How US military presence spurred Pattaya’s rise into Thailand’s city of pleasure

The Amazon deliveries stopped reaching the USS Abraham Lincoln in February as it entered the conflict zone with Iran. A few weeks later – much to the chagrin of the sailors on board – even that most American of meals, the hamburger, was compromised by supply shortages when burger buns ran out.
But as they unwind on their first shore leave in 286 days, the 5,000 crew of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier are finding out what tens of thousands of their forebears already knew: Pattaya will...