The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand

Department of Publicity took an active role in this campaign

Vilas Osathanond and Phairot Jayanam were Director

and Assistant Director respectively of the Department of Publicity

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand (01)

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand (01)

After June 1940, the Thais took advantage of French weakness and used the presence of Japanese troops in the north of Indo-China as an opportunity to review their irredentist policy. This initiative led to an Indo-China-Thailand border crisis and a short-lived war through which the Thais regained territories in Laos and Cambodia, which had been lost to France in 1904 and 1907.

This article will take into account the roles of propaganda organizations and assesses on how the Thai ruling group mobilized public support for the Government’s aspirations.

During the course of its negotiations the French Government, the Thai Government set up propaganda organizations to promote a nationalist campaign. The Department of Fine Arts and the Department of Publicity took an active role in this campaign.

 Phraraj Dharmanides

Character Nai Khong Rakthai

Thanat Khomand

Phairot Jayanam

Sunthon Hongladarom

Vilas Osathanond and Phairot Jayanam were Director and Assistant Director respectively of the Department of Publicity. Other prominent figures in the Thai propaganda team included Prasong Honsanand, the Secretary-General of the Publicity Department, Sunthon Hongladarom, the head of Foreign News Division, and Thanat Khoman, an official in the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Sang Phatthanothai and Phraraj Dharmanides, two high officials in the Department of Publicity, were charged with producing one of the most important program on Radio Thailand. This took the form of a series of conversations between two characters, Nai Man Chuchart and Nai Khong Rakthai.

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand(02)

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand(02)

Prime Minister Phibunsonggram took an active role in directing it. Sometimes he initiated the subjects of conversation. This program went on the air almost every night. Most of the stories were about the glories of the ancient Thai Kingdom, the justice of the Thai territorial claims, and the cruelty of French imperialism in forcing them to cede territories. The last point in particular was repeatedly emphasized.

Thai Premire Phibunsonggram

Sang Phatthanothai had disclosed, in his memoirs, that no sooner was this point emphasizes than day after day huge demonstrations of people and students in front of the Department of Publicity.

They began fist among students from Chulalongkorn University, led by male students in Yuvachon Movement uniforms. They moved from street to street marching towards the Ministry of Defense, carrying banners shouting and singing patriotic songs and slogans.

They urged their Government to stop negotiating with the French and to turn to military means. Students from Thammasat University, were forbidden at first by their Rector(Pridi Banomyong) to join the demonstrations, but later joined in with students friends from Chulalongkorn University.

People both in Bangkok and the provinces followed suit. Public donations were received for the national cause, while Thai able-men volunteered for military service.

Having succeeded in generating a nationalist campaign, the propaganda organizers began to concentrate on three other objects; first, to eliminate any fear of white foreigners among the Thais and the indigenous people of Indo-China; secondly, to attack the oppressive methods of rule of the Government of French Indo-China and to stir up its inhabitants to revolt against it; and thirdly, to invite the Indo-Chinese of T’ai race to cross the border to Thailand where they would be welcomed as brothers.

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand (03)

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand (03)

In line with this propaganda, the Thai Premier, in his capacity as Minister of Interior, issued an order amending the Immigration Law whereby persons of T’ai race crossing Eastern frontier from Indo-China into Thailand were to be exempt for two years from taking out documents of identity or certificates of residence.

Miss Chalao Prasobsart

Who Sang the Song "Crossing The Mekong to Thailand"
in Thai "Kham khong pai su khwaen daen thai"

The order indicated that those Indo-Chinese who would be accepted had to be of T’ai race, and living in Laos and Cambodia. This order was followed by two others from the same Ministry, stipulating that those T’ai who crossed the border to their “motherland” would be provided with necessary accommodation, means of living, land, and agricultural equipment for farming.

The Governors of the border provinces in the East, who were responsible to the Ministry of Interior, were charged with conducting publicly inviting the T’ai-speaking population in French territories to cross the Mekong and make their home in Thailand.

While a group of young extreme nationalists in Eastern provinces of Thailand calling themselves the “Thai Blood Society” were responsible for Thai irredentist agitation on their side of the border, a song “Crossing the Mekong to Thailand” which was composed by extreme nationalist  Luang Vichitr Vadakarn and sung by Miss Chalao Prasobsart, was broadcast on radio Thailand. The Thais justified their conduct by claiming that the French authorities had come hostile towards and had maltreated Thai residents in indo-china.

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand (04)

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand (04)

Thai irredentist agitation on their side of the border constituted an attempt to entice the T’ai-speaking inhabitants from the border regions of Laos and Cambodia. The Thais contended that it was really a philanthropic measure. Conditions in the frontier districts of indo-china were now uncertain, they said, and the further was so obscure that there had been a large influx of immigrants into Thailand.

Vilas Osathanond

The laws as amended and the orders as issued by the ministry of interior were designed to meet the needs of these persons and to avoid inflicting hardship upon. But behind this explanation was a Thai interest in evacuating the indigenous people of indo-china so that the latter would not help the French troops in time of war.

The flow of refugees from Indo-China into Thailand was also exaggeratedly interpreted by the Bangkok press and radio Thailand as an indication that the Cambodians and Laotians were of T’ai race and wanted to come under freer Thai rule.

The Thai premier, in a radio broadcast of October 20, asserted that the  Thai territorial claims in Indo-China were upheld not only by “the Thai people who are now in Thailand, but also by the Thais in Lao States as well as those in Cambodia who are eager to see and enjoy the freedom of the real Thais. The Thai peoples should never consider the people in the Lao States or in Cambodia as belonging to another race, because they also belong to the T’ai race. The French, in the very near future, would no longer be able to control Indo-China and when that moment arrived the Thai people in Indo-China would come to join Thailand.”

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand (05)

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand (05)

It was during this period of intense propaganda in Thailand that Indo-Chinese nationalists began to challenge the French authorities. The Thai Government took advantage by promising them, through its propaganda, that it would help them throw off the yoke of French colonial rule. The Thai Premier, in an attempt to conduct subversive activities against French rule in Indo-China, sent a secret mission to Vientiane to contact Prince Phetsarath, Viceroy of the Kingdom of Luang Prabang. The mission was headed by Major Sawai Saenyakorn, the Deputy Governor of the northeastern border province of Nong Khai.

As a result, the Thai Government established for the first time close connections with a group of the earliest important leaders of rightist Laotian nationalist movement. These later played a significant role, for nearly three decades, in independent Royal Lao Governments.

Oun Sananikone, a Laotian veterinary surgeon in the Lao northeastern province of Samneua, shared a pro-Thai feeling with Prince Phetsarath. He swam across the Mekong River to Thailand followed by another fifty Laotian nationalists to seek political asylum in Thai territory after his group had launched an unsuccessful coup in Vientiane. Oun Sananikone served as an announcer on Radio Thailand and was later commissioned as an officer in the Thai army. He played a leading role in the Thai propaganda campaign and in “a war of words” between Radio Thailand and Radio Saigon.

 Prince Phetsarath

Viceroy of the Kingdom of Luang Prabang

Cambodian nationalists, led by Pock Khun, came to Bangkok and found a “Khmer Issarak(Free Cambodian League).” Members of the League were recruited from among Cambodian refugees. In the meantime, Vietnamese nationalists, who sought sanctuary in Thailand, were supplied by the Thai authorities with arms, in order to conduct subversive activities against French rule in Indo-China.

This action matched the Thai Premier’s statement that France had no future in Indo-China and”…the Annamites(Vietnamese) would go to their rule, just as before, when Annam was a free nation.” Later on the Laotian along with the Cambodians and the Vietnamese joined the Free Indo-Chinese Force which was a battalion of foreign volunteers organized and trained by the Thai armed forces. This battalion was affiliated to the Thonburi Division of the Northeastern Army.

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand (06)

The Roles of Propaganda Organizations in Thailand (06)

Luang Vichitr Vadakarn

The Department of Publicity worked in conjunction with the Department of Fine Arts, under Luang Vichtr Vadakarn, its Director. During this period he produced dramas, songs, and literature for nationalistic purposes. A good number of dramas were based on Thai history and were about the struggle for Thailand’s independence and glorified heroes whose duty and love were only for the nation. These plays are still extremely popular and many songs from them are still sung regularly in Thailand.

Luang Vichitr also produced military songs for the three field armies which became engaged in fighting with the French Indo-Chinese forces.

Nai Honhuai, a former police officer in the field police force and a former member of the “Yuvachon Movement”, wrote that the tunes and rhythm of the songs aroused extreme nationalistic and militaristic feelings; they were most popular at the time.

He further noted that the psychological warfare launched by the Thai Government was so effective that even Buddhist monks and novices, who were legally and traditionally except from military service, had applied at government district offices to fight to recover the lost territories.

Backed by the effective propaganda campaigns, the Thai Premier made a bellicose broadcast on October 20. The possibility of war was contemplated and the public was told what measure had to be taken in order to wage it not only at the front and by the auxiliary services but also by the people themselves. By then diplomatic channels for recovering lost territories seemed to have been closed and replaced by military measure.

Feelings against the French ran high and when French Minister Lepissier was recalled and left Bangkok in December 1940, there was not a single Thai present at the railway station to bid him farewell. Monsieur Roger Garreau was sent to take charge of the legation in his place. He attempted to initiate negotiations with the Thai Government but did not meet with any co-operation.