Thailand National Security
Scene depicting the 16th-century "War of the Seven White
Elephants" in which Queen Suriyothai of Ayutthaya, disguised as a
warrior, was killed by a Burmese spear whiledefending her husband
King Chakraphat.
OVER THE LAST CENTURY, Thailand has been highly successful in
maintaining its independence and national security in a part of
the world where dissension, struggles for power, territorial
takeovers, armed insurgency, and war have been common. The Thai
managed to avoid the direct colonial rule that led many other
Southeast Asian countries into years of struggle, and they remain
proud of their legacy of independence and wary of international
developments they perceive as threatening. As of the late 1980s,
the Thai had not fought a major war on their own soil since the
eighteenth century, having avoided foreign military encroachment
largely through adroit diplomatic maneuvering.
The pragmatism inherent in Thai national security policy
brought the country safely through World War II and into the
postwar period. Rather than capitulating to the Japanese, the
Thai entered into an alliance with them. At the same time, they
maintained an active resistance movement that enjoyed the
tolerance of the wartime Thai government. This lack of support
for their wartime "ally," combined with Thai diplomatic skill,
achieved a postwar accommodation with the victorious Allies. In
the face of communist advances in parts of Asia after World War
II, Thai leaders sought protection against a possible threat from
China by joining other countries for collective security through
the 1954 Manila Pact, which laid the groundwork for the Southeast
Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). SEATO's lack of military forces
in the tradition of the stronger North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, however, left Thai authorities apprehensive about
depending on the organization.
In 1962 the country received the added security assurance it
sought in the form of the Rusk-Thanat agreement, which stated
that the security obligations under the Manila Pact were
bilateral as well as collective. The agreement confirmed a
long-term protective alliance with the United States, which
supplied vast quantities of economic, internal security, and
military aid. The close association between the two countries
later facilitated United States use of Thai military bases and
other facilities during the Second Indochina War (1954-75).
In the mid-1970s, however, Thai leadership began to question
the wisdom of depending solely on a protective alliance with the
United States. The communists had been successful in Indochina,
and the United States role in the region had declined, while the
Soviet Union was increasing its support for Thailand's
traditional regional rival, Vietnam. Accordingly, Thailand
established diplomatic relations with China in 1975, a step that
harmonized with the new policy of accommodation between the
United States and China. For Thailand this pragmatic course
seemed wise in view of the growing threat posed by Vietnam. Once
again, Thai flexibility in national security matters reflected
the traditional analogy of bamboo bending with the wind.
Although Thai flexibility improved relations with Vietnam,
the Thai viewed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in 1978
between Hanoi and Moscow, combined with Vietnam's continued
domination of Laos and the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, as a
serious threat to Thailand's national security.
Data as of September 1987
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