sections are frequently washed out by floods. With the advent of modern methods and the latest models of American road building equipment, the road system is improving rapidly. The employment of local materials and local labor wherever possible gives the Thai people an opportunity to participate in projects destined to have a major effect on the economy of their nation. Like transportation, fast and efficient communications are a major problem throughout Southeast Asia. The increasing availability of inexpensive, portable transistor radios, however, is rapidly producing a solution to this once insurmountable barrier. Radio broadcasting equipment, much of it part of the United States aid program, has become a key part of Thailand's plan for progress. Such equipment also helps to counter propaganda broadcasts from communist nations, countries which have for years blanketed the earth with radio-borne propaganda. Thailand's borders include many miles of jungle-covered mountains. Patrolling such boundaries is extremely difficult, but it is routine for the Thai border patrol police and the United States advisers who often accompany them. Travel in Northern Thailand is never easy and frequently downright uncomfortable. The temperature during this trip averaged 102 degrees. Harmless as it appears at first sight, this jungle patch is no place for the tenderfoot. Our other jungles in Southeast Asia where the principal danger comes from gun-toting communist gorillas. By comparison, an 18-foot python makes a friendly pet. While responsible for maintaining the security of their country's frontiers, the Thai border patrol police realize that the job can never be done by police action or military tactics alone. Ultimately, the kind of communist-inspired gorilla infiltration so common elsewhere in Asia can be prevented only by the people themselves. Routine patrols thus become an exercise in public relations as well as police duties. The public relations aspect holds especially true for this United States adviser. He is a civilian employee of the United States operations mission in Bangkok, whose knowledge of Southeast Asia and familiarity not only with the Thai language, but also many tribal dialects makes him at home in any situation from passing out photographs of the village ladies to quizzing the children on their ABCs. Over the past five years, the border patrol police have established some 150 schools in villages too remote to be reached by the regular education departments. The border patrol policeman must be a jack-of-all-trades teacher, doctor, sheriff, farm advisor and general information man. Perhaps no cargoes are so welcome on the Bangkok Docks as the medical supplies and mobile equipment being unloaded here. Basic to an adequate standard of living anywhere in the world is an efficient system of public health. Lacking hospital facilities, most rural inhabitants of Thailand must depend for modern medical treatment upon the services of mobile health units such as these. Here being presented to the Thai Air Force by United States General Paul D. Harkins. The improvement of public health measures provides one of the most rewarding areas for cooperation between Thai officials and members of JOSMAG, the joint United States military advisory group in Thailand. The campaign against illness and disease is planned and carried out with as much detailed precision and care as any military attack against a common enemy of the people. The area of Thailand is about the same as that of France and the planning of such a public health campaign must extract maximum efficiency from the comparatively limited personnel and equipment available. Its thrusts may extend from the low, frequently inundated plains of the south to the forest-covered mountains and foothills in the north. Basic Thai attitudes and traditions often serve to encourage the medical and sanitary measures introduced in this manner and the various medical organizations working in the nation, both Thai and international, have found such efforts as these rewarded by definite progress in curbing and curtailing disease. The heart of the CETO Civic Action Program remains medical aid to villagers in remote areas. For the physical well-being of a civilian population is no less important than the strength of the military force assigned to defend it. Through CETO, the United States is also involved in several important programs of medical research throughout Thailand. The problem of the transmission of disease is one of the first that the scientist must investigate in his attempt to fight it. In an almost entirely rural country, all sorts of animals from domestic dogs to rats may be the culprits and trapping them for study is the first step toward the laboratory. For a comparatively undeveloped tropical nation, Thailand has unusually good conditions of health. Malaria, however, remains a major cause of death and malaria is one formerly endemic disease with which modern medicine knows how to deal. It is only necessary to seek out and destroy the breeding places of the malaria-carrying mosquito. This is one major project of the entomology department of the CETO Medical Research Laboratory. Another CETO medical unit, the medical zoology department, is engaged in efforts to solve another difficult medical problem, eradication of the liver fluke disease. The parasite which causes this disease survives by passing from one host creature to another and trying to discover which creatures serve as intermediate hosts through which it reaches man is intriguing work. It has been estimated that as many as 90% of the population of northeast Thailand may be infested with these vicious parasites. Distasteful as it may seem to most of us, the liver fluke can be a fascinating subject to scientists because of its complicated life cycle. To reproduce itself, the liver fluke may have to pass from snail to fish to man and back again. To its victims, liver fluke infestation is an endless ordeal which eventually comes to drastically affect everything in life. Entering the human body through the eating of raw fish, the fluke may persist for many years, feeding on the blood of its victims. The result is an anemia which makes the simplest physical act an exhausting effort for the unfortunate victim. Treatment is long and difficult. The conquest of the liver fluke disease, like the future of all progress in public health, lies not so much in the possession of the latest laboratory equipment as entrained investigators who are able to understand and evaluate their findings. Here, the training of Thai scientists in matters that touch their country this closely is a major step toward a higher standard of health for all. The irony of the liver fluke disease is that control should be a simple matter. All that's required is to cook fish before eating it. The problem persists chiefly in northeast Thailand because of the widespread taste for raw fish in the region. Eradication of the liver fluke disease is less a medical problem than a problem in persuasion. Despite their many problems, the Thai people are a fortunate people by the standards of Southeast Asia. Centuries of social and political stability have been accompanied by a standard of living which is the envy of most of Asia. Before World War II, the average income of Thailand's farmers was twice that of farmers in India or China. Since the war, income has steadily risen. Although by modern standards much remains to be done, life here has, for countless generations, been kinder to the Thai people than to the vast majority of Asia's teaming millions. Throughout much of Asia, the fight against communist infiltration and subversion is a frustrating business. Once military defenses are erected against a possible overt aggressor, new friends must be won behind the defenses themselves. In Thailand, fortunately, friends already exist. Here, the principal job is to assure them the training and equipment to maintain an independence that was already centuries old at the time of the American Revolution. This is the mission of the United States military assistance program in Thailand. The people of Thailand have never been a war-like race, but so vigorous has been their response to aggression that they have lived for nearly a thousand years an independent self-governing life in the midst of a troubled continent. The purpose of the United States military aid program in Thailand is to help her to maintain that remarkable independence in the 20th century.