Word: thai
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Asia. Already combatting Communist terrorism on its remote northeastern frontier, Thailand announced that it would soon become the sixth fighting ally of the U.S. in Viet Nam.* It has already begun to gather the 1,000-man combat battalion of Royal Thai army volunteers who will enter the Viet Nam fray sometime within the next six months. At the same time, Foreign Minister Thanat Khoman admitted that Thailand has been "allowing U.S. troops to utilize our military installations and facilities...
...Communists succeed in their aggression," said Thai Premier Thanom Kittikachorn, "we would be the next target. This action is being taken in direct defense of Thailand." Thailand turned a deaf ear to Hanoi's raucous denunciation of this "new and odious act of treason by the reactionary Thailand government clique." After all, about a third of the guerrillas who are operating in its northeast are Vietnamese who have slipped across the Mekong River from Communist redoubts in Laos to join Chinese-trained Thais and some members of the Pathet Lao in spreading terror through the region...
...when the Iranian goalie blocked a shot. In the process, he somehow kicked a Japanese forward. Japan was awarded a penalty boot, and the Iranian captain was banished from the field for protesting the penalty. At game's end, the president of the Iran Football Federation approached the Thai referee to continue the argument, and the referee smacked him in the snoot. At that point, as they say in the Pentagon, the battle escalated. Players and spectators leaped into the fray, and helmeted riot police waded in with clubs. The Iranians lost the fight as well as the game...
...days later, 60,000 fans - most of them holding tickets - showed up for a soccer game between Thailand and Nationalist China. The stadium, unfortunately, had only 30,000 seats. In the ensuing stampede, dozens were injured, and a Royal Thai Air Force sergeant was trampled to death...
Then there was the Thailand-South Korea basketball game. Thailand was leading 67-57 when the players started trading punches on the floor. One Thai picked up a long bamboo pole and swung it at a Korean. Spectators poured out of the stands. Lee Byong Hae, a member of the South Korean Parliament, was beaten by police when he tried to break up the brawl. Four Korean players were carted off to a doctor with broken teeth, cuts, bruises, and other assorted injuries. Adding insult to injury, the referee announced that because the Koreans were unable to continue play...