Thailand: shifting ground between the US and a rising China

385 Pages·2017·20.664 MB·English

by  Zawacki, Benjamin

MORE PRAISE FOR THAILAND
‘An important book at a pivotal moment. Zawacki brings clear eyes and
rigorous research to one of America’s most complicated and historically
important Asian relationships.’
Shawn W. Crispin, Southeast Asia Editor, Asia Times

‘Zawacki’s carefully documented and balanced analysis lifts the curtain on a
gradual, often invisible, but seemingly inexorable geopolitical shift. It provides
a thorough explanation of the circumstances that have led Thailand, once seen
as an unequivocally staunch US ally, to lean increasingly toward a pragmatic
and strategically assertive China.’
Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University
‘Presents a powerful counter-argument to the conventional wisdom that
China’s economic rise alone explains Thailand’s pivot from the US to
China. In thoroughly researched detail, the book traces a sorry trail of US
condescension and clumsy diplomacy.’
Daniel Fineman, author of A Special Relationship: The United States and
Military Government in Thailand
‘Now comes the rare American deeply informed of a “faraway country” of
whose people “we know nothing”, in a profoundly disturbing study of how
the world-changing US–China dynamic unfolds in Thailand. Read and weep.’
Jeffrey Race, author of War Comes to Long An: Revolutionary Conflict in a
Vietnamese Province
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Benjamin Zawacki was a visiting fellow in the Human Rights Program at Harvard
Law School in 2014‒2015, and a term member on the Council on Foreign Relations
through 2016. He was Amnesty International’s Southeast Asia researcher for five years,
and served as a policy advisor to President Jimmy Carter and two other “Elders” in
Myanmar. A regular contributor to the media in Southeast Asia, he has lived in Thai-
land for fifteen years. He holds degrees from the George Washington University Law
School and the College of the Holy Cross.
ASIAN ARGUMENTS
Asian Arguments is a series of short books about Asia today. Aimed at the growing
number of students and general readers who want to know more about the region,
these books will highlight community involvement from the ground up in issues of
the day usually discussed by authors in terms of top-down government policy. The
aim is to better understand how ordinary Asian citizens are confronting problems
such as the environment, democracy and their societies’ development, either with
or without government support. The books are scholarly but engaged, substantive as
well as topical and written by authors with direct experience of their subject matter.
Series editor: Paul French
Previous Titles:
North Korea by Paul French
Ghost Cities of China by Wade Shepard
Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China
by Leta Hong Fincher
China’s Urban Billion by Tom Miller
A Kingdom in Crisis: Thailand’s Struggle for Democracy in the Twenty-First Century by
Andrew MacGregor Marshall
China and the New Maoists by Kerry Brown and Simone van Nieuwenhuizen
Myanmar’s Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim ‘Other’ by
Francis Wade
Forthcoming:
On the New Silk Road: Journeying through China’s Artery of Power by Wade Shepard
Last Days of the Mighty Mekong by Brian Eyler
Hong Kong: Markets, Street Hawkers and the Fight against Gentrification by Maurizio
Marinelli
Thailand
Shifting Ground
between the US and
a Rising China
Benjamin Zawacki
Thailand: Shifting Ground between the US and a Rising China
was first published in 2017 by Zed Books Ltd, The Foundry,
17 Oval Way, London SE11 5RR, UK.
www.zedbooks.net
Copyright © Benjamin Zawacki 2017
The rights of Benjamin Zawacki to be identified as the author
of this work have been asserted by him in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
Typeset in Garamond Pro by seagulls.net
Index by John Barker
Cover design by Keith Dodds
Cover photo © Mark Henley/Panos
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978‑1‑78360‑870‑6 hb
ISBN 978‑1‑78360‑869‑0 pb
ISBN 978‑1‑78360‑871‑3 pdf
ISBN 978‑1‑78360‑872‑0 epub
ISBN 978‑1‑78360‑873‑7 mobi
for Ella Nour and May Yasmine

Contents
Foreword and Acknowledgements ix
Preface xiii

Introduction: Points of Departure 1
PART I
1. The Fog of Peace (1945‒1949) 17
2. Means of Power (1949‒1957) 23
3. War Comes to Thailand (1957‒1973) 32
4. Experiments Interrupted (1973‒1980) 45
5. Policy Drift (1980‒1988) 63
6. The Thai Spring (1989‒2001) 75
Interface 99
PART II
7. A Thaksin for Turning (Thailand and China, 2001‒2006) 105
8. Another American War (Thailand and the US, 2001‒2006) 132
9. China’s Pivot (2006‒2014) 194
10. Continental Drift 296
Notes 315
Sources 350
Index 361

Foreword and
Acknowledgements
I am an American. Having lived and worked in Southeast Asia since late 2002,
I am an “ex-pat” only in a colloquial sense. I retain not only my US passport
and citizenship, but an inherent if self-conscious American perspective as well.
Reminded by the late historian Howard Zinn that “you can’t be neutral on a
moving train”, I forfeit any claim to neutrality in this book.
Two mitigating factors are at play. First, I am as much an ex-patriot as expa-
triate: someone who cares deeply about his country, but whose experience abroad
has made him wary of nationalism. In just my years away, US foreign policy has
not only fallen short of the “values” and “ideals” that supposedly inform and
inspire it, but has given rise to another more negative set of standards. As costly
as American policy in Thailand has been in just the 21st century—since Thaksin
Shinawatra took power in Bangkok and global terrorism struck Washington—it
does not compare to that in other regions. Deliberate and purposeful under
Bush, halting and confused under Obama, US foreign policy has yielded few
wins and a great many losses—not least in the defense and advancement of
human rights. This book traces one such policy failure whose causes and conse-
quences resonate well beyond its particular theatre.
Second, I place little stock in the adage among ex-pats that “If someone says
he understands Thailand, he is misinformed.” I do not claim to understand
all of Thailand or to understand its more accessible aspects all of the time. It
is a complex country. Yet to forfeit any claim to understanding on the basis of
nationality is intellectually negligent and culturally orientalist. When for six
months prior to a coup in 2014 millions of Thais called for replacing electoral
democracy with selected leadership, one was to properly understand them as
anti-democratic.
In 2002‒2004 I represented Chinese asylum-seekers and assisted in their
escape to Cambodia (after getting them into a Linkin Park concert). In
2006‒2007 I wore UN blue in camps from which Thai authorities pushed
ix