Communist insurgency in Thailand

The Communist insurgency in Thailand was a guerrilla war lasting from 1965 to 1983, involving the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT), Thailand, and the United States. The war declined in 1980 following the declaration of an amnesty and by 1983 the CPT had abandoned armed struggle.

Background

In 1927, Chinese communist Han Minghuang attempted to create a communist organization in Bangkok before being arrested. Ho Chi Minh visited north Thailand the following year, attempting to organize soviets in local Vietnamese communities. In the aftermath of the Siamese revolution of 1932, conservative Prime Minister Pya Manopakorn accused his political opponent, Pridi Panomyong, of being a communist and shortly afterwards a law was passed criminalising communism.

During World War II communists formed an alliance with the Free Thai Movement. In 1946, Pridi Panomyong assumed office, repealing the Anti-Communist Act of 1933 and establishing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. In 1960, North Vietnam created a training camp for Thai and Laotian volunteers in Hoa Binh Province, Vietnam. A total of 400 people attended the camp in its first year of operation.

In 1949, Pridi Phanomyong's attempt to return to power after the 1947 coup d'état was crushed. The suppression of the "palace rebellion" convinced the CPT leadership that better preparations had to be made in order for a future rebellion to succeed.

The failure of the 1952 Peace Rebellion was followed by the 13 November 1952 Anti-Communist Act. The act was sparked by the spontaneous involvement of a small number of communist party members in the rebellion.

During the course of the Korean War, the CPT continued to stockpile weaponry in rural areas and make general preparations for armed struggle. At the same time, the CPT formed the Peace Committee of Thailand, a pacifist movement operating mainly in urban areas. The Peace Committee contributed to CPT's expansion and the rise of anti-American sentiment in the country.

Ideologically, the CPT aligned with Maoism and during the Sino-Soviet split the party sided with the Communist Party of China. In October 1964, the organization declared its position in a congratulatory message on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the foundation of the People's Republic of China, and the following month a group of Thai communists formed the Thailand Independence Movement in Peking, China.

On 8 December 1964, the Thailand Independence Movement issued a manifesto demanding the removal of US military personnel from Thailand and calling for regime change. The manifesto was later also broadcast by Radio Peking. Former Thai army officer Phayon Chulanont established the Thai Patriotic Front, another Thai communist organization, on 1 January 1965. The two parties formed the Thai United Patriotic Front on 15 December 1966. Hill tribesmen, as well as the Chinese and Vietnamese ethnic minorities, formed the backbone of the movement.

Conflict

In the early 1950s, a group of 50 Thai communists traveled to Beijing, where they received training on ideology and propaganda. In 1961, small groups of Pathet Lao insurgents infiltrated north Thailand. Local communist party cells were organized and volunteers were sent to Chinese, Laotian, and North Vietnamese training camps, where training made a shift towards armed struggle and terror tactics. Between 1962 and 1965, 350 Thai nationals underwent an eight-month training course in North Vietnam. The guerrillas initially possessed only limited a limited number of flintlocks as well as French, Chinese, and Japanese weapons. In the first half of 1965, the rebels smuggled approximately 3,000 US-made weapons and 90,000 rounds of ammunition from Laos. The shipment, originally supplied to the US-supported Royal Lao Armed Forces, was instead sold to smugglers who in turn traded the weapons to the CPT.

Between 1961 and 1965, insurgents carried out 17 political assassinations. They avoided full scale guerrilla warfare until the summer of 1965, when militants began engaging Thai security forces. A total of 13 clashes were recorded during that period. The second half of 1965 was marked by a further 25 violent incidents, and starting in November 1965, Communist Party of Thailand insurgents began undertaking more elaborate operations, including an ambush on a Thai police patrol outside Mukdahan, in Nakhon Phanom Province.

The insurgency spread to other parts of Thailand in 1966, although 90 percent of insurgency-related incidents occurred in the northeast of the country. On 14 January 1966, a spokesman representing the Thai Patriotic Front called for the start of a "people's war" in Thailand. The statement marked an escalation of violence in the conflict, and in early April 1966 rebels killed 16 Thai soldiers and wounded 13 others during clashes in Chiang Rai Province. A total of 45 security personnel and 65 civilians were killed by insurgent attacks during the first half of 1966.

Despite insurgent attacks on the 24,470 United States Air Force personnel housed on bases in Thailand, US involvement in the conflict remained limited.

Following the defeat of the National Revolutionary Army in the Chinese Civil War, its 49th Division crossed into Thailand from neighboring Yunnan. The Chinese troops quickly integrated into Thai society, engaging in the lucrative opium trade under the aegis of corrupt officials. Drug trade provided an important source of income for the local population, while at the same time nationalist troops cooperated with the government during its counter-insurgency operations. In July 1967, the 1967 Opium War broke out when opium growers refused to pay taxes to the Kuomintang. Government forces became involved in the conflict, destroying a number of villages and resettling suspected communists. The newly transferred populations provided new recruits for the CPT.

In February and August 1967, the Thai government conducted a number of counter-insurgency raids in Bangkok and Thonburi, arresting 30 CPT members including secretary-general Thong Chaemsri. Further arrests ensued in October and November 1968.

The Thai government deployed over 12,000 troops to the country's northern provinces in January 1972, carrying out a six-week operation in which over 200 militants were killed. The government's casualties during the operation amounted to 30 soldiers killed and 100 wounded.

On 6 October 1976, amid rising fears of a communist takeover similar to the one that had taken place in Vietnam, anti-communist police and paramilitaries attacked a leftist student demonstration at Thammasat University in Bangkok, during an incident that became known as the Thammasat University massacre. According to official estimates, 46 students were killed and 167 wounded.

From 1979, amid the rise of Thai nationalism and the deterioration of the China–Vietnam relations, the internal of the CPT fell into serious turmoil. The pro-Vietnamese wing had eventually seceded and formed a separated faction called "Pak Mai".

Efforts to end the insurgency led to an amnesty being declared on 23 April 1980 when Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda signed Order 66/2523. The order significantly contributed to the decline of the insurgency, and by 1983 it had come to an end.

See also

• Vietnam War
• South Thailand insurgency
• Communist Insurgency War
• Maoism
• 1970s peasant revolts in Thailand