Thailand and the Viet Minh League (06)

Thailand and the Viet Minh League (06)

General Kachsonggram, when invited by the French to co-operate in putting down these Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians, replied that while action would be taken in Thailand against refugees from Indo-China who violated Thai Laws, this was all he could promise. It was but natural that  “the people under the domination of another country” should struggle for freedom and the Thai Government could not intervene against them.

Kachsonggram’s ambiguous reply to the French authorities did not represent the view of Phibunsonggram. The latter wanted Thailand to co-operate fully with the French authorities. This pro-French policy of Phibunsonggram was an embarrassment to Kachsonggram and created a great deal of resentment among the Army. On October 1, 1948 Major General Net Khemayothin, Army Chief of General Staff who had accompanied Kachsonggram’s military mission to Saigon, organized a plot against Phibunsonggram. The government, however, discovered this so-called “Chief of General Staff Rebellion” and afterwards conducted a purge of the Army’s ranks.

Although Kachsonggram might have been the man behind this plot, he was so popular among the Thai people and in the Army that Phibunsonggram could not get rid of him until early 1950. That year Kachsonggram was forced by Phibunsonggram with the backing of the police force to leave the country and seek political asylum in Hong Kong.

After the ”Chief of General Staff Rebellion” was suppressed, the clear-cut Thai policy towards France and the Indo-Chinese nationalist movements was publicly indicated by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In early December 1948, Pridi Deyabonge Devakul, the Foreign Minister,  in an interview with a French newspaper, expressed Thailand’s desire to be in political amity with, and a good neighbor to, France.

He made it clear that “…We have recently taken the decision to no longer tolerate our territory being used as a refuge for troublesome elements nor as a springboard for (Indo-Chinese nationalists) movement which conspire against our neighbor (France)…” From then on the Phibunsonggram put its policy into practice.

Phibunsonggram, in particular, declared his hostile attitude towards the Indo-Chinese nationalists. He accused them of using Thai territory as a base for active revolt against French colonial authorities across the borders. He publicly stated that he could no longer tolerate their staying in Thailand as they competed with local Thai labor in the border areas.

In November 1948, the first repressive action taken by the Phibunsonggram Administration against them was the imposition of immigration charges of 200 baht for each one residing in Thailand, despite the complaints of the 70,000 Vietnamese that ”poverty prevents them from being able to pay the immigration fee of 200 baht.” In the meantime, the Ministry of Interior instructed Provincial Commissioners that the refugees be asked to return to their territories in Indo-China because, “ the Franco-Vietnam War conditions that caused them to flee into Siam soon after the Pacific War now no longer apply.”