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Remarks at a Reception at Santi Matri Hall, Government House, Bangkok, Thailand

July 29, 1969

Your Royal Highnesses, Mr. Prime Minister, Your Excellencies, and ladies and gentlemen:

In responding to the very generous remarks of the Prime Minister, I can only add to what I tried to say yesterday on arriving at this city again; that is, that having been here many times before, I always especially look forward to returning.

As Mrs. Nixon and I walked around the room and met our friends from Thailand, and then also some from the United States who were here, and who have the same affection for this country that we have, because they have the opportunity of living here, we realize how very deep our friendship is, how far back it goes, and how important it is to see that that friendship continues in the years ahead.

Mr. Prime Minister, you referred to the war in Vietnam, and the fact that in both the case of the American Nation and in the case of Thailand, that we are participating in that war. I think it is well for all of us here who are Americans, and there are a number of Americans, to be reminded of the fact that Thailand is a country that not only stands on its own two feet, handling its own problems, dealing with subversive forces in this country-which are particularly difficult to deal with in the north and northeast but in addition to that, Thailand has furnished armed forces to fight beside those of South Vietnam and the United States and other Asian countries in Vietnam.

This can only mean one thing: that it would be easy for this government and the people of Thailand to say simply that their problems are enough, and that if they can defend their own freedom without asking for outside manpower--a point which the Prime Minister has made in the talks that we have had today--that they should not be asked to undertake in addition the burden of sending troops to Viet-Nam.

But the fact that the people of Thailand value freedom so much for themselves that they are willing also to fight for it for others is an indication of why this country has a special meaning to us who visit you from the United States, or Americans who may live here.

This is truly the land of the free, and it is this same sense of self-reliance, of freedom, of willingness to fight for freedom both at home and abroad that we wish to develop all over the world as something we are very proud to be associated with, with our friends from Thailand.

Finally, as I think of the remarks that you have made, Mr. Prime Minister, with regard to our astronauts, we, of course, are proud of them because they were young Americans who went very high, higher than men have ever gone before, but we think of them also as brave men who represent the best of all the men on this earth. The men who went to the moon could have been Thais. They happened to be Americans. They represented a spirit that is bigger than the United States. It is as big as the whole world itself.

As a matter of fact, it could really be said that the spirit which took those men to the moon is truly a universal spirit, a spirit of peace and a spirit of friendship, and as we stand here in Thailand, a spirit of freedom which we cherish, as you cherish, where we stand with you, stand by your side, both of us recognizing that if freedom is to survive, we must not only keep it at home, but we sometimes must make sacrifices to help others to keep it abroad.

So with those thoughts in mind, I simply will conclude by saying that I speak for all of the Americans in telling you that we have appreciated the warm welcome we have received. We will always remember these few hours that we have been here, and remembering them can only mean that we will return, as I have returned so many times.

So now, your Royal Highnesses, Mr. Prime Minister, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen: I ask you to raise your glasses to His Majesty, the King, and to the Prime Minister of Thailand, and to that spirit of freedom which Thailand stands for and which Americans also believe in. The King.

Note: The President spoke at 7:04 p.m. In his opening words he referred to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Queen Sirikit, and Prime Minister Thanom Kittikachorn.

The Prime Minister's remarks were not made public in the form of a White House release.

Richard Nixon, Remarks at a Reception at Santi Matri Hall, Government House, Bangkok, Thailand Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239777

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