Indigenizing the Cold War : nation-building by the Border Patrol Police of Thailand, 1945-1980

Author / Creator

Hyun, Sinae, dissertant

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Summary

The Border Patrol Police of Thailand (BPP) were formed by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Thai military in 1951. Since its formation, the Thai BPP evolved from a CIA paramilitary intelligen...

The Border Patrol Police of Thailand (BPP) were formed by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Thai military in 1951. Since its formation, the Thai BPP evolved from a CIA paramilitary intelligence unit and rural development agency into a mechanism for nation-building by the Thai monarchy. Its multiple transformations reveal the ways in which the Thai elites continuously pushed forward their own agendas of political domination while collaborating with the U.S. anticommunist policies in Southeast Asia. This dissertation therefore argues that the local elites "indigenized" the American Cold War system through the nation-building programs to achieve their political goals. Starting with a survey on the decolonization in Southeast Asia after the end of Pacific War in 1945, this dissertation examines the evolution of the Thai ruling elite's indigenization in the following three periods: realignment of civilian-military relations between 1945-1957, military domination during 1957-1973, and the royalist elite's rise to power from 1973 to 1980. In 1980, royalist premier Prem Tinsulanonda shifted the government's anticommunist counterinsurgency from military to political warfare, which represents a tangible decline in the Thai elite's desire for collaboration. The rise and fall of competing elite groups, their political objectives and outcomes, and the persisting ideological inclinations of their domestic and foreign policies is illuminated by the transformations and civic actions and military campaigns of the BPP. The Thai monarchy began to take control of indigenization beginning in the early 1960s when it patronized the BPP and its counterinsurgency projects, incorporating them into the royal projects. The BPP became a concrete manifestation how this traditional institution successfully constructed infrastructures of the ideological inclination, institutional networks, executive agency and popular support. These infrastructures became a vehicle for spreading royalist nationalism among the general populace, consequently ensuring the domination of the royalist elite into the present day. Enlightened by archival and empirical evidences, this dissertation elucidates how local police were mobilized in nation-building under the auspices of the U.S. government and Thai elites. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the local elites harnessed foreign interventions to preserve their spheres of power and autonomy in the second half of the twentieth century.

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