European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 12, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse The arguments seemed harshly sell critical and critical too. Of the altitudes of some Western outsiders prepared to accept Turkey As a member of lha Western military Alliance but unwilling to Oiler the same Access to economic privileges As those granted to its hostile neighbor and nato ally Greece already a member of the european Community ii is As it almost Lour years alter the qualified return to democracy Turkey seems locked in an accounting of its credentials As if a National balance Sheet was needed to reinforce the arguments of political leaders and their sometimes ambivalent Western allies for inst fice later this year two events will signal the newest emergence irom the Shadow of the generals who ruled irom 1980 to 1363 mania Law is to be eased in the last four provinces where it is in Force at in the troubled East and a referendum is to be hold to determine How people feel about lining a ban on former politicians including two former prime ministers Suleyman Demirel and butene dec Clit. Then possibly Early general elections Are to be held. Such developments Are interpreted by foreign and turkish analysts As an indication of an urge towards the westernization evoked by Ataturk. But the aspirations have their counterweight. The More you make yourself a european one turkish editor said the More you become a stranger in your own for my thing the nation s still powerful generals and some politicians Are said to be concerned by a recent wave of islamic fundamentalism thai spread to the nation s military academies and reflected an awareness of moslem tradition unknown in Western Europe. If the europeans reject us a turkish officer said in a recent private conversation it will be because we would be the first and Only moslem country in the european a turkish journalist present Al the conversation nodded in assent. Such sen Limel a West european Diplomat said offers the kind of predicament Many West europeans sought to avoid by urging the turks not to apply for membership of the european Community a rejection by the Diplomat said can Only Lead to a reaction and that will be a strengthening of religious in the accounting of Turkey s relationship with Western Europe some nations notably Denmark hold up the country s harsh human rights record As Ankara s greatest debit. West european specialists who say the record is improving acknowledge nonetheless hat the police Are Olen heavy handed with dissenters. They say that suspected adversaries such As kurdish separatists in the East have been tortured. It s getting belter one specialist said but it s by no Means another West european said the turks loll a contradiction in their dealings with violent opposition. If the turks Are lenient. The West will applaud but the revolutionaries will be such Auau Manu Lead to another argument. Even if Turkey s application for membership in the european Community proceeded smoothly. The protracted negotiations would probably not in Complete before i to 2lst Century. Anti some foreigners and turks say in that period the acl of drawing closer to Western Europe will encourage the West european identity sought by Ataturk the former turkish Leader still casts a Long Shadow Over the land on a National Holiday in May called youth and sports Day. Huge banners bearing Ataturk s portrait be spooned buildings and the stale run television devoted ils on Luc evening news bulletin to coverage of events in his Honor the Public Devotion some foreigners in Ankara said. Suggested both the heroic cull of societies Given to authoritarianism and the notion thai Atalik s personality and teachings still provide the nation s political Center of Gravity its measure of ideological Punty and its definition of National Pride and cohesion whal one of his most cited adages goes to say i am a turn " Thailand so seductive country and so close to Vietnam v new Vor to Kiwi photo . Redborg tort owner of Lucy s Tiger Den Wutti Friend it Bangkok bar that it a hangout Tor Vietnam Veteran and other Mph Ftp who have chosen to make Thailand their bom. People in Bangkok Tell the Story of Morgan Adams an american Diplomat who resigned Lor unexplained reasons and now lives i Thailand among opium warlords an Beautiful women rejecting what he Calls the regimentation of life in the United slates. Adams in the hero of a new adventure novel called missing try Choice. The product of the imagination of a real american Diplomat. Maurice m. Tanner who is himself about to retire and put Down roots in Thailand. The fictional Adams is a swashbuckling version of the hundreds of americans who have chosen to make their Homes in Thailand Tor reasons they Loo sometimes find hard to explain. The expatriates include diplomats Vietnam War veterans. Journalists language Leach cars. Relief Agency workers and successful businessmen. Some Are what another american Diplomat Joseph Mcbride Calls Thailand junkies Altra cled Louhis country s easygoing Pace of life and ils ethic of pleasure. Many others Are the last holdovers of America s involvement in Indochina people depicted by one resident As still hovering around the edges of Vietnam unable to gel on with their it is such people shut out of a land they cared Aboul but unwilling or unable to leave in behind them who give this group of american expatriates a special poignancy. A Tew of them have Lound jobs Hal will keep them close to Vietnam while they wait for wives or Fiancee who Are still hoping for exit visas. I think i have adjusted to the tact thai it might happen or it might not said a 33-year-old Relief Agency worker whose Fiancee has been trying to leave Vietnam for a decade. No fairy tale endings Are expected or i do not consider Mysell one of the walking wounded of Vietnam or living in a Twilight zone trying to recapture the past he said asking that his name not be printed but he said there Are a lot of veterans who have Dilfia Cully pulling their lives Back together especially in they left children Back in Vietnam " whal happened to America As a nation happened to these individuals in varying ways he said. Mob Ndoc. Who was evacuated by helicopter irom Tho embassy in Saigon on april 30.1975. Called Thailand a Good second Best to the country where he said he spent his formative years sooner or later i la go Back to my old District in the Delta he said it Elam is still the one thing thai grabs the attention of people like me whal went wrong1 whal could we have done " on that same Day in 197s, the Day Saigon was taken by the communists William Mann already leaned trom sunday july 12. 1987 the army and living in Bangkok was on his Way to the South vietnamese capital to visit the bars on to do Street. We just kept on Hying he said we could t land. It was too tale. To Tell you the Rulh i did t much care for Vietnam Mann said i like the easy Way of tile Here. The thais Don l Lei anything Sony them and after a while you get to be the same another Veteran a a \ year old new yorker who asked not Lobo identified described very different feelings. Late at night in a bar called Lucy s Tiger Den. He talked of his Delerm Nalion to Lead a Mission to Rescue friends who Are missing in action in Indochina. Ill crawl Back there on my hands and Knees you know the Teeling he said it sounds crazy but in can be done. Sometimes i think i la just gel myself a Little suntan and blend Nghil in and walk across " Lucy s is a rendezvous for Vietnam veterans and overseas construction men who moved on from lucrative contracts in Vietnam to jobs in the Middle East. This is where you find the would be adventurers like to Grilz who led an unauthorized and fruitless search for missing americans in Laos in 1983 the bar s owner . Rydberg. Known As Tiger Sels the tone each night with a monologue of reminiscences Aboul his Days As an Iron when. According to his account his roots in Thailand go Back to 1971, when he arrived in Bangkok from Vietnam go drunk for 54 Days straight married Lucy some heros in the Middle of it and went Inlo the bar business. Ken Mcgee. A helicopter Pilot said As soon As i get to Bangkok 1 throw my bag in the hotel and come Down to Lucy s. I be run into hundreds of people i Haven t seen since Vietnam once you re Over Here in s dead Back in the United slates " veterans also Gallei Al Iho four chapters of the veterans of foreign wars in Thailand a country where someone can live Well on a military pension. This is nol a country to go to seed in Tanner said you go to seed in a hurry because life Loo easy it s too easy to pay for the Nel whisky and the next Tanner said he planned to retire Here with his thai wife and to write More stories about Morgan Adams. We in the travellers of the Woid. The people without a said Tanner whose links Are nol with Vietnam but with Thailand where he has lived 13 years we find ourselves with a toot in both cultures he said i Lake Par in a Village ceremony with my Mother in Law. And the Nett night Iii be in a diplomatic be caption in Bangkok " he added. I suppose i pc novel Tell Moie of a so Range in my me than i Aid at my High school reunion in Phoeun the stars and stripes Page 17
