Toasts of the President and the King of Thailand

Note: The President proposed the toast at 10:17 p.m. in the State Dining Room at the White House at a dinner honoring King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit. As printed this item follows the text released by the White House Press Office.

The King responded as follows:

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen:

This time the machine came to me.

You spoke about looking at my Foreign Minister. Today I won't look at him. I will look at my text.

You mentioned my trip to Martha's Vineyard and wondered how I came back. I had nothing to do with the coming back, because I was too small. It was because my parents were very good and went home--and they took me home, also. But apart from this, there are other things that are to be said.

First, I must thank you for the kind invitation to visit this great city of Washington and for the warm welcome and hospitality which we have received during this, our second, visit to the United States.

When we came here on our first visit, we came to make friends with the people whom we had admired for their freedom, fairness, and generosity. We were received with the great warmth and cordiality that only Americans can offer.

Your visit to my country in October last, Mr. President, is still a happy memory with us and we are most gratified to be with you tonight, because we know that we are once again among friends.

We are happy to see Mrs. Johnson with us tonight. Your presence here is a good surprise. Although ourselves we are still quite far removed from having the honor and the dignity of being grandparents-not to mention the irresponsible enjoyment that accompanies such a privilege--we do understand and appreciate the thrill and anxiety of a new grandmother--and grandfather, also.

It is a source of gratification for me to hear the kind words that you have spoken and your reiteration of the friendship that the United States Government and people extend to my country and my people.

Allow me to say again that we, on our part, sincerely and wholeheartedly reciprocate the very same sentiments--the firm belief that on your part you earnestly and sincerely desire peace and a better way of life for the people of all nations.

The happy association between the United States and Thailand is to us a matter of historic pride.

You already mentioned the mission of Mr. Edmund Roberts, who was received by my august ancestor, King Rama the Third.

In spite of his pet aversion to receive foreign envoys from abroad, that was due to our past unfortunate experiences, my ancestor was somehow won over by the American honesty of purpose and decided to extend a very warm welcome to the emissary of your early predecessor, President Jackson.

Mr. Edmund Roberts arrived in Bangkok in February of 1833. Within a period of less than a month, and in spite of linguistic disadvantages-every sentence spoken by either side had to undergo four successive translations, from English to Portuguese, and from Portuguese to Chinese, from Chinese to Thai, and vice versa--in spite of all these difficulties, a treaty of friendship and commerce was agreed upon and signed on the 20th of March, 1833.

This agreement constituted the first treaty ever signed by the United States with any country in Asia. Thus my country came to be the first country in Asia to recognize and to extend the hand of friendship to the newly independent United States of America.

War--the punctuation of human history-brought a new sentence in American-Thai relationships. President Woodrow Wilson, who genuinely understood our difficulties and disadvantages in our relations with foreign countries, agreed at Versailles, after World War I, to revise the U.S.-Thai Treaty of Friendship by abrogating all obnoxious clauses containing the one-sided imposition of extraterritoriality and fiscal restrictions as contained in earlier treaties which had no terminating clause.

Other great nations, at that time, later followed the American example of justice and broad-mindedness. Thailand thus gained an improved standing.

World War II brought about another sentence in the history of American-Thai friendship. The United States has shown real concern over the security and development of Thailand--and gave not only good advice, but also several forms of aid and assistance of material nature, both in the military and in the economic sphere.

This last sentence is not completed yet. We can only hope that it may end happily for the sake of beginning another one.

We can only say that at present we are proud in the knowledge that it is being written with our mutual good will and cooperation.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I invite you all now to rise and join me in a toast to the happiness of President Johnson and Mrs. Johnson, and to the prosperity and progress of the people of the United States.