Kriangsak Chamanan
Kriangsak Chamanan was the 15th prime minister of Thailand, serving from 1977 to 1980. After staging a successful coup, he was asked to become Prime Minister in 1977. He ruled until 1980 and is credited with "steering Thailand to democracy" in a time when communist insurgents were rampant internally and neighbouring countries turned to communist rule following the communist takeover of Vietnam: South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
Regarded as one of the most notable statesmen in modern Thailand, his landmark developmental policies include the founding of Eastern Seaboard through the founding of PTT, facilitating the building of a deep-sea port in Laem Chabang and negotiating for bilateral trade agreements between Thailand and Japan through Takeo Fukuda to include Thailand in the flying geese paradigm. Chomanan founded the Petroleum Authority of Thailand, transforming it into PTT in a merger between three fragmented state-owned energy companies, serving as a major economic and industrial stimulus in the rise of Thailand secondary production economy in the 1980s and 1990s. Moreover, the founding of PTT also served to lessen the reliance on the global energy market, which was affected by a severe global oil price crisis in the 1970s. His other notable works include the founding of the Chatuchak Market which also helped to solve the Din Daeng Garbage Mountain issue, the Village Health Volunteers organization which acts as a crucial model in Thailand public primary care, the founding of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the passing of the first-ever bills to include tourism in the government economic development plans and the upgrading of the Tourism Authority of Thailand from organizational level to state level, the passing of the current consumer protection acts and organizations and the founding of Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University. After his time in office, he was invited to the InterAction Council of Former Heads of State and Government in solving various global issues, becoming the only Thai prime minister until now and one of fewer than three from Asia at the time of his membership.
A professional soldier, in WWII he was posted in occupied Shan State. He fought against the French in the Franco-Thai War from 1940–43, serving as platoon leader, and against the communists in both the Korean War and the Vietnam War. In Korea, he served as commander of Infantry Battalion III which fought in the Battle of Pork Chop Hill, from which he was one of only a few of the non-citizen officers to receive the Legion of Merit. After the Korean War, Chomanan joined the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, where he is the only Thai person to be included in the Fort Leavenworth Hall of Fame. He's also the only Thai coup leader to make an official visit to Washington where he was welcomed to the White House in 1979 by then-president Jimmy Carter, in contrast to previous leaders honoured in states distant from Washington.
Early life and career
Kriangsak Chamanan was born on 17 December 1917 in Mahachai Subdistrict, Mueang Samut Sakhon District, Samut Sakhon Province, a prominent Chinese trading port to the southwest of Bangkok. He was born to a wealthy business family that ran the Mahachai trading company, which dealt in importing and exporting goods between Thailand and the West and Japan. Mahachai in the 1800s and 1900s was one of Thailand's largest trading ports and grew to become the first city district with its own local government in 1897.Education
From age six to twelve, Kriangsak attended Samut Sakhon Wittayalai and later Patumkongka School. After graduating from primary school, Kriangsak moved to Bangkok to attend the prestigious Amnuay Silpa School where he excelled academically.He later attended Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy, known for its intense training program and one of the lowest admission rates among learning institutions in Thailand, until he graduated in 1938. During his time in the army, he further attended the Thai Army Command and General Staff College and the Thailand National Defence College.
After his time in the Korean War, he also got a scholarship to attend the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military officers.
Military career
Kriangsak fought in the Korean War as a commander of the Thai Army in the 21st Infantry Regiment, which earned the nickname "Little Tigers" for their valour. He showed exemplary skills as a major, playing a pivotal role in defending Pork Chop Hill. On 15 March 1953, by direction of the US president and under the provision of the 1942 Act of the US Congress, then-lieutenant Kriangsak became one among few non-U.S. military personnel to be awarded the Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services.He became a full general in 1973, and army chief of staff a year later. In 1974, he also secretly brokered a prisoner exchange with the Burmese government, in which the opium warlord Khun Sa was ransomed for the freedom of two Soviet doctors whom Khun Sa's followers had kidnapped.
In 1977, Kriangsak was part of the National Administrative Reform Council, which staged a successful coup d'état against Prime Minister Thanin Kraivichien. Thanin himself had come into power the year before, after another coup by Sangad Chaloryu suspended the constitutional monarchy. The NARC was composed entirely of what contemporaneous press reports characterised as moderate military leaders, not from the extreme right wing. It was distinguished from previous military ruling groups "as an effort to institutionalize power relationships within the military in contrast to the personal factions and cliques which entered the political arena in the past." Kriangsak was then asked to become prime minister, partially against his will according to his wife Khunying Virat Chomanan.
Premiership
Coup d'état and ascension
Prior to Kraingsak, the Thanin Kraivichien administration had spiraled the country into a perilous state of civil war. Incidents involving the Communist Party of Thailand in rural areas across Thailand and border clashes with Cambodia and Laos incidents were becoming increasingly frequent. The administration's forceful suppressive policy had the perverse effect of increasing the CPT's popularity. Furthermore, members and close aides of the royal family also became targets of attacks by the communist insurgents, including the assassination of the queen's secretary and a bomb explosion near the king while he was visiting the south of Thailand. The country-wide deterioration and increased activity of communist insurgents induced reactions within the Thai armed forces. The first attempt to overthrow the Thanin administration took place in March 1977 and was led by General Chalad Hiranyasiri. However, it was unsuccessful and Chalad was executed on Thanin's order. With increasing unrest, the Thanin government was finally successfully overthrown on 20 October 1977 when a clique of Thai military officers known as the Young Turks pressured Kriangsak and General Sangad Chaloyu, who had led the 1976 coup that ousted the elected civilian government of Seni Pramoj and appointed the royal favorite Thanin as prime minister. Kriangsak was later appointed the new prime minister by a majority vote through both the National Assembly and the NARC.As prime minister, Kriangsak moved to moderate and neutralize his predecessor Thanin's severe measures, which had driven young Thai intellectuals from multiple universities to join the communist insurgency in the countryside. In 1978, in a major risk to his political position with his right leaning supporting base, he submitted an amnesty bill to the National Legislative Assembly to release the Bangkok 18, a group of leftist students and labor activist jailed after the Thammasat University massacre that preceded the 1976 coup. The move greatly bolstered his international position as a Southeast Asian humanitarian leader and was noted in commemorations from many international bodies. He also started a successful amnesty program for communists as part of a reconciliation policy.
Kriangsak is widely credited with defusing the long-running communist insurgency in northern Thailand. He was reported to have met in 1979 with Deng Xiaoping, then supreme leader of the People's Republic of China, allowing China to ship arms to the rebel Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in exchange for the PRC withdrawing its support for the communist insurgency in Thailand. These reports were confirmed contemporaneously by the Sunday Times and wire services. However, claims of a deal involving the Khmer Rouge was denied by the Thai government, which cites his policy of reunification and offers of amnesty as the primary reason for the decline of the communist insurgency. The other benefit of the deal with China for Thailand was that it would not have Vietnamese troops on its border. In the same way Kriangsak had secret deals with rebel armies across the border in Burma, which provided a buffer zone against Burmese aggression.
International relations and foreign policy
One of Kriangsak's main accomplishments was normalising and improving foreign relations. He led rapprochements towards the neighboring countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam, and Myanmar and fostered closer relationships with Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Moreover, he was one of the few leaders of a non-communist country to visit the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union and to have fostered diplomatic relationships with both countries. Kriangsak visited Beijing in late March 1978. PRC leader Deng Xiaoping returned the favour in November 1978 and in a significant public moment visited Kriangsak's private house and discussed political issues both on national television and privately.In April 1975, Thailand was the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize the communist Khmer Rouge regime in Phnom Penh. In October the two countries agreed in principle to resume diplomatic and economic relations; the agreement was formalized in June 1976, when they also agreed to erect border markers in poorly defined border areas.
Meanwhile, the withdrawal of all American troops from Thailand by July 1976 paved the way for the Thai-Vietnamese agreement on normalizing relations in August. In January 1978, Bangkok and Hanoi signed an accord on trade and economic and technical cooperation, agreeing also to exchange ambassadors, reopen aviation links, resolve all problems through negotiations, and consult on the question of delimiting sea boundaries. Progress toward improved relations with the Indochinese states came to an abrupt halt, however, after Vietnam invaded Cambodia in December 1978, and in January 1979 installed in Phnom Penh a new communist regime friendly to Hanoi. This invasion not only provoked a Chinese attack on Vietnam in February 1979 but also posed a threat to Thailand's security. Kriangsak could no longer rely on Cambodia as a buffer against Vietnamese power. Bangkok was forced to assume the role of a frontline state against a resurgent communist Vietnam, which had 300,000 troops in Cambodia and Laos. The Kriangsak government began increasing its defense capabilities. While visiting Washington in February 1979, Kriangsak asked for and received reassurances of military support from the United States. His government also launched a major diplomatic offensive to press for the withdrawal of all Vietnamese forces from Cambodia and for continued international recognition of Democratic Kampuchea under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime. As part of that offensive, Kriangsak also journeyed to Moscow in March 1979, the first visit ever by a Thai prime minister, to explain the Thai position on the Cambodian question and to reassure the Soviets that Thailand's anti-Vietnamese position was neither anti-Soviet nor pro-Chinese. Such reassurances were believed to be necessary in view of Vietnamese accusations that Thailand collaborated with China and the United States in aiding and abetting the Khmer Rouge forces against the Heng Samrin regime.
The Thai offensive, backed by Bangkok's ASEAN partners, was rewarded in a United Nations General Assembly resolution adopted in November 1979. The resolution called for immediate withdrawal of all foreign forces from Cambodia, asked all nations to refrain from interfering in, or staging acts of aggression against, Cambodia, and called on the UN secretary general to explore the possibility of an international conference on Cambodia.
File:Mrs. Khunying Virat Chomanan, Rosalynn Carter, Kriangsak Chomanan and Jimmy Carter at arrival ceremony for the Prime... - NARA - 183328.tif|thumb|Khunying Virat Chomanan, Rosalynn Carter, Kriangsak Chomanan and Jimmy Carter at Arrival Ceremony for the Prime Minister of Thailand in 1979
Kriangsak also made significant economic deals with regional neighbors. When the Malaysian prime minister Tun Hussein Onn arrived in Thailand to sign an oil treaty over drilling rights along the Thai-Malaysian border and in the Gulf of Thailand, both flew to the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai to sign the pact. While in a convoy on the way from the Chiang Mai Airport, Kriangsak ordered his limousine to stop and took Tun Hussein to a noodle shop to enjoy the "best beef noodles in Thailand". When Hussein became agitated about being late for the signing, Kriangsak reportedly took out the agreement and signed it on the spot, asking his guest: "Now would you care for some more noodles?"
Despite taking power in a military coup, The Times and The New York Times report that Kriangsak was known for leaning towards democracy. He enlisted more civilians to top jobs than any previous regime, granted amnesty to communists and dissidents who were jailed for fighting a military crackdown in 1976, promulgated the country's 12th constitution, and set up a timetable for full parliamentary democracy in 1979. But this democratic step reportedly cost him the support of the military.