U.S. WILL SPEED DELIVERY OF ARMS TO THAIS' FORCES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640104-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 104
• Publication Date: June 28, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640104-5
ARTICLE APPRARFAP_
ON PAGE A -c-5
NEVI YORK TIMES
28 JUNE 1980
..5. Will Speed
Ddivery of' rrns
Forces
Mai hie,- in Asia for Ta
Assails Hanoi Incursion
" BE.RNARDGWERTZMArst
specuitorheriewyork-nmes ?
? _
:KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia; June 27
?Secretary of State Edmund S:Mu.skie
told the Thai Foreign Minister here today
that the United States would speed deliv-
ery of 35 tanks and other battlefield ,
-equipment as a tangible-American -re-
sponse to the. Vietnamese incursion into
Thailand this week. ? ?
? Relaying the message to the Foreign
Minister, Air Chief Marshal Siddhi Savet-
? Mr; Muskie also held out the possi-
bility of more aid_
- The Secretary flew here from a North
Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting in
Ankara to consult with the foreign minis-
ters of the five members of the pro-West-
ern Association of Southeast Asian Na-
tions. - - .
'Concern Over Vietnamese Drive
? -..-The meeting has been dominated by
concern over Vietnam's incursion into
-Thailand from Cambodia on Monday and
-Tuesday during operations against Cam- ,
bodian guerrillas. The concern was re-
flected in Mr. Muskie's arrival state-
ment, in which- he said, "We meet in
Kuala Lumpur over the next two days in
the shadow of ongoing aggression ? by
the-Soviet Union in Afghanistan and by
rthe Vietnamese in Kampuchea."
1*I The attack this Week, he said. "not only
es Thaiviolat territorial integrity and
threatens its security, but it may repre-
sent an expansion of the conflict and ex-
acerbates the suffering of the Thai and
Khmer peoples."' - - ? ' - - ' ; 1 1
_ After the meeting Air Chief Marshal ,
Siddhi said, Very soon we can expect to ,
see many Arherican arms-supply planes;
coming into Bangkok." -
I
Thailand received 15 modernized tanks
of Korean War vintage late last year; the 1
additional. 35 Will be delivered this sum- !
mer. In addition, shipments of artillery,
recoilless rifles and ammunition are to be j
expedited. Thailand receives $50 million I
in military credits a year on regular Pen- I
tagon terms, and ' repayment ia to be I
eased to allow Thailand to buy more with
its. money. 1
A Two-Day Stay In Thailand -
As pieced together from intelligence
re rts American officials believe that
two companies from the Vietnamese 75th
Division overran two border refugee en-
carnpments and oocupied two Thai vil-
lages Monday. They withdrew Tuesday
although artillery exchanges continued
that day and a Thai spotter plane and
helicopter gunship were shot down, prob-
ably by hand-held Soviet-made ground-
to-air missiles.
- After theraid the American Arnbassa- :
dor to Thailand,2.Morton lAbramowitz, '
delivered a message from Mr. Muskie to
Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach of
Vietnam, who coincidentally ,stopped ?
dver, in Bangkok on his return from an of-
ficial visit to Indonesia. In the 25-minute
meeting Mr. Thach was told of the Ameri-
can concern and unhappiness over the-in- '
cursion. - ? - ?
MusHcie also conferred with Malay-
_
sian leaders and the foreign ministers of
Indonesia and Singapore today as well as
with ministers from Japan, Australia,
New Zealand and Canada.
I Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302640104-5