Free Thai Movement

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Free Thai Movement (ขบวนการเสรีไทย)
Participant in World War II
Free Thai insignia.svg
Free Thai logo.
Active
Leaders
Allies United States
Opponents Imperial Japan

The Free Thai Movement(Thai: ขบวนการเสรีไทย; RTGS: Khabuan Kan Seri Thai) was a Thai underground resistance movement against Imperial Japan during World War II. Seri Thai were an important source of military intelligence for the Allies in the region, and were notable for being the only World War II resistance movement to use fighter aircraft of its own.[1]

Contents

[edit] Background

In the aftermath of the Japanese invasion of Thailand on December 7/8, 1941, the regime of Plaek Pibulsonggram (Phibun) declared war on Britain and the United States on January 25, 1942. Seni Pramoj, the Thai ambassador in Washington, refused to deliver the declaration to the United States government. Accordingly, the United States refrained from declaring war on Thailand. Seni, a conservative aristocrat whose anti-Japanese credentials were well established, then organized the Free Thai Movement with American assistance, recruiting Thai students in the United States to work with the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The OSS trained Thai personnel for underground activities, and units were readied to infiltrate Thailand. By the end of the war, more than 50,000 Thai had been trained and armed to resist the Japanese.

[edit] World War II in Thailand

Phibun's alliance with Japan during the early years of war was initially popular. The Thai army joined Japan's Burma Campaign with an eye to recovering portions of the Shan states made over to Britain in the Treaty of Yandabo, was rewarded with the return of the four northernmost Malay states lost in the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909, and with Japanese mediation in the Franco–Thai war that resulted in recover territory lost in the Franco-Siamese War of 1896.

But Japan stationed 150,000 troops on Thai soil, As the war dragged on, the Japanese increasingly dealt with Thailand as a conquered territory rather than as an ally. Though the United States had not officially declared war, On 26 December 1942, US Tenth Air Force bombers based in India launched the first major bombing raid[2] that damaged Bangkok and other targets and caused several thousand casualties. Public opinion and, even more important, the sympathies of the civilian political elite, moved perceptibly against Phibun's alliance with Japan.

[edit] Pridi and the Civilian Regime, 1944-47

In June 1944, Phibun was forced from office and replaced by the first predominantly civilian government since the 1932 coup. Bombing raids continued, a B-29 raid on Bangkok destroying two key power plants on 14 April 1945.;[3] nevertheless, the Seri Thai network was effective in the rescue of downed allied airmen.[4] The new government was headed by Khuang Aphaiwong, a civilian linked politically with conservatives like Seni. The most influential figure in the regime, however, was Pridi, whose anti-Japanese views were increasingly attractive to the Thai. In the last year of the war, Allied agents were tacitly given free access by Bangkok.[5] As the war came to an end, Thailand repudiated its wartime agreements with Japan.

The civilian leaders, however, were unable to achieve unity. After a falling-out with Pridi, Khuang was replaced as prime minister by the regent's nominee, Seni, who had returned to Thailand from his post as leader of the Free Thai movement in Washington. The scramble for power among factions in late 1945 created political divisions in the ranks of the civilian leaders that destroyed their potential for making a common stand against the resurgent political force of the military in the postwar years.

Postwar accommodations with the Allies also weakened the civilian government. As a result of the contributions made to the Allied war efforts by the Free Thai Movement, the United States, which unlike the other Allies had never officially been at war with Thailand, refrained from dealing with Thailand as an enemy country in postwar peace negotiations. Before signing a peace treaty, however, Britain demanded war reparations in the form of rice for shipment to Malaya, and France refused to permit admission of Thailand to the United Nations (UN) until Indochinese territories annexed during the war were returned. The Soviet Union insisted on the repeal of anticommunist legislation.

[edit] Heritage

Sakon Nakhon historical attractions include a cave well camouflage by lush vegetable called Tham Seree Thai (ถ้ำเสรีไทย) that the movement used for storage of arms and food during WWII.

[edit] List of famous Free Thai members

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Wiwat Mungkandi, William Warren, A Century and a half of Thai-American relations, Chulalongkorn University Press, 1982, p 172, ISBN 9789745615311
  2. ^ Stearn, Duncan (30 May 2003). "Allies attack Thailand, 1942-1945". Pattaya Mail (Pattaya). http://www.pattayamail.com/513/columns.shtml#hd6. Retrieved 26 October 2011. "On 26 December 1942 bombers of the United States’ Tenth Air Force, based in India, launched the first major strike" 
  3. ^ Stearn, Allies attack
  4. ^ Stearn, Duncan (2 April 2004). "Shot Down and Rescued". Pattaya Mail (Pattaya). http://www.pattayamail.com/557/columns.shtml#hd6. Retrieved 2 October 2011. "Many Thais resented the presence of Japanese forces in their homeland, especially since these troops tended to act more like occupiers than allies. So, whenever the opportunity arose to hinder the progress of Japanese war aims, there were plenty of Thais willing to help." 
  5. ^ Stearn, Duncan (16 April 2004). "To Bangkok". Pattaya Mail (Pattaya). http://www.pattayamail.com/559/columns.shtml#hd6. Retrieved 2 October 2011. "The downed fliers were taken to Thai police headquarters where some of them received first aid and, as evening fell, they were allowed outside to wash themselves in a large pool of water." 

[edit] Further reading

  • Thailand's Secret War: OSS, SOE and the Free Thai Underground During World War II. E. Bruce Reynolds. Cambridge Military Histories series. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521836018. Colonel David Smiley is pictured page 377 with his Force 136 team.
  • The Thai Resistance Movement During The Second World War, John B. Haseman, Northern Illinois Center for Southeast Asian Studies, np, 1978.
  • Free Thai, compiled by Wimon Wiriyawit, White Lotus Co., Ltd, Bangkok, 1997.
  • Into Siam, Underground Kingdom, Nicol Smith and Blake Clark, Bobbs Merrill Company, New York, 1945.
  • Colonel David Smiley, "Irregular Regular", Michael Russell - Norwich - 1994 (ISBN 978-0859552028). Translated in French by Thierry Le Breton, Au coeur de l'action clandestine des commandos au MI6, L’Esprit du Livre Editions, France, 2008 (ISBN 978-2915960273). With numerous photographs.

[edit] External links

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