In the eyes of the beholder: American and Thai perceptions of the highland minority during the Cold War

ABSTRACT

The highland minority in the northern border areas of Thailand received special attention from the United States and Thai governments from the early 1950s, as its members were suspected of being supporters or sympathisers of the Chinese communists. After a brief review of the ethnographic research in Thailand before the 1950s, this article examines the ways the Thai and US military researchers promoted racially and culturally hierarchical concepts of national security during the Cold War. Their views directly affected policymaking processes in Thailand, widening further the extant gap between the Thai government and the ethnic minority.

KEYWORDS:

• Highland minority
• Cold War
• national security
• United States
• anticommunism, Border Patrol Police
• Thailand
• military research

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2019S1A5C2A01080959). The author would like to thank Michael Montesano for comments and suggestions to the earlier version of this article; and Linda Chhath and Vaneesa Cook for editing the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Thongchai Winichakul, ‘The Others Within: Travel and Ethno-Spatial Differentiation of Siamese Subjects 1885–1910’, in Civility and Savagery: Social Identity in Tai States, ed. Andrew Turton (London: Curzon Press, 2000), 38.

² Pipad Krajaejun, ‘Kan sang phapphalak khong klumchattiphan “chao khao” nai sangkhom thai rawang thotsawat 2420 thueng thotsawat 2520’ [The construction of ‘hilltribe’ ethnic images in Thai society during 1880s–1980s] (Master’s Thesis, Chulalongkorn University, 2007), 1–2.

³ Thongchai, ‘The Others Within’, 56.

⁴ Katharine McKinnon, ‘(Im)Mobilization and Hegemony: “Hill Tribe” Subjects and the “Thai” State’, Social and Cultural Geography 6, no. 1 (2005): 35.

⁵ Robert J. McMahon, The Limits of Empire: The United States and Southeast Asia since World War II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 36–7.

⁶ McKinnon, ‘(Im)Mobilization and Hegemony’, 38.

⁷ Kenneth E. Wells, History of Protestant Work in Thailand, 1828–1958 (Bangkok: Church of Christ in Thailand, 1958); and William A. Smalley, ‘Anthropological Study and Missionary Scholarship’, Practical Anthropology os-7, no. 3 (1960): 113–23.

⁸ For example, Erik Seidenfaden, The Thai Peoples (Bangkok: The Siam Society, 1963).

⁹ Auton F. Bruun, ‘Danish Naturalists in Thailand 1900–1960’, The Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society 20, no. 1 (1961): 77; ‘Obituary: Major Erik Seidenfaden, President of the Society (1938–40), Honorary Member’, Journal of the Siam Society 46, no. 2 (1958): 257–9; and Erik Seidenfaden, ‘The Hill Tribes of Northern Siam’, Journal of the Siam Society 25, no. 2 (1932): 215.

¹⁰ Preecha Juntanamalaga, ‘Thai or Siam?’, Names, A Journal of Onomastics 36, nos. 1–2 (1988): 75–6; and McKinnon, ‘(Im)Mobilization and Hegemony’, 37.

¹¹ Scot Barmé, Luang Wichit Wathakan and the Creation of a Thai Identity (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), 147–9; Shane Strate, The Lost Territories: Thailand’s History of National Humiliation (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2015), 94–122; Charles F. Keyes, ‘“The Peoples of Asia” – Science and Politics in the Classification of Ethnic Groups in Thailand, China and Vietnam’, Journal of Asian Studies 61, no. 4 (2002), 1180; and Preecha, ‘Thai or Siam’, 75.

¹² Strate, Lost Territories, 37–41, 61–3; Charnvit Kasetsiri, ‘The First Phibun Government and its Involvement in World War II’, Journal of the Siam Society 62, no. 2 (1974): 25–88; E. Thadeus Flood, ‘The 1940 Franco-Thai Border Dispute and PhibunSongkhram’s Commitment to Japan’, Journal of Southeast Asian History 10, no. 2 (1969): 304–25; and Thamsook Numnonda, ‘PhibunSongkhram’s Thai Nation-Building Programme during the Japanese Military Presence, 1941–1945’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 9, no. 2 (1978): 234–47.

¹³ Strate, Lost Territories, 57–60.

¹⁴ Barmé, Luang Wichit Wathakan, 167.

¹⁵ Strate, Lost Territories, 48; Barmé, Luang Wichit Wathakan, 126; and B. J. Terwiel, ‘Thai Nationalism and Identity: Popular Themes of the 1930s’, in National Identity and Its Defenders, Thailand 1939–1989, ed. Craig J. Reynolds (Victoria, Australia: Aristoc Press Pty. Ltd., 1991), 141.

¹⁶ Quoted in Keyes, ‘The Peoples of Asia’, 1180. Originally from Josiah Crosby, Siam: The Crossroads (London: Hollis and Carter, 1945), 13.

¹⁷ Phin Chunhawan, ‘Chiwit kap hetkan khong chomphon phin chunhawan [Life and events of Field Marshal Phin Chunhawan]’, in Anuson nai ngan phraratchathan phloengsop chom phon Phin Chunhawan [In memorium to the royal-sponsored cremation ceremony of General Phin Chunhawan] (Bangkok: Arun Karn Phim, 1973), 50, 57.

¹⁸ Eiji Murashima, ‘The Commemorative Character of Thai Historiography: the 1942–43 Thai Military Campaign in the Shan States Depicted as a Story of National Salvation and the Restoration of Thai Independence’, Modern Asian Studies 40, no. 4 (2006): 1053–96.

¹⁹ Saharat Thai Doem in literary translation should be the United States of the Original Thais. Thais also use the term Saharat Thai Yai to refer the Shan States. In this essay, I will use the United Thai States. Ratchakitchanubeksa [Royal Gazettes], ‘Supreme Command Headquarters Announcement on the Administration of the Saharat Thai Doem’ 60, no. 31 (15 June 1943): 2486.

²⁰ Strate, Lost Territories, 119.

²¹ Phin, ‘Chiwit kap hetkan’, 71–2.

²² Phin mentions the decreasing support of the Thai government after the establishment of the United Thai States in the Shan State, until he was called back to Thailand and stripped of his position after Phibun stepped down in August 1940: Phin, ‘Chiwit kap hetkan’, 49–72.

²³ Thak Chaloemtiarana, Thailand, the Politics of Despotic Paternalism (Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 2007), 26–7.

²⁴ Border Patrol Police Headquarters, Sisippi rongrian tochodo [40 Years of the Border Patrol Police School] (Bangkok: Border Patrol Police Headquarters, 1996), 81.

²⁵ Boonchuai Sisawat, 30 chat nai chiang rai [30 nations in Chiang Rai], 2nd ed. (Bangkok: Kled Thai, 2004), 8–9.

²⁶ Thongchai Winichakul, Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of A Nation (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1994), 134–5.

²⁷ Charles F. Keyes, ‘Ethnography and Anthropological Interpretation in the Study of Thailand’, in The Study of Thailand: Analyses of Knowledge, Approaches and Prospects in Anthropology, Art History, Economics, History, and Political Science, ed. Elizer B. Ayal (Athens, OH: Center for International Studies, Ohio University, 1978), 3; and Keyes, ‘The Peoples of Asia’, 1169–70.

²⁸ Keyes, ‘The Peoples of Asia’, 1170.

²⁹ Boonchuai, 30 chat nai chiang rai, 49.

³⁰ Boonchuai, 30 chat nai chiang rai, 8–11.

³¹ Edwin F. Stanton, ‘Spotlight on Thailand’, Foreign Affairs 33, no. 1 (October 1954): 72–85.

³² Foon Ming Liew-Herres, Volker Grabowsky and Renoo Wichasin, Chronicles of Sipsong Panna: History and Society of a Tai Lu Kingdom, Twelfth to Twentieth Century (Chiang Mai, Thailand: Mekong Press, 2012), 5–72.

³³ Psychological Strategy Board, U.S. Psychological Strategy with Respect to the Thai Peoples of Southeast Asia, 2 July 1953.

³⁴ Daniel Fineman, A Special Relationship: The United States and Military Government in Thailand, 1947–1958 (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1997), 170–1.

³⁵ Soem Yakhasem, Rueang tamruat trawen chaidaen, mokarakhom 2521 [Border Patrol Police Story, January 1978] (unpublished manuscript, 1978), 39–40.

³⁶ Border Patrol Police Headquarters, Kan songkhro chaopa chaokhao lae prachachon klai khamanakhom [Aid given to hill tribes and people in remote areas] (Bilingual report with English title, ‘Aid Given to Hill Tribe People and People far from Communication’) (Bangkok: Border Patrol Police Headquarters, 1956).

³⁷ Border Patrol Police Headquarters, Kan songkhro chaopa chaokhao, 4–5.

³⁸ Chan Angsuchot, ‘Kan chattang rongrian tamruat chaidaen’ [Building the Border Police School], in Kanprachum khru rongrian tamruat chaidaen duai khuam ruam mue rawang krom samansueksa lae krom tamruat na rongrian phayathai changwat phranakhon rawang wan thi 15–31 phruetsaphakhom 2501 [Meeting of the Border Police School Teachers with the Department of General Education and the Thai National Police Department in Phayathai School, Bangkok, during May 15–31, 1958], ed. Department of General Education (1958), 14.

³⁹ Oliver Gordon Young, The Hilltribes of Northern Thailand: A Socio-Ethnological Report (Bangkok: USOM, 1961).

⁴⁰ ‘Second Annual Report: The Siam Society Research Center’, Journal of the Siam Society 49, no. 2 (1961), 196–200.

⁴¹ Keyes, ‘Ethnography and Anthropological Interpretation’, 15–16.

⁴² Kwanchewan Buadaeng, ‘The Rise and Fall of the Tribal Research Institute (TRI): “Hill Tribe” Policy and Studies in Thailand’, Kyoto University Southeast Asian Studies 44, no. 3 (2006), 362–9, 373. It is unclear if the SEATO had its own projects for surveying and controlling the ethnic minorities except the overseas Chinese. See Damien Fenton, To Cage the Red Dragon: SEATO and the Defence of Southeast Asia, 1955–1965 (Singapore: NUS Press, 2012), 153–7.

⁴³ Krachang Bhanthumnavin, ‘Overcoming the Problems of Resettling Hill Tribes’, Spectrum 1, no. 1 (1972): 24.

⁴⁴ National Tribal Welfare Committee, Summary of Welfare and Development Programs among the Hill Tribes of Northern Thailand (Public Welfare Department, Ministry of Interior, July 1965), 1.

⁴⁵ Prapas Charusathira, Chaokhao nai prathet thai [Thailand’s hill tribes] (Bilingual report with English title, ‘Thailand’s Hill Tribes’) (Bangkok: Ministry of Interior, Department of Public Welfare, Hill Tribes Welfare Committee, 1966), 1–2. I used the English name Praphat Charusathien instead of Prapas Charusathira (as in his 1966 book entitled Thailand’s Hill Tribes), because of its closeness to the sound of the name.

⁴⁶ Robert M. Hearn, Thai Government Programs in Refugee Relocation and Resettlement in Northern Thailand (Auburn: Thailand Books, 1974), 49–50; and Krachang, ‘Overcoming the Problems of Resettling Hill Tribes’, 28.

⁴⁷ Krachang, ‘Overcoming the Problems of Resettling Hill Tribes’, 26, 2, 23.

⁴⁸ Ministry of Interior, Thailand, Report of the Socio-Economic Survey of the Hill Tribes in Northern Thailand (September 1962); Manas Khantatatbumroong, Khrongkan phathana phuea khuammankhong [Development for security project] (Internal Report, 28 September 1975), 1–2; and Edward B. Hanrahan, An Overview of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Thailand through 1973 – A Background Survey for Perspective and a Guide to the Literature (CHECO/CORONA Harvest Division, Operations Analysis Office: HQ PACAF, 1975), 16.

⁴⁹ Hearn, Thai Government Programs in Refugee Relocation, 40–5.

⁵⁰ Ibid., 1, 30.

⁵¹ Phairot Pusayanawin, ‘Somdetya kap kansakatkan kankhayai itthiphon khong phak khommunit haeng prathet thai [Special essay: Princess Mother and the interception of the Communist Party of Thailand’s influence]’, Tamruat trawen chaidaen parithat [Border Patrol Police Review] 11, no. 41 (October 1995–January 1996): 58–9.

⁵² John L. Champagne, The Border Security Volunteer Team Program: An Appraisal (Bangkok: USOM, 1971), 8–10; and Hearn, Thai Government Programs in Refugee Relocation, 27.

⁵³ Hearn, Thai Government Programs in Refugee Relocation, 26.

⁵⁴ Champagne, Border Security Volunteer Team, 9.

⁵⁵ National Defence College Class 13, kandoenthang paidukitchakan lae suksaphumiprathet phaknua khong naksuksa withayalaipongkan ratchaanachak runthi 13 [Research trip of the National Defence College Class 13], internal report, January 1971.

⁵⁶ Police Major General Suraphon Chulaphram, ekasan wichai suanbukhon nai laksana wicha kanmuang ruang nayobaidamnoenngan phathanachaokhao phua haengchat [Personal Research report regarding the politics and policies of developing the highland minorities for national security] (internal report, January 1971), 1–6.

⁵⁷ Eric R. Wolf and Joseph G. Jorgensen, ‘A Special Supplement: Anthropology on the Warpath in Thailand’, The New York Review 19 (November 1970): 26–35.

⁵⁸ Alfred McCoy, ‘Subcontracting Counterinsurgency: Academics in Thailand 1954–1970’, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 3, no. 2 (1971): 56.

⁵⁹ Suraphon, ekasan wichai suanbukhon, 134–51.

⁶⁰ Joann L. Schrock, ed., Minority Groups in Thailand (Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research. Cultural Information Analysis Center Department of the Army, 1970).

⁶¹ I was able to acquire five volumes out of six including those for the Karen, Lahu, Hmong, Mien and Akha from the Border Patrol Police General Headquarters in Bangkok.

⁶² Currently, the Army’s Psychological Operations School (1955–78) is under the National Defence Studies Institute, National Defence College of Thailand with a new name: Psychological Security Institute (sathaban chitwithaya khwam mankhong). ‘Khwampenma/prawat sathaban [Institutional History]’, National Defence College, http://www.thaindc.org/index.php?lay=show&ac=article&Id=539832877 accessed 19 June 2020.

⁶³ Psychological Operations School, Class 18 (1974–75), Chao khao phao ikor [Akha hill tribes], (Bangkok: Psychological Operations School, 1975). 1. The names in parenthesis are the Thai names used in the reports.

⁶⁴ Schrock, Minority Groups in Thailand, iii.

⁶⁵ Psychological Operations School, Class 18 (1974–5), Chao khao phao yao [Yao hill tribes] (Bangkok: Psychological Operations School, 1975), 1.

⁶⁶ The list of information given in these volumes is similar to what the Tribal Research Centre’s proposed village data card code as shown in McCoy, ‘Subcontracting Counterinsurgency’, 61.

⁶⁷ Psychological Operations School, Class 18 (1974–5), Chao khao phao ka-riang nai prathet thai [Karen hill tribes in Thailand], (Bangkok: Psychological Operations School, 1975), i.

⁶⁸ Psychological Operations School, Class 18 (1974–5), Chao khao phao mong [Hmong hill tribes] (Bangkok: Psychological Operations School, 1975), 1.

⁶⁹ Thomas D. Lobe, ‘U.S. Police Assistance for the Third World’ (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1975), 334; and Jacob Tropp, ‘“Intertribal” Development Strategies in the Global Cold War: Native American Models and Counterinsurgency in Southeast Asia’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 62, no. 2 (2020): 421–52.

⁷⁰ Raymond Coffey et al., Contractors Semi-Annual Report, Devcon Development Consultants in Support of Border Patrol Police Remote Area Security, August 1968–January 1969 (Bangkok: USOM, 1969).

⁷¹ Schrock, Minority Groups in Thailand, 829, 850.

⁷² Ibid., 848.

⁷³ Psychological Operations School, Chao khao phao ka-riang, 59–65.

⁷⁴ Schrock, Minority Groups in Thailand, 660.

⁷⁵ Ibid., 654.

⁷⁶ Ibid., 658, 664.

⁷⁷ Psychological Operations School, Chao khao phao mong, 35–6.

⁷⁸ Ibid., 58.

⁷⁹ Hanrahan, An Overview of Insurgency, 16.

⁸⁰ ‘Border Patrol Police: Program for the Hill Tribes Areas’ (1968), 1.

⁸¹ Psychological Operations School, JUSMAG, Hill Tribe Research Center (Bangkok: Psychological Operations School, nd), VI-1, VI-3, VI-8.

⁸² Mckinnon, ‘(Im)Mobilization and Hegemony’, 37.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea [NRF-2019S1A5C2A01080959].

Notes on contributors

Sinae Hyun

Sinae Hyun is a historian specialised in the Cold War, nationalism, and Southeast Asian studies. Her current research interests include a history of the American Protestant missionaries in Southeast Asia and their roles in bringing Christian modernity; and the racialising nature of the nation-building in mainland Southeast Asia. She is also preparing a book manuscript tentatively titled, 'Indigenising the Cold War'.