>I'm thinking a lot more recent than that. Starting from the Rusk-Thanat agreement until the late 1970s, Thailand repeatedly relied on US military support, most particularly during the carryings-on in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Worth getting a map and imagining being in Thailand while all that was going on. ;-) It could have been very different. ;-)
I think it could be easily argued that American heavy-handedness and French Colonialism made South-east asian the non-democratic region that it is today.
Vietnam: Communist
Laos: Communist
Myanmar: Dictatorship
Thailand: an iffy democracy
Cambodia: an iffy democracy
Looking at all of Asia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia#Territories_and_regionsIt it a pretty messed up place, emocracy wise. Slam dunk.
>How about the Suez Canal? ;-)
Jimmy Carter the US's most under appreciated 20th century president.
