Международная научная конференция ЮВА в СПбГУ-65

Международная научная конференция, посвященная 65-й годовщине начала изучения языков ЮВА в нашей стране Circumventing the ColdWar divisions:Thailand and India in the South-to-South Diplomatic Space 347 1994: 40]. The Americans were not at all pleased with the prospect of the Bandung Conference. Phibun realized that appearing too keen on the Bandung Conference might not only affect the military, financial and developmental aid the United States had been pouring into the country, but also destabilize SEATO, the security pact Thailand had long hoped for. Nevertheless, Phibun and his Foreign Minister Prince Wan had for some time shared a concern over the country’s increasing overreliance on the United States. The appointment of newAmerican ambassador to Thailand John E. Peurifoy, who had recently been involved in the 1954 Guatemalan coup against the supposedly pro- Communist Jacobo Arbenz Guzman government, had made Phibun cautious of the possibility of himself being overthrown by the US Government [Fineman 1997: 212- 213]. The fear ran so deep that Peurifoy felt it necessary to ask Phibun’s daughter at a private dinner party to tell her father that the United States had no intention of ousting him [Fineman 1997: 212–213]. These factors made the possibilities of exploration of new foreign policy at the Bandung Conference appealing to Phibun. It was not until the SEATO Pact formally passed votes in the US Congress, and the French National Assembly that the Thai Government announced their decision to send a delegation led by Prince Wan, who had previously met Zhou at the Geneva Conference, to Bandung [ Bangkok Post , 2 February 1955; Puangkasem 1973]. The Afro-Asian Conference at Bandung offered the opportunities Phibun and Sang had hoped for. Nehru had personally taken it upon himself to engage Communist China in the international community, and the Bandung Conference was to be the first international meeting a representative from the PRC had ever attended. Nehru had not only ensured Zhou would be invited, arranged anAir India plane specifically for Zhou, but also introduced Zhou to the Conference. Bandung, where Prince Wan could not avoid meeting Zhou, would be the ideal setting for Phibun to make an opening to the PRC [Fineman 1997: 213]. Before Prince Wan left, Phibun had instructed the Prince to defend