สำนักงานราชบัณทิตยสภา

The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume IV - 2012 43  We cannot deny that both voyages gave a more accurate view of Thailand, its monarch and its people. With the King’s trips, Thailand and the countries visited entered a new era in diplomatic, political and cultural relations. Their Majesties’s journeys transformed the perception of Thailand in Europe and Asia and that of Europe, America as well as the Europeans, the Americans in Thailand. In conclusion, King Chulalongkorn’s travels through Europe served a purpose as important as the round-the-world tour made by Their Majesties King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit after the Second World War; an historic trip that reacquainted the world with Thailand and the country’s young monarch. In 1960, the world was entering a new phase in its history, the Cold War. Tensions between the capitalist economies of the West and the Communist Eastern bloc were heating up, and the countries of Europe were seeking to forge new bonds after the destruction of the Second World War. His Majesty King Bhumibol set off on his journey at a time when Communist ideology threatened to topple governments throughout Southeast Asia. Like his grandfather before him, the present monarch and especially Queen Sirikit excited the people of the West. With the trips, Thailand and the countries visited entered a new era in diplomatic, political and cultural relations. Their Majesty’s arrivals in Europe and America were symbols of Thailand’s reopening and reorientation to the West. Pornsan Watanangura