River systems of Thailand divides into two major branches, the " Tiền Giang" (Front River) and "Hậu Giang" (Back River). These in turn enter the South China Sea through nine estuaries. The following are the principal tributaries of Mekong River which flow through Thailand (tributaries entirely outside the Thai border not shown). The Mekong drains a considerable portion of northeast Thailand. In terms of Thai territory drained, it is second only to the Chao Phraya system. The Salawin River rises in Tibet (Tibetan: རྒྱལ་མོ་རྔུལ་ཆུ།) after which it flows through Yunnan, where it is known as the "Nujiang" River (), although either name can be
Kuomintang in Burma handled the KMT issue. Kenneth Young's (1970) thesis highlights the Cold War context of the concurrent Korean War as well as the complicated foreign relations between Burma, Thailand, China (both Nationalist and Communist), and the United States. He argues that Operation Paper, the covert CIA program devised to aid the KMT troops in Burma, was a complete failure for the United States. Not only had the United States failed to contain Sino-Burmese relations, it had alienated Burma through its handling of the KMT issue and its failure to restrain the Chinese Nationalists. Furthermore, Alfred McCoy (1991) questions CIA's complicity in