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The idea of "pro‐Americanism," appearing at the same time as America's sense of world mission, is a phenomenon of the post World War II period, and for this reason has a very short history. The basic point is that "pro‐Americanism"fluctuates according to American conditions, but fundamentally it is controlled by the internal conditions of the "pro‐American"country. At the same time, as in most diplomatic relations, "pro‐Americanism"is too a basically unstable condition and by trying to stabilize it and make it permanent, both American and the other countries undergo severe stresses. The "pro‐American"relationship which ties the United States with numerous small countries in a chiefly bilateral relationship is certainly not immutable. How should the changes be measured and in what context should they be viewed? I shall take the case of Thailand, the most "pro‐American"of the Southeast Asian countries. I shall be looking at political leadership as the basic key to the changes, and from this angle the main problem of this article is how to evaluate the part played by Sarit.