-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Andrew Preston, David A. Hollinger. Protestants Abroad: How Missionaries Tried to Change the World but Changed America., The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 5, December 2018, Pages 1617–1619, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy204
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
In the summer of 1941, as officials in Washington became increasingly concerned about Japanese ambitions in Southeast Asia, Kenneth Landon found himself summoned to Washington. Landon, then teaching at a college in Indiana, had been a Presbyterian missionary to Thailand; he spoke Thai, knew the region well, and had recently published some articles on Thailand. At the time, there was only a small handful of Southeast Asian experts in the United States. There were none in the U.S. government, however, and Landon came highly recommended. When he got to Washington, he asked to see the State Department’s file on Thailand. He was handed a single folder, which contained copies of his own articles. Assigned at various points to the Office of Strategic Services and the State Department, Landon spent the war building up the U.S. government’s expertise on Southeast Asia; he later joined the National Security Council staff. He remained in government service until the early 1960s, when he moved to a teaching post at American University. But Landon’s connection to U.S. encounters with Southeast Asia did not end there. His wife, Margaret, used their time in Thailand as inspiration to write the 1944 book Anna and the King of Siam, which was later turned into a long-running Broadway musical and Hollywood film, The King and I.
