what a bloody brilliant interview from 1967, on nbc's meet the press (interview, of course, is not exactly right: meet the press was a panel format with journalists grilling the guest. )
consider the date:
that us intervention in vietnam was where it was
that the world did not yet know what we now know about the trajectory of american entanglement in vietnam
that those journalists were looking at a leader of what was a newly-minted and very small third world country
that that country's survival was unassured; its potential for success unknown, that no one could have thought it would be a force to reckon with (and it was not, at the time)
that ASEAN had not even been formed, they were talking about SEATO in this video, the new ASEAN-centrism of today's world affairs did not exist
that southeast asia had its own instabilities and problems
that singapore was soon to take the position it did on vietnam, cambodia and on sovereignty
that the domestic communist problem was rising
that konfrantasi was only just over and the macdonald house bombing just 2 years before; our wariness
that the cold war was ongoing
then look, what confidence and candidness (oh yes -- would any political leader today speak this way?) and presence and control (deft sidestepping of certain landmines), and prescience too, especially on vietnam and china and us intervention, always composed, yet passionate and at times witty (occasionally breaking into a smile.)