Military history of Thailand

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The military history of

War on Terror
, whilst her military's involvement in domestic politics has brought frequent international attention.

Sukhothai Period (1238–1350)

Main articles: History of the Thai armed forces before 1852, Burmese–Siamese wars, and Mandala (political model)

The Siamese military state emerged from the disintegration in the 14th century of the once powerful Khmer Empire. Once a powerful military state centred on what is today termed Cambodia, the Khmer dominated the region through the use of irregular military led by captains owing personal loyalty to the Khmer warrior kings, and leading conscripted peasants levied during the dry seasons. Primarily based around its infantry, the Khmer army was typically reinforced by war elephants and later adopted ballista artillery from China.

By the end of the period, indigenous revolts amongst Khmer territories in

Ayutthaya kingdom
in 1350.

Ayutthaya Period (1350–1767)

After 1352 Ayutthaya became the main rival to the failing Khmer empire, leading to Ayutthayan

Sack of Angkor
in 1431. The subsequent years saw constant warfare as numerous states attempted to exploit the collapse of Khmer hegemony. As none of the parties in the region possessed a technological advantage, the outcome of battles was usually determined by the size of the armies.

Ayutthaya–Lan Na War (1441–1474)

Main article: Ayutthaya–Lan Na War (1441–1474)

In 1441, a war started between the Kingdom of Ayutthaya and the Kingdom of Lan Na. Neither side were able to overcome the other and they were left in a stalemate.

Burmese–Siamese War (1547–1549)

Main article: Burmese–Siamese War (1547–1549)

In 1547, King Tabinshwehti invaded Siam and almost captured Ayutthaya, but had to retreat. It was a Siamese pyrrhic victory as they lost the Tenasserim Coast to Burma in exchange for peace.

Burmese–Siamese War (1563–1564)

Main article: Burmese–Siamese War (1563–1564)

In 1563, King Bayinnaung invaded Siam and managed to conquer it as vassals. The Siamese tried to revolt against Burmese rule

Pegu
), mural painting by Phraya Anusatchitrakon, Wat Suwandararam, Ayutthaya.

The use of war elephants continued, with some battles seeing personal combat between commanders on elephants.

Burma
could, and did, defeat Ayutthaya in battle, such as in 1564 and 1569. What followed was another prolonged period of Burmese disunity.

Burma successfully invaded Ayutthaya again in 1767, this time burning the capital and temporarily dividing the country. General, later King,

Rattanakosin Kingdom with its new capital city at Bangkok
.

Military competition for regional hegemony continued, with continued Siamese military operations to maintain their control over the kingdom of Cambodia, and Siamese support for the removal of the hostile

Thalang campaign
, attempting to take advantage of the succession of power. Despite the destruction of Thalang, Rama's ultimate victory affirmed Siamese relative military superiority against Burma, and this conflict was to represent the final invasion of Siamese territory by Burma.

Siam and the European military threat (1826–1932)

The

King Rama III reportedly said on his deathbed in 1851: "We will have no more wars with Burma and Vietnam. We will have them only with the West."[citation needed
]

Under

Larut and Klang wars of the 1870s increased both its grip over and political investment in the Malay states. From the north, Britain, triumphant in the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, ultimately concluded its conquest of Burma in the Third Anglo-Burmese War and had incorporated the Kingdom of Burma into the British Raj by 1886. European military dominance was driven largely by the dominance of European naval power, coal powered vessels, increasingly iron clad, eclipsing the local brown water navies. Nonetheless, European campaigns remained limited by the difficulties and costs of logistics and the climate, especially the threat of malaria
.

Siam's response under King

Abhakara Kiartiwongse
. Siam's increasing focus on centralised military force to deter European invasion came at the cost of the former decentralised military and political arrangements, beginning a trend towards centralised military power that would continue into 20th century Thailand. Despite the growing Siamese military strength, Siam's independence during much of the late-19th century hinged on the ongoing rivalry between Britain and France across the region, especially in the search for lucrative trade routes into the Chinese hinterlands. By developing an increasing sophisticated military force and playing one colonial rival against the other, successive Siamese monarchs were able to maintain an uneasy truce until the 1890s.

Siamese army unit, Laos, 1893

The closing act of this struggle was the French occupation of eastern Thai territory in the

causus belli.[11][12]

In 1893 the French ordered their navy to sail up the Chao Phraya River to Bangkok. With their guns trained on the Siamese royal palace, the French delivered an ultimatum to the Siamese to hand over the disputed territories and to pay indemnities for the fighting so far. When Siam did not immediately comply unconditionally to the ultimatum, the French blockaded the Siamese coast. Unable to respond by sea or on land, the Siamese submitted fully to the French terms, finding no support from the British.[12] The conflict led to the signature of the Franco-Siamese Treaty in which the Siamese conceded Laos to France, an act that led to a significant expansion of French Indochina.

In 1904 the French and the British put aside their differences with the

unequal trade treaties with the United States, France, and the British Empire – but not the return of the bulk of the disputed Siamese territories lost in the previous century.[15]

Second World War and Alliance with Japan (1932–1945)

For Thailand – renamed from

Plaek Pibulsonggram
(popularly known as "Phibun") – was to exploit the changes in power caused by the fall of France and the expansion of Japan to attempt to offset the losses of the previous century. Thailand's considerable investment in her army, based on a mixture of British and German equipment, and her air force – a blend of Japanese and American aircraft – was about to be put to use.

The conflict fell into three broad phases. During the initial phase following the

Battle of Ko Chang. The Japanese mediated the conflict, and a general armistice was agreed 28 January, followed by a peace treaty signed in Tokyo on 9 May,[16][17]
with the French being coerced by the Japanese into relinquishing their hold on the disputed territories.

During the second phase, Japan took advantage of the weakening British hold on the region to invade Siam, seeing the country as an obstacle on the route south to British-held

Shan states of Burma along its northern frontier.[19][18][20]

By the final stages of the war, however, the weakening position of Japan across the region and the Japanese requisition of supplies and materiel reduced the military benefits to Siam, turning an unequal alliance into an increasingly obvious occupation. Allied air power achieved superiority over the country,

Phibun regime
and the military, forcing the prime minister from office in June 1944. With the fall of Japan, France and Britain insisted on the return of those lands annexed by Siam during the conflict, returning the situation to the situation ante bellum.

The conflict highlighted the new importance of air power across the region, for example the use of dive bombers against French troops in 1941[16] or the use of air reconnaissance in the northern mountains.[21] It had also highlighted the importance of well-trained pilots to effective air war.[22] Ultimately, the conflict emphasised the challenges of logistics across often impassable terrain, which generated expensive military campaigns – a feature to reemerge in the postwar period during the conflicts in French Indochina.

Thailand and regional Communism (1945–90)

Main article: Communist insurgency in Thailand
USAF aircraft, during the Vietnam War.[citation needed
]

Thailand's military history in the post-war period was dominated by the growth of

open revolt against the French. Following Thailand's participation in the Korean War,[23] and with the steady growth of US involvement in the region, Thailand formally became a US ally in 1954 with the formation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).[24]

Whilst the

war in Indochina was being fought between the Vietnamese and the French, Thailand – disliking both her old rivals equally – initially refrained from entering the conflict, but once it became a war between the US and the Vietnamese Communists, Thailand committed itself strongly to the US side. Thailand concluded a secret military agreement with the US in 1961, and in 1963 openly allowed the use of their territories as air bases and troop bases for US forces before finally sending her own troops to Vietnam.[25] A Royal Thai Volunteer Regiment (the "Queen's Cobras") and later the Royal Thai Army Expeditionary Division ("Black Panthers"), then a brigade, served in South Vietnam from September 1967 to March 1972.[26] Thailand was however more involved with the secret war and covert operations in Laos from 1964 to 1972. The Vietnamese retaliated by supporting the Communist Party of Thailand
's insurgency in various parts of the country. By 1975 relations between Bangkok and Washington had soured; eventually all US military personnel and bases were forced to withdraw and direct Thai involvement in the conflict came to an end.

The

Tanin Kraivixien sympathies for the movement increased, and by the late 1970s it was estimated that the movement had about 12,000 armed insurgents,[28] mostly based in the northeast along the Laotian-Khmer border. Counter-insurgency campaigns by the Thai military meant that by the 1980s insurgent activities had been largely defeated. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978 to remove the Pol Pot regime – tacitly supported by Thailand and China – brought the Vietnamese-Thailand conflict up to the Thai border, resulting in small border raids and incursions by Vietnamese against the remaining Khmer Rouge camps inside Thai territory, that lasted until 1988. Thailand, meanwhile, with US support sponsored the creation of the Khmer People's National Liberation Front, which operated against the new Vietnamese-backed Cambodian government from 1979 onwards from bases inside Thailand. Similar small skirmishes emerged along the Thai-Laotian border
in 1987–1988.

Thai and US Marines plan to eliminate hostile forces firing on them during a mock mechanized raid, 2011-02-11

Post-communist period

The last twenty years of Thailand's military history has been dominated less by the threat of external attack, but by the role of the Thai military in internal politics. For most of the 1980s, Thailand was ruled by prime minister Prem Tinsulanonda, a democratically inclined leader who restored parliamentary politics. Thereafter the country remained a democracy apart from a brief period of military rule from 1991 to 1992, until, in 2006 mass protests against the Thai Rak Thai party's alleged corruption prompted the military to stage a coup d'état. A general election in December 2007 restored a civilian government, but the issue of the Thai military's frequent involvement in domestic politics remains.

Meanwhile, the long-running

War on Terror, assisted the Thai military in this counter-insurgency role,[32] although discussions continue in the Royal Thai Government as to the role of the military, vis-à-vis civilians, in the leadership of this campaign.[33] US Air force units have also been permitted to use Thai air bases once more, flying missions over Afghanistan and Iraq
in 2001 and 2003 respectively.

The Thai military maintains strong regional relations under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) organisation, illustrated by the annual Cobra Gold exercises, the latest in 2018, involving soldiers from Thailand, the US, Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia. The exercises are the largest military exercises in Southeast Asia.[34][35] This association, bringing together many former enemies, plays an important part in ensuring ongoing peace and stability across the region.

References

  1. ^ For example the fight between Burmese crown prince Mingyi Swa and by Siamese King Naresuan in the battle of Battle of Yuthahatthi on what is now reckoned as 18 January 1593, and observed as Armed Forces Day.
  2. ^ Arjarn Tony Moore/Khun Clint Heyliger Siamese & Thai Hero's & Heroines Archived 12 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Royal Thai Army Radio and Television King Taksin's Liberating Archived 16 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ISBN 9971-69-328-3
    .
  5. ISBN 0-521-35505-2
    .
  6. ^ Buttinger, Joseph (1958). The Smaller Dragon: A Political History of Vietnam. Praeger, p. 305.
  7. ^ Search-thais.com Archived 28 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ De la Bissachere, cited Nossov, K. War Elephants, 2003, p. 40.
  9. ^ Heath, I. Armies of the Nineteenth Century: Asia, Burma and Indo-China, 2003, p. 182.
  10. ^ a b Stuart-Fox 1997[dead link]
  11. ^
    ISBN 9780700715312
    . Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  12. ^ a b Ooi 2004[dead link]
  13. ^ U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Office of the Geographer, "International Boundary Study: Malaysia - Thailand Boundary" No. 57 Archived 16 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine, 15 November 1965.
  14. ^ "90th Anniversary of World War I. This Is The History of Siamese Volunteer Corps". Thai Military Information Blog. 10 November 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  15. ^ "Thailand and the First World War". First World War. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  16. ^ a b Young, Edward M. (1995) Aerial Nationalism: A History of Aviation in Thailand. Smithsonian Institution Press.
  17. ^ Hesse d'Alzon, Claude. (1985) La Présence militaire française en Indochine. Château de Vincennes: Publications du service historique de l'Armée de Terre.
  18. ^ a b E. Bruce Reynolds. (1994) Thailand and Japan's Southern Advance 1940–1945. St. Martin's Press.
  19. ^ "Thailand and the Second World War 1941- 45". Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  20. ^ Judith A. Stowe. (1991) Siam becomes Thailand: A Story of Intrigue. Hurst & Company.
  21. ^ "The Drive on Kengtung". Archived from the original on 31 March 2009. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  22. ^ Elphick, Peter. (1995) Singapore, the Pregnable Fortress: A Study in Deception, Discord and Desertion. Coronet Books.
  23. ^ The United States Army Homepage Archived 16 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ "Milestones: 1953–1960 - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  25. ^ Ruth, Richard A (7 November 2017). "Why Thailand Takes Pride in the Vietnam War". New York Times. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  26. ^ Stanton, 'Vietnam Order of Battle,' 270–271.
  27. ^ "6ตุลา".
  28. ^ "Thailand Communist Insurgency 1959-Present". Archived from the original on 5 July 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  29. ^ The New York Times
  30. ^ "Global Security". Retrieved 3 December 2014.[not specific enough to verify]
  31. ^ "Unk". Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  32. ^ Crispin, Shawn W. "What Obama means to Bangkok". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 17 December 2008. Retrieved 24 August 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  33. ^ Head, Jonathan. "Thailand's savage southern conflict". BBC. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  34. ^ Parameswaran, Prashanth (31 January 2018). "What Will the 2018 Cobra Gold Military Exercises in Thailand Look Like?". The Diplomat. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  35. ^ "Cobra Gold 2009 Gallery". Thai Military Information Blog. 7 March 2009. Retrieved 3 December 2014.

Further reading

External links
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