walter F. Vella, professor of history at the University of Hawaii, received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at the University of California at Berkeley. He was trained in the Thai language during his army service, and his first trip to Thailand was with the O.S.S. After acting as associate director of the Modern Thailand Project at Cornell and serving for five years as head of the John G. White Collection of Orientalia and Folklore in Cleveland, he came to Hawaii as the first permanent appointee in Southeast Asian history at the University of Hawaii. His research for Chaiyo! was conducted in Thailand with the aid of an A.C.L.S. grant. His wife, Dorothy Vella, a professional editor, assisted by researching all the English-language sources as well as by editing the book. Vella's other works about Thailand include The Impace of the West on Government in Thailand and Siam under Rama 3 . He has also edited G. Coedes' The Indianized States of Southeast Asia (An East-West Center Book, The University Press of Hawa)