Bomb Explodes Along Weinberger Route

BANGKOK, Thailand--Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger '38 drew cheers on a border tour and protest in the capital yesterday, then had his dinner plans changed by a bomb explosion in a hotel parking lot.

The bomb, which wounded three people, went off about 15 feet from where Weinberger was to have passed 90 minutes later on his way to a state dinner at the government-owned Erawan Hotel given by Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda.

Officials moved the reception and dinner to the Hilton Hotel, where the defense secretary was staying.

The U.S. Embassy said Weinberger's delegation had no comment on the explosion. Foreign Minister Siddhi Savetsila told reporters that the secretary shrugged it off with this comment at the private dinner: "Thailand is one of the safest places in the world. It's safer than New York."

Narong Mahanond, chief of the national police, said the bombing was under investigation and "we attach great importance to this case." There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Police said the bomb at the Erawan Hotel was hidden in a trash can at a drivers' rest area next to the entrance gate.

Two men were seriously wounded, one losing a leg through amputation. A woman walking in the street suffered slight injuries.

Weinberger was to leave today for Australia. He visited South Korea, Japan and the Philippines before Thailand.

Earlier yesterday, Weinberger toured the tense Thai-Cambodian border and got a rousing welcome from villagers who have suffered from border battles between Cambodian rebels and Vietnamese forces that occupy the neighboring country.

His trip to the frontier province of Surin was regarded as a demonstration of U.S. support for Thailand against hostile, Soviet-backed neighbors in Indochina.

"The Thais are in a very serious situation, with Vietnam, at Soviet bidding, continuing the occupation of Cambodia and involved in Laos," a U.S. Defense Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Back in the capital, about 150 students and workers demonstrated outside the government building in which Weinberger and Prem discussed security issues.

The Defense Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stressed that Washington had no plans to put U.S. military bases in Thailand. He would not say, however, whether the stocks of arms might be used by American forces in a crisis.

U.S. military aid to Thailand has steadily, and the Reagan Administration hopes to provide more than $50 million in Fiscal 1987, up from the current $92.5 million.